Fresh & Easy to Experiment with Express Store in Seal Beach

After serving fries and Cokes and Jumbo Jacks for a generation, the Seal Beach Jack in the Box finally closed its doors this month to make room for a pilot grocery store.

However, despite approval from the city, the proposed Fresh & Easy Express won’t be built anytime soon.

Without an application filed with the Coastal Commission, approval for a new Fresh & Easy store isn’t exactly looming. Pending the commission’s approval, the plan is to tear down the Jack in the Box and make way for a 4,320-square-foot grocery store.

Originally from Britain, Fresh & Easy markets itself as a grocery store that offers wholesome and fresh foods at low prices. The proposed store would be one of the county’s first express stores, a new concept that would allow the chain to open shop in dense, established neighborhoods such as Old Town Seal Beach.

The store is expected to sell groceries and alcohol and will bring convenience to the residents of Seal Beach, said Brendan Wonnacott, spokesman for Fresh & Easy.

Presuming the Coastal Commission approves the project, the new store would sit within the sightline of competitor Vons Pavilions. It would also sit about a mile away from a Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and Albertsons.

“We have stores on all sides of Seal Beach, and we are opening two new stores in Long Beach next month,” said Wonnacott. “We think this is the perfect opportunity we were waiting for to continue to test our idea of having mini-versions of Fresh & Easy.”

Wonnacott said the company is still in the early stages of the application and development process.

“We do want to get started as soon as possible,” he said. “But we are still in the early planning stages, and there is no time frame set yet on when we want to open the store.”

Seal Beach has been in the sights of Fresh & Easy for quite some time, Wonnacott said, adding that the mini-versions of the store allow it to be a “neighborhood staple” because the store doesn’t need 10,000-square-feet, it just needs a small space. The sales floor at the Seal Beach location will be roughly 3,000-square-feet.

The store will also bring anywhere from 25 to 45 jobs to the Seal Beach area, he said. According to Wonnacott, entry-level jobs start at $10 per hour and include benefits and a 401(k) plan. Part-time employees also receive benefits, he added.

But the groceries and the jobs aren’t likely to come anytime soon.

Two months after the Seal Beach planning officials granted a conditional use permit for the store at 800 Pacific Coast Highway near Main Street, the Coastal Commission had not yet received an official application, said Fernie Sy, coastal program analyst.

Mark Persico, Seal Beach director of development services, said the coastal commission application process can take anywhere from “six weeks to six months.”

 “After the application is turned in, and we ensure we have all the information necessary, it will be filed and the process of reviewing it will start,” Sy said. “Then we will determine our recommendation and find a date for a hearing.”

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK IN THE COMMENT BOX

Do you think Old Town Seal Beach is the right place for Orange County's first Fresh & Easy Express? And now where are we going to get french fries at midnight?