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"The West Coast is a place that likes new things and likes new ideas,"

said Tim Mason, chief executive officer of Fresh & Easy, in explaining the regional push. "It's a market where we think there's a desire for fresh foods, healthy foods."

The San Francisco stores will be at Third Street and Carroll Avenue and Silver Avenue and Goettingen Street, in the Bayview and Portola neighborhoods.

Shopping options in the Bayview largely are limited to the Foods Co. bulk grocery store and the small Super Save market, along with corner stores and fast-food restaurants. An October survey by the Southeast Food Access Working Group, part of Mayor Gavin Newsom's Shape Up San Francisco program, found that 94 percent of neighborhood residents would support new food options and that half frequently bought groceries at Safeway stores outside the area.

Studies routinely have linked limited access to fresh produce and inexpensive groceries to poor health in low-income and minority neighborhoods, including higher rates of diabetes, obesity and heart disease. Only 52 percent of residents of "disadvantaged communities" in the Bay Area are within walking distance of a supermarket, according to a

2002 study by the Transportation and Land Use Coalition, a partnership of regional advocacy groups.

Many stores have avoided such areas for two main reasons, said Bob Reynolds, president of Moraga retail consulting firm Reynolds Economics.

There's a perception of higher operating costs related to security and theft, and lower-income customers tend to spend less per trip than white-collar suburban shoppers, he said.

"It's easier to go to a Burger King than it is to get a decent piece of fruit in many neighborhoods," said San Francisco Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, who represents Bayview and Portola. "Fresh & Easy can help that."

Ken Hecht, executive director of California Food Policy Advocates, initially said he was pleased to hear that Fresh & Easy is expanding in the Bay Area, because the company repeatedly has said it will locate in neighborhoods underserved by grocery stores. But after reviewing the list of locations, which includes stores in upscale cities like Danville and Walnut Creek, he said the company isn't doing enough.

"This just isn't going to do what needs to be done if low-income people are to avoid obesity - and that's our biggest threat to public health right now," he said.

Fresh & Easy is building roughly 10,000-square-foot stores that are about a fifth of the size of a typical supermarket and stocking a narrower selection of often less-expensive goods with a higher proportion of private-label and prepared products. The closest comparison is Trader Joe's, which packs its 12,000- to 15,000-square-foot outlets with items bearings it own brand.

Tesco opened its first U.S. store a little more than two months ago and was scheduled to open its 36th and 37th today. Most Fresh & Easy markets are in Southern California, with a handful in Arizona and Las Vegas. Tesco is investing $2 billion over five years in the division and has 140 planned locations.

The other Bay Area sites announced Wednesday are Danville, Fairfield, Mountain View, Napa, Sunnyvale, Vallejo and Walnut Creek. The company plans to eventually open additional regional stores and is discussing several addresses in Oakland, Mason said.

The aggressive expansion could take sales away from businesses like Safeway, Wal-Mart and Whole Foods Market, some retail experts say. Burt Flickinger III, managing director of New York retail consulting firm Strategic Resource Group Inc., said Fresh & Easy stores provide a shopping experience that is "fresher, faster and cheaper."

"They should be the fastest-growing grocer on the West Coast and challenge everyone from Safeway and Save Mart to Whole Foods and Wal-Mart," he said.

Others took a more skeptical view.

Jim Prevor, editor in chief of retail trade publisher Phoenix Media Network Inc. and author of the Perishable Pundit blog, said the company's early performance doesn't bode well. Vendors and industry consultants report that the first Fresh & Easy stores have run into operational difficulties, like regularly running out of stock, and that both foot traffic and weekly sales are below monthly targets, he said.

"It's possible, of course, that over time they may be able to either persuade Americans that the concept is great, or they may change the concept," he said. "But to date, it's certainly been a struggle."

Safeway spokesman Brian Dowling said the Pleasanton supermarket chain has been expanding market share and expects that trend to continue, regardless of Fresh & Easy.

"We've had a variety of competitors try to take our business in the past, and the fact is, we have a strategy in place to grow our business against a range of competition and we think we'll continue to be successful,"

Dowling said.

Tesco itself hasn't disclosed financial results for its U.S. division so far, but Mason said the company is very pleased with the early results.

Most people aren't aware that air leakage amounts to 30-40% of a home's heating and cooling bills. Stopping air leakage is important not only for energy savings, but also for protecting your home from the damaging effects of moisture. Air, leaking into walls from the interior of the home, carries humidity with it. This moisture hits a cold surface and condenses, causing the insulation and surrounding wood to get wet. Eventually, the air leakage can lead to mold growth and wood rot.

It is a common misconception that the majority of a home's air leakage comes through windows and doors, but in actuality, only 10-15% of air leakage is through windows and doors. That is why window replacement is seldom a cost-effective means to save energy. There are lots of ways to greatly improve the efficiency of windows without replacing them. The use of a blower door can make locating and sealing air leaks much easier. A blower door is simply a large door with a fan in it that allows you to pressurize a home so you can use smoke sticks to find air leaks.

Properly sealing your home can save you 30-40% of your heating and cooling costs.

Sealing up the outside of your home without sealing up the inside, traps moisture in your walls and can lead to mold growth and wood rot. Sealing up your home without providing outside air for combustion in gas furnaces, water heaters, and wood burning fireplaces can lead to air quality problems and could even allow carbon monoxide to build up in the home.

Reducing air leakage is something that needs to be done for homes in all regions of the country.

Most people think that tightening up the home means caulking around the outside of the home. This prevents rain water from getting into your walls and that's important, but does very little to stop air from leaking into your home.

Tightening up an existing home begins on the inside. The greatest areas of air leakage in a home are around the top of the foundation and around penetrations into the attic. You can seal the top of the foundation (rim joist) with caulk or expanding foam. To seal the penetrations into the attic, the easiest way is to push back the insulation, and seal the holes around wiring and plumbing stacks and caulk along to tops of interior walls. To seal the inside of the house, use a clear caulk around the window frames where the trim meets the wall and all cracks in the window that aren't operable. Add weatherstripping to the windows if necessary. Install foam gaskets on outlets and switches on exterior walls. Use clear caulk along the basement where it meets the floor. Seal around all ceiling fixtures, heat registers, medicine cabinets, bath tubs, kitchen cabinets, drain and water pipes where they enter the wall in kitchen and bath and any other interior wall penetrations. There are many things you can do to reduce air leakage in your home. However, keep in mind that professional with the proper training and equipment is best suited to pinpoint air leakage and to identify and deal with combustion safety problems.

Complete a checklist of what you can do to save energy in your home and the order that you should do it in.