green trucking at fresh&easy

I've never really got trucks (as a kid, i much preferred airplanes), but when our first truck turned up earlier this week, it almost brought a tear to the eye. It looked striking, it was another milestone towards the opening of our stores, and in it's use of technology to reduce co2 emissions and noise pollution, another illustration of our commitment to being a good neighbor and steward of the environment. All in all, a memorable day!

great food you can trust

I've been asked a number of times about whether we'll be selling cigarettes - the answer's no, as it doesn't fit with what we're trying to do.

Our aim is to make fresh, high quality food affordable and accessible to everyone, because that's what people told us they wanted. Said quickly, it sounds simple, but as ever, it's all in the doing.

For a start, we're being be very thoughtful about the way we source, develop and distribute our own brand products. For example, we have a team of technical managers working with our suppliers to ensure that all our own brand products have no added transfats, no artificial colors or flavors, and only use artificial preservatives where they're absolutely essential or traditionally part of the product. And we're designing a supply chain to ensure that as little time as possible is used up in the distribution of fresh products, leaving the product much fresher instore

Then, to make these products affordable for everyone, we're trying to create a business that is simple to operate. For example, we're carefully selecting our assortment of products based on what we've learnt. It makes it easier to find the product you want in-store, but it also means higher volumes per line which in turn reduces costs throughout the supply chain, allowing us to charge lower prices

Finally, to make it accessible as well as affordable, we have a huge effort underway to try and find suitable sites in every neighborhood - and our initial pipeline of stores includes areas which have traditionally been underserved by food stores.

After all why shouldn't everyone have access to fresh, affordable, high quality food...

TREE MUSKETEERS at fresh&easy

I had the pleasure this week of meeting the TREE MUSKETEERS. We selected them as a charity for donations that our own people made. TREE MUSKETEERS is based in El Segundo just like us and since we like to be a good neighbor, they're focused on the environment, which we care about. What a cool group! You should check them out...

everyone is welcome at fresh&easy

Looking at the emails you're sending us, 3 questions keep being asked: Is there a store coming to my neighborhood? What kind of people will you be catering for? Which competitors are you targeting?

Of course, we'll tell you once we know for certain we've got a store coming in your particular neighborhood, but the broad answers are: Yes, (if we can get a site & you live in southern California, Las Vegas or Phoenix) - We will cater for everyone - We are not targeting any competitors.

When I say this, nobody ever believes me. "You must be targeting a certain demographic or lifestyle, & certain neighborhoods where they live. You just don't want to tell us." That's a misunderstanding for where we're coming from...

People aren't like eggs, you can't put them in boxes, so we don't bother (although there's a whole marketing industry built on the premise you can - but that's maybe for another day!). Instead of focusing on the differences between people, we simply try & understand what are the really important things that everybody wants from their regular shopping trip? We then design stores that deliver those things better than anyone else, and put them where people are - in their neighborhoods.

In other words, we aim to make everyone welcome at fresh&easy, and so there's no particular competitor we're targeting or copying - we just focus on people...

understanding customers

Hello, & welcome to our first talking fresh&easy™ blog. Why are we doing it? To give you a chance to find more about who we are and what we stand for, and for us to hear what you have to say about it.

We've based this business on a simple premise - listen to people, understand what they ideally want from a regular food shopping trip, & then try and deliver it better than anyone else.

So before we decided to set up this business, we spent several months just talking to people about food and food shopping, visiting them in their homes, poking around in their pantries (with permission of course), preparing meals and going shopping with them. We even built a mock store in a warehouse and invited people to visit it, to see if we had understood what they wanted correctly.

Out of this has come fresh&easy neighborhood market, which does what it's name implies (we asked people what we should call it):
- it's fresh, with an emphasis on fresher, less processed foods
- it's easy, quick to get in & out of, with convenient solutions for serving fresher, more nutritious food
- it's a market, rather than the size of a full-scale supermarket
- & it's in my neighborhood, so i don't have to travel far

We also found that people want businesses to be considerate, and a place people enjoy working, especially when it's their neighborhood, so we're also setting out to be a good neighbor and a great place to work.

That's then what we think people want for their regular food shopping. We're building a business capable of delivering it (visit our website www.freshandeasy.com to see what it's like), but in the end it will be our customers who determine whether we've got it right when we open in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Diego later this year - and that's how it should be...