fresh&easy in underserved neighborhoods

We've had a lot of media interest recently about our plans to open stores in South Central LA. It's all been very positive. Indeed, we've been made to feel very welcome there, for which we're very grateful.

However, I've been asked a number of times why we think we can be successful where other food retailers appear to have struggled.

Of course, we haven't opened yet... But at one level, the answer's simple: in our experience, if you offer high quality food at prices everyone can afford in a decent environment, people will shop with you.

Of course, we still have to sell the products that people want. So we've gone to great lengths to try and get this right.

I've talked before about how we went into people's homes, talked to them about food and food shopping, poked around their pantries and refrigerators, and went shopping with them. And how, from this, we developed fresh&easy neighborhood market.

However, as an example, we were still concerned that we didn't quite understand in detail the needs of Hispanic households. So again, we went back into their homes, to try to understand the regular products they wanted.

Out of this, we found that fresh&easy would be attractive in their neighborhood, provided we stock the right mix of national brands and authentic products, alongside the freshness and great prices we had already planned. It led us to add another 250 or so products to our proposed assortment, to achieve this.

Whether we've got it right, we shall of course see... But we're trying to make everyone welcome at fresh&easy, and that includes serving neighborhoods that have previously been neglected.