EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market here said store hours have been reduced at 33 of its 199 locations and staffing has been adjusted accordingly.
Store hours, which have primarily been from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. — though some locations operate with longer hours, a spokesman told SN — have been adjusted at the 33 locations to accommodate a 9 a.m. opening and an 8 p.m. closing, he explained. Those changes have resulted in some employees being laid off and others being sent to other stores, he added, though he declined to say how many store positions had been eliminated.
The cutbacks were first reported by a blog called freshandeasybuzz.blogspot.com, which is not affiliated with the chain.
Fresh & Easy is a division of United Kingdom-based Tesco.
Though store hours at Fresh & Easy are set by corporate management, "Each store has always managed its own work schedules," the spokesman told SN. "We changed operating hours at some stores to better match the trade patterns at each store. But determining work schedules has always been done by the individual stores."
Read More: Fresh & Easy Cuts Corporate Staff
He said the number of personnel changes varied from one store to another, noting that some stores did not eliminate any employees while others eliminated more than one. He declined to say whether cutbacks in store hours were planned at other Fresh & Easy locations.
In late July the company made cutbacks in its corporate office staff — trade sources put the number at about 40, though the company declined to be specific — mostly in the area of real estate and new-store support.