There is talk among some Echo Park residents that Fresh & Easy, the British-owned grocery store chain, has agreed to open an outlet in the former Save A Lot space on Sunset Boulevard and Logan Street. But Fresh & Easy spokesman Brendan Wonnacott said the chain, which operates a store in Glassell Park, is interested in the Echo Park space but would say no more. “We’re looking at the site but can’t confirm anything past that at this point,” he said via email.
Save-A-lot, which shared the building with a Walgreens drug store, closed its doors in March. The partially vacant building was once home to Pioneer Market, which closed in 2004 after more than 60 years in business.
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
this would be awesome! not quite trader joe’s awesome, but much more awesome than the worst vons in the world @ alvarado & montana, or la guadalupana (unhealthy, processed food, not even that cheap), or cookbook (very healthy, very unprocessed, and wayyyyyy too expensive).
haha, Jackey, that is the worst Vons in the world!
Please, Please, Please, Fresh & Easy save us!
Fresh and Easy has a habit of saying on thing to communities to get in, and then doing another. I would rather have a local store here that actually cares about Echo Park.
hey mariah, what do you mean? the newest one near us is in eagle rock, know anything specific that went down there?
hopefully they can pull this off.
I don’t know much about the Eagle Rock store but the company has been making news in South LA for years, first by saying they would open stores in under served communities, and not actually doing it, and now that they want to open a store, by asking for exemption from zoning rules and a liquor sale license, despite community protest. There’s a recent article here: http://www.wavenewspapers.com/opinion/Bottom-Line-Not-so-easy-fresh-front-opens–in-war-over-a-South-LA-market-125928534.html
I remember the first time I was in a Fresh and Easy… the grocery store with no employees. I appreciated the cost savings but wouldn’t the neighborhood be better off with a business that might offer some work to folks in the neighborhood? I do agree that the Vons on Montana is awful. Basically, you have to drive all the way to Vermont or up Glendale blvd to get to a decent grocery store. At least Taix serves food until 1:30AM. IF there is another neighborhood in LA as diverse as echo park, with with a near 24-hour French restaurant AND a grocery store that doesn’t suck… please let me know.
I just called Wallgreen’s and found out that Fresh and Easy supposedly got the space a week and a half ago and are going to try to open in December. You can see the post here
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bring-Trader-Joes-to-Echo-Park/203104919712092?ref=ts
I’d like to see a Figueroa Produce or something simular in that spot. But Fresh n’ Easy would be a nice compromise.
I’d much rather shop at La Guadalupana, the prices there are way cheaper and they have fresh produce and meat on the daily. Fresh and Easy is overpriced overprocessed food. Plus I’d much rather support a small business than a big corporation that’s owned by a company that isn’t even US based, Tesco. If you support Fresh and Easy in a small community like Echo Park then you may as well go work on wall street because that’s your attitude.