Tesco Fresh & Easy Update:

Hurray For Hollywood: Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Under Construction on Famous 'Hollywood Walk of Fame'

British retailer Tesco is building one of its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets on Hollywood Boulevard, right along the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame. (You can see the "stars" on the sidewalk in front of the "coming soon" sign in the photograph above.)

The sidewalk stars, depicting famous Hollywood movie, television, radio and other show business personalities, stretch along the sidewalk on Hollywood Boulevard from Gower Street to La Brea Avenue, and along nearby Vine Street, from Yucca Street to another famous street-- Sunset Boulevard. Millions of tourists visit the neighborhood each year.

Locating one of the upscale, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets on The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a brilliant move by Tesco. First, it's a very busy location. During the day the area is filled with workers, tourists and others, and at night the neighborhood is packed with people having dinner, going to a club or other venue, and generally congregating. There's lots of street life and activity in the area day and night.

Building the store in the neighborhood also is a smart move from a marketing and publicity standpoint. The neighborhood is home to the Kodak Theatre, where both the Academy Awards and Emmy Awards are held annually. The theatre also hosts entertainment performances and events nearly every night.

Next to the theatre is the upscale Hollywood & Highland Center, a mixed-used shopping, dining, residential and entertainment lifestyle center. It draws ten of thousands of people day and night to the neighborhood.

World famous Grauman's Chinese Theatre is located on Hollywood Boulevard. Millions of tourists visit the famous movie palace each year. Additionally, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce hosts two or three celebrations each month on The Walk of Fame, in which they award and unveil a new sidewalk star for a showbiz celebrity. These events are attended by thousands and covered by the international print and broadcast media.

Having a Fresh & Easy store at this high profile location will reap huge media attention for the brand and for Tesco, in addition to providing what we believe will be excellent sales opportunities for the retailer. The fresh, prepared foods and natural and specialty foods focus of the Fresh & Easy format will be hugely popular in this location. The neighborhood demographics couldn't be better overall.

There's no word when the Hollywood Walk of Fame Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will open. The store still has considerable construction to be completed so we doubt if it will open until sometime near the end of the year at the earliest.

Note: Photograph curtesy of our friends at the Curbed LA blog