fresh&easy goes to hollywood

We had great fun opening our store on Hollywood Boulevard this week: CurbedLA captured it really well ... and no, we didn't hire the Jack Sparrow lookalike, he just turned up!

However, it's hardly time to Relax.

Hollywood is one of 8 stores we opened in the last 2 weeks, and we have another 16 to open by the end of February. It is of course an iconic location for us, but when you look at the variety of neighborhoods these stores are opening in (including a newly built store at Central & Rosecrans in Compton, opening Feb 7th ) , it does demonstrate what we're trying to do.

Right back at the start when we went into people's homes, we found a common desire for fresh, wholesome food that's affordable and available in their neighborhood. So we developed fresh&easy neighborhood market to deliver just that. Simple.

Will we be successful?

To be honest, it's to soon to tell: we only opened our first stores in November. But we've had good feedback from customers so far, and perhaps most significantly, they're coming from all walks of life.

Of course, in the end, it will be their decision, voting with their feet. For the moment, with 16 stores looming, we're just going to it...

fresh from our kitchen at fresh & easy

It seemed a fairly simple idea: you can either buy the ingredients and prepare a meal yourself, or you can buy the meal prepared for you, using the same quality ingredients.

It turned out to be an amazing undertaking.

When we went into people’s homes, to talk to them about food, it became clear the people yearned for food that was less processed. But they often had neither the time, nor the capability to produce it.

So we decided to offer a selection of chilled pre-packed dishes, made as you would in your own kitchen, using no artificial ingredients. All you’d have to do it pop it in the microwave and… voilà.

So far, so easy...

To prepare such products requires incredibly high standards of operation. As we searched for someone to produce them, it soon became clear that there wasn’t anyone around.

So we decided our only option was to build and run our own Kitchen to prepare these products.

We chose a location, alongside our Distribution Center, so we could prepare the products on one day, and deliver them to the stores before they open on the next day.

We brought over some managers from Europe who were used to running kitchens to such high standards. And we recruited a development chef locally, Chef Mike, to ensure the dishes were in tune with local tastes.

How we managed to get it up and running in time was something of a minor miracle ─ and it certainly spawned a few grey hairs.

But it was worth it!

We can’t believe how well these products, “Fresh From Our Kitchen”, are selling.

More importantly, they taste exactly as you’d expect them to taste. And that after all is just how it should be...