Fresh & Easy to enter Northern California

El Segundo, Calif. Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has announced plans to open eight stores in Northern California in early 2011.

The stores, located in the San Francisco Bay Area and Modesto, will be Fresh & Easy's first north of Fresno.

Fresh & Easy first opened in Southern California in November 2007, and has steadily expanded in the state since, moving into Bakersfield in December 2008 and Fresno earlier this year. Next month, Fresh & Easy will open nine stores in California, including the grocer's 100th store in the state.