Fresh & Easy closing 3 east Las Vegas stores

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is closing three underperforming grocery stores in east Las Vegas by Aug. 7.

The trio of stores are located at: 3220 S. Nellis Blvd.; 4975 E. Tropicana Ave.; 5755 E. Charleston Blvd.

"While recent initiatives have helped drive additional sales across the Fresh & Easy business, in the case of these locations the progress was not enough to bring their performance in line with the rest of the business," Fresh & Easy said in a statement Thursday afternoon.

The 167-store chain, based in Los Angeles, has 19 grocery stores in the Las Vegas Valley. Other locations are in California, Nevada and Arizona. At its peak in the Las Vegas market, the Fresh & Easy chain had 25 stores.

The three store closings affects a total of less than 70 workers. The supermarket chain is "working to place as many as possible in open spots in other stores," spokesman Brendan Wonnacott said.

Last year, Fresh & Easy began re-launching its grocery markets in the Las Vegas market.

Customer Nancy Menzel, who shopped at the South Nellis store, lamented the closing.

"I am sad to see these stores near me close. This leaves the east side with sharply reduced choices for healthy produce and meals. Sprouts is the lone exception. I often stopped at Fresh & Easy to pick up pre-prepared meals for either lunch or dinner. (I'm) not sure what I'll do now," she said.

"The chain recently spent a lot of money remodeling these stores into cafes and kept them open 24 hours, making them more convenient for shopping. The store(s) that remain open are at too great a distance for me to travel to shop."

Wonnacott said Fresh & Easy remains committed to the Las Vegas market.

"We tested a number of initiatives in these underperforming locations to see if they could generate the business necessary to sustain keeping them open long-term. Through this process we determined these particular locations are not suitable for the business going forward. The learnings from these stores have helped us strengthen the work that we have done to our stores in Las Vegas as well as the rest of the Fresh & Easy business," Wonnacott wrote in an email to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

"We believe we have a strong core store base in the Las Vegas area," he said.