RALEY'S IS EXPANDING FOOD SOURCE FORMAT

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Raley's Supermarkets here is moving ahead with plans to expand its Food Source warehouse store format.

isclosed plans for a third late this year. The first Food Source opened in a 56,200-square-foot former Bel Air Market in Folsom, Calif.; the second, in Rocklin, Calif., is a newly built 58,800-square-foot unit. A third Food Source is scheduled to open in Hayward, Calif., in December in a 52,000-square-foot former Cost Less outlet. According to Chuck Collings, Raley's president, "I'm sure we'll continue to operate additional Food Source stores, but we want to make sure the format and the management team are right." Larry Nurse, a former consultant to the chain, is president of Food Source. The stores feature customer bagging at the front end, groceries on warehouse shelving -- sold, according to the stores' slogan, at Honest Everyday Low Prices, or H.E.L.P. -- and a series of self-service perishables departments around the perimeter. While produce quality is identical to Raley's stores, Food Source carries a Standard grade of beef with a leaner trim, instead of the Choice beef that Raley's does.

Raley's operates 64 Raley's stores, 17 Bel Air Markets and two Food Source units.