Growing Stale

There was another pane of glass broken.

And it dawned on me, that we had reached December and still an empty building on the corner of Redlands Boulevard and Mountain View Avenue.

Of course, there's lots of empty buildings around the region. Certainly a few empty storefronts in the Stater Bros. shopping center.

But to have a building seemingly created out of thin air for a specific business, and that business still hasn't moved in? Mind boggling.

I hate to beat this dead horse, but the Fresh and Easy folly in Loma Linda just bothers me. It's a store I want to shop in. It's a store many in Loma Linda want to shop in. And it sits. A standing testament to the economic situation our country is in.

Now, the last time we back in June, after they , the thought was maybe October. I guess they didn't say what year. The only movement was more vandalism.

So, having been thinking about it a little more lately -- especially after making a stop at the Calimesa store one afternoon after a trip out to the Pass for a work meeting -- I figured it was time to check the company's website.

Sure enough, it's still on the map as "Coming Soon." Though, I don't know how I can trust that map when the location that was set up in the last six months in my parent's Anaheim neighborhood (and not opened, either) doesn't appear on it.

Kept checking on the website to see if I could find more information ... and found a November news release touting that they were hiring. Six hundred new jobs! More than 20 new locations opening! Early next year! And, hey, there's a list of cities!

As you probably already guessed from the headline (and sarcasm), Loma Linda isn't on the list (nor is the aforementioned Anaheim store). Stores in Orange, San Diego and Los Angeles counties in Southern California, Las Vegas and spots in Central and Northern California will be opened before the rapt audience in Loma Linda will get to walk into their store.

I think what irks me about this latest bit of news is that this city -- and county -- can use any bit of good job news it can get. Unemployment is crushing the Inland Empire, and yet none of the stores on the list are here.

The news release even talks about how the company is providing solid jobs to its communities. And yet, it sits on buildings in neighborhoods that can use the influx of newly employed people.

It's easy to understand that they can't open every store all at once. It would take too much capital and could spell a quick end to the business. Quick over expansion has never worked.

But then why did they build (or lease and set up) the buildings? Spend money to put up signs (the Anaheim location is in a prime spot in a center next to a Target)?

I keep bringing up the Anaheim store because it took over a former drug store, and got its signage in the past six months. If it wasn't ready to open, the why go through the hassle? Especially when you have buildings that you've built (not just in Loma Linda -- there's at least one in Moreno Valley, too) specifically for your business that you haven't even opened.

They probably have a plan, and they're sticking to it. I'm no business major, so I probably don't understand all the intricasies that go along with some of these things.

I'm just one of many people who wants to shop at one of their stores locally, and it frustrates me to no end.

Well, I guess I'll just have to wait for the controversial "McDonald's shopping center" to get its Whole Foods or Sprouts built (OK, I'm only guessing) to get some of the options that I can get at Fresh and Easy stores.

And, ya know what? I betcha they'll open on time -- and before Fresh and Easy.