fresh&easy goes to Hollywood

I spent Thursday evening at our store on Hollywood Boulevard.

We're holding a free acoustic concert series there, in the courtyard, every thursday evening in September, in association with indie103.1. This one featured Nico Stai, while the next 3 feature Anya Marina, Meiko, and Greg Laswell respectively.

Indie103.1 seemed a natural partner to work with. Like fresh&easy, they don't seem to conform to the conventions of their industry.

I find they play an eclectic assortment of music, rather than the normal mainstream fodder, with a remarkable number of new artists. Steve Jones (of Sex Pistols fame) lunchtime show is just not like anything else I've heard on the radio, whilst Joe Escalante in the morning is essential listening on the way to work. They'll quite happily play the Clash (one of my all-time favorites), Radiohead (need I say more), someone I've never heard of, and a bit of Glen Campbell! At times, they'll even sound like talk radio.

Similarly, at fresh&easy, we don't fit under a conventional label. We offer the quality and freshness associated with a speciality market, yet our prices are more akin to a discounter. Our stores are much smaller than a supermarket, so you can get in and out easily, yet you can get all your regular shopping there. And we have our range of chilled prepared meals, fresh from our own kitchen, like little else.

Quite how indie103.1 evolved I have no idea. But fresh&easy simply came from asking all kinds of people what their ideal shopping trip would be, and then trying to deliver it.

That we're different to anything else is exactly why we exist. And that, surely, is how it should be.....

fresh&easy, radiohead, and the hollywood bowl

I had the privilege last Sunday of seeing Radiohead at the Hollywood Bowl.

What an amazing performance!

They sounded just as fresh as ever, their recent material every bit as good as before.

What really struck me was just how different they are to everybody else. They have familiar elements of a rock band, but they put it all together in new and surprising ways. They're impossible to categorize.

In our own small way, that's what customers say about us.

We have the quality and interesting selection of a speciality market, but also the brands and convenience of a supermarket. And the prices of a big box retailer..!

Take our assisted checkouts. They look familiar - a combination of self-service and belted checkouts, as you'd find in many supermarkets. Yet they're open all the time, you can use both types by yourself, or we'll do it for you, or we'll work together. The end result is a whole new checkout experience, achieving higher levels of customer satisfaction than we've ever seen before.

As for Radiohead, it reinforced my view that Thom Yorke is a genius...my ipod has been playing them ever since.

It was a night that exceeded my expectations. And that, surely, is how it should be.....

We're Listening...

You asked for pictures of the senior team bagging groceries and stocking shelves...you got em!

cleaning the floors at fresh & easy

This week I was spotted cleaning the floors of our store at Glassell Park, in Los Angeles.

Why?

Because the senior team that runs fresh&easy swapped our jobs to run this store for a week instead. And not just the trading part of the team - Hugh, our HR guy, Tony, who buys our property, and Mary, our legal counsel, were also to be found in their green t-shirts, on the shop floor.

Why?

Well, this was no photo opportunity (although I did look quite fetching in an apron and cap on the kitchen table.....not!).

Rather, it's simply part of the way we do business, all over the world. You can read reports, and hear people tell you what things work, and what could make things better and easier for our customers and our people. But there's no substitute for experiencing it first hand, together, as a team.

Unloading the trucks, filling the shelves, doing the mark-downs, collecting the carts, helping customers through the checkouts - we were doing it all..... although we did have a few people from the store there, coaching us if (when) we got stuck!

I have to say, a lot of customers noticed - probably because we were unusually slow! But the number of them who then took the time to tell us just how much they liked the store, and in particular how great our people are, was really amazing.

We came away, as ever, with a number of opportunities to make the business even simpler.

But more than that, with an even greater respect for our people.

Together, we're creating something really special. And that, of course, is how it should be...

every little helps at fresh & easy

A few things recently reminded me of the wisdom of just trying to make things a bit better for people, as an approach to retailing.

There was the warm welcome we received at the ground breaking ceremony at Central & Adams, in South LA. What were we doing? Bringing people access to fresh, wholesome food at affordable prices for the first time in a generation, as well as good jobs to their neighborhood.

Also, the new stores we opened at Indian School & 7th in Phoenix, and Point Loma in San Diego. Very different stores, one part of a regeneration project, the other replacing a small Albertsons that had closed more than 2 years ago. People were delighted at both openings that we had come, and they're both doing really well. Why? Again, because they now had access locally to quality food at great prices, as well as good jobs in their neighborhoods.

Then, there was the recent city meetings we held, where we invited any new starters since the previous meetings and all our store managers, to come and have a chat with us.
We ended up talking at one point about our Smart Boxes, a range of products that we offer for kids lunches.
Nothing special in that you might say. Of course, like all fresh&easy products,they have simple ingredients, with no artificial colors, flavors or added transfats. And they've been quite well balanced nutritionally, including individual servings of fruit.
But they're significantly outselling the main brand that we also offer. Why? Because they make it that little bit easier to provide kids with a more wholesome option.

Finally, we came across a realtor this week who was using proximity to one of our stores as a selling point for a property. Why? Because she said it adds value for people.

None of this is rocket science. We're just trying to do things that makes people's lives that little bit easier, so that they'll shop with us.

It's a simple approach. People benefit, and we gain their custom.

And that, surely, is how it should be.....