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.....

magical moments at fresh & easy

Time's a funny thing. It seems a lifetime ago we were showing customers around our mock store, seeing if we'd understood what they'd told us correctly. Now, November seems to be hurtling towards us, when we'll be opening our first fresh&easy stores.

It's an amazingly exciting time. Many different strands of the business we're building are now coming together, and we're finding out whether they're a perfect fit. Needless to say, as with any building project, we're having to make some adjustments.

It may only be a food store, but memorable moments just keep coming. So far this month for example, we've seen our first outdoor sign lit up (LED of course), our first store being handed over to our store personnel to get ready for launch, or our first product being delivered to our depot.

But whilst these are major milestones in the setting up of the business, the real magical moments come from the people. The email from a construction guy exuding excitement about the LED sign that's just been installed, a buyer proudly demonstrating how their product has no artificial ingredients but still tastes great, a transport guy excitedly showing us round the energy-efficient & neighborhood friendly trailer he'd commissioned, a recent trainee extolling the virtues of our simple cash office process. You can just feel that we're on to something.

Retail businesses are about people. When people believe in what they do and enjoy what they do, they can do great things. Our challenge is to hold onto this as we recruit our customer assistants. If we do, fresh&easy will be something special. Whether we do, our employees and our customers will decide. And that, as ever, is how it should be.....

polar bears at fresh & easy?

This picture means a lot to us. Every store we open will have it in the back area, every new fresh&easy employee will receive a card from our CEO, with this picture on the front.

Why?

My 9 year old son got it first time: "Daddy, the polar bears are drowning because global warming is melting the ice. We have to do something."

The picture is a reminder for us to be careful about our impact on the environment. That's why we've invested in California's largest solar roof installation, to help power our distribution center. Why we've partnered with RMG, a San Diego based recycling and waste services company, so that we can reuse or recycle all our shipping and display materials.

And why we've built energy saving features into our store design, such as the use of LED lighting in our freezers, cooler doors and outside signage. Indeed, we think we've reduced the energy usage of the stores we're building by c.30%. We've joined the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) volume certification pilot program, to get them LEED rated (check it out...)

But the picture also reminds us to take a much more thoughtful approach to everything we do.

To be thoughtful about how food is produced. We've gone to great lengths, for example, to work with our suppliers to ensure our private label products contain no artificial colors and flavors, no added transfats, and only use artificial preservatives when absolutely necessary. Indeed, several suppliers have commented that no one has ever asked them so many questions about this before.

To be thoughtful about the work environment we create. Our approach to working shoulder to shoulder that I talked about last week is an example of that.

And to bring the benefits of fresh, wholesome and affordable food to all types of neighborhoods, including those traditionally underserved by modern grocery stores

Does this mean we're perfect?
Of course not, there's always trade-offs, and we already have a long list of things we want to do, but haven't yet been able to achieve.

But having talked to many people in many different ways about their ideal grocery store, their ideal workplace, and their ideal neighborhood, we're convinced there's an appetite for thoughtful consumption, as long as it's affordable and convenient.

As ever, we'll only find out if we've got it right when we open our first stores, later this year.

If we have, it should be good for customers, employees, neighborhoods, and shareholders alike.....and also, in some very small way, for those polar bears.....alright son?