putting our money where our mouth is at fresh & easy

There's two simple principles I've always tried to follow in marketing - "don't promise something that you can't deliver", and "goodwill can't be bought, it has to be earnt". They should be dear, in my view, to every marketeer's heart.

So in building fresh&easy, we're trying to put these principles into action.

For example, you don't have to take our word for it that we want to serve all kinds of neighborhoods. Just look at the stores we've already announced in Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego, and of course LA.

And we don't just say we want to be good steward of the environment. We've invested in the largest solar roof in California (& probably the world) at the distribution center we're building in Riverside, as well as building in several other initiatives to reduce energy in our store design

We've announced the key elements of our rewards and benefits package for our stores, which show our commitment to creating a great place to work. And we've also announced that all our own brand products will have no artificial colors or flavors, and no added transfat - underpinning our intention to provide fresh, wholesome food you can trust

All these are hard facts, to show that we are setting out to deliver what we've promised. And because they're rooted in what people told us they wanted, hopefully we'll start the process of earning their goodwill.

Does that mean we're perfect? Of course not, many of these things are journeys that will last a lifetime, there's always more to do. We already have a long list to work on for next year.

But our customers and our employees will hold us accountable for living up to our promises from the day we open. So we're putting our money where our mouth is, and that's how it should be...