Fresh & Easy Express to open underneath Gateway

A Fresh & Easy Express, located under University Gateway apartments on Jefferson Boulevard, will hold its grand opening on Wednesday.

At the event, the store will promote its services to the entire neighborhood’s students, said Brendan Wonnacott, director of communications for Fresh & Easy.

“We want to introduce ourselves to the community and appeal to the entire neighborhood, not just USC students,” Wonnacott said.

The new store will be an express version of a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which will allow the store to offer more products in a smaller location.

Getting fresh · A Fresh & Easy express, a condensed version of a regular store, is set to open Wednesday on the Jefferson Boulevard side of University Gateway Apartments. - Mason Khoo | Daily Trojan

“It will be one of our first express stores and will be about one-third of the size of a standard Fresh & Easy,” Wonnacott said. “We see our express stores as offering the best of Fresh & Easy and each store still carries about half of the products offered at a standard Fresh & Easy.”

Wonnacott said the goal of the grocery store is to give customers convenient meals and snacks.

“The vision of Fresh & Easy is to make fresh food accessible, so, like all our stores, this Fresh & Easy Express will carry prepackaged food that is prepared daily at our Riverside Distribution Center and delivered fresh to each store every morning,” Wonnacott said. “That way a businessman or a student on the go can pick up lunch that is prepackaged, but also fresh.”

Reagan Rose, a freshman majoring in mathematics, is excited about the prospect of a new grocery store near campus.

“Many students, including myself, sometimes struggle to find quick, fresh food around campus, mainly because the options are too expensive or unhealthy,” Rose said, “Fresh & Easy will provide a good balance between quick and healthy food, and will probably be a big attraction for students who live on-campus or in Gateway.”

Kathryn Kinas, a freshman majoring in business administration, said she is excited about the Fresh & Easy opening because she has shopped at the store before.

“We have a Fresh & Easy near my house, and I always go there for their sandwiches,” Kinas said. “I really like that they are like normal supermarkets, but also have a wider variety of specialty food.”