What Will Become of the Former Fresh & Easy Stores? The Latest List

After eight years and two bankruptcies, Fresh & Easy is no more. The last 97 stores in the bankrupt West Coast grocery chain wrapped up their going-out-of-business sales on Friday, November 13th, reportedly discounting items up to 90% off before shutting their doors for good.

Now, all that remain are a lot of creditors who want to get paid, and well over a hundred empty storefronts – the newly-closed locations, plus dozens more that were shut down earlier this year before the bankruptcy, that have been sitting empty ever since.

All of the stores and their statuses are listed below. Keep coming back here for the newest developments, as more buyers emerge.

The latest updates:

February 25:
Four stores have been added to the list of rejected leases, including three that real estate developer OA Partners had been marketing for sale.

December 30:
Fresh & Easy has sold another store, this one in City of Industry, California, where Little Saigon Supermarket has made a $20,000 offer. Fresh & Easy has also moved to reject four more leases (see the full list of affected stores, under the heading “Rejected Leases”, below).

December 23:
CVS has made offers for five additional stores in California, adding to the eight it had already purchased (see the list below).

December 2:
Only three stores were subject to a competitive auction this week. Several others were sold to a sole bidder, and still others were sold to their own landlords. Among the winning bidders were Safeway, Grocery Outlet and United Market (see the full list below). Real estate developer OA Partners purchased the designation rights for four stores, which means it will market the stores for sale and pay Fresh & Easy a percentage of the proceeds.

November 27:
Fresh & Easy has notified the bankruptcy court of its intention to reject – or walk away from – several dozen leases, giving up hope of selling them. It had already rejected the leases of dozens of other previously-closed stores. That means it will be up to the leaseholders to find new tenants, and Fresh & Easy is off the hook. See the full list of rejected leases below.

November 25:
Eight locations, including one of the recently-closed stores and seven previously-closed locations, have now been sold to CVS (see the list below).

November 19:
As it wound down operations, Fresh & Easy filed papers in bankruptcy court, seeing approval for a proposed auction process to dispose of its stores and raise some cash to help pay off its debts. The company plans to solicit bids until November 25th, ahead of an auction to be held on December 1st. After any potential objections are heard, Fresh & Easy hopes to finalize the sales on December 7th.

TO BE SOLD TO CVS:

SOLD TO CVS, APPROVED NOV. 25TH:

* Stores closed prior to October bankruptcy
 

OTHER STORES AUCTIONED AND SOLD SO FAR:

* Stores closed prior to October bankruptcy
 

STORES BOUGHT BACK BY LEASEHOLDERS:

PREVIOUSLY SOLD TO GROCERY OUTLET:

REJECTED LEASES:

* Stores closed prior to October bankruptcy
 

STORES STILL AVAILABLE FOR SALE:

* Stores closed prior to October bankruptcy
 

Photo by Fruitnet.com