fresh is fresh at fresh & easy

We held an event at the Mission Inn in Riverside this week, hosted by the Chamber of Commerce, where we announced the first 48 store sites we've secured across the Inland Empire. It was one of a series we've held over the last 9 months across Southern California, Las Vegas and Phoenix, to meet the local civic leadership and explain what we're about.

Tim, our CEO, and I always go along, but this time we asked John, who's responsible for the products we'll be selling, to talk about the lengths we're going to to ensure our products are fresh.

What struck me, is how obvious what you have to do to deliver fresh food actually is.

For example, take our own fresh smoothies and breakfast juices that we'll be offering.

First, the products are made using fresh ingredients. We've found a supplying partner who cracks their own coconuts, peels their own bananas, kiwi and papaya, and presses fresh apples and carrots. Ingredients are fresh, not frozen. Orange juice is squeezed freshly every day. The pomegranate juice is from freshly pressed pomegranates, lightly pasteurized, not from concentrate.

Then, to ensure it's fresh when customers buy it, you simply make sure you take as little time as possible getting the product to the store.

It's one of the reasons we're building our distribution center at Riverside. Not only is it close to our stores, but it's also within easy reach of a number of suppliers, including our smoothie and juice supplier. With daily deliveries to our stores, there's little delay in getting the smoothies and juice to them.

Finally, you clearly date code the product, so customers know that it's fresh.

Simple really, but actually very difficult to do.

Is it worth it?

Well, we've been carrying out taste panels on all our products, and our smoothies and juices were overwhelmingly preferred to similar products in other stores.

But in the end, it will be for our customers to decide, when our stores start opening in November. Need I say more.....