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Bessie Morris went into Bayview’s new Fresh & Easy supermarket for the first time last Sunday. She needed to pick up just some ground turkey and sandwich cheese, but one thing led to another.

“They’ve got so much healthy, different stuff here, and prices were pretty good; I just couldn’t stop,” Ms. Morris said, laughing and gesturing to her cart. It is almost full, with prepared meals, salad greens, even a few exotic spices.

Ms. Morris may not know it, but she is Fresh & Easy’s model customer: someone who appreciates the well-curated selection of a specialty grocer but with the discount prices of a mainstream supermarket. Since March, the company has opened 11 stores in the Bay Area, with many more in the works. Fresh & Easy is rolling the dice that Ms. Morris’s shopping patterns are not unique.

The company is trying to capitalize on the cultural and economic trends that have brought huge changes to the local grocery store business over the past five years. Squeezed by expensive purveyors of organic, local and artisanal products on the high end and discounters like Costco and Wal-Mart on the low end, as well as a slow economy, traditional supermarket chains are reeling, with store closings and bankruptcies sweeping the sector.