A fresh&easy wine evening

I have to confess to enjoying an occasional glass of wine.

In fact, I'm writing here with my Zepplin at full blast (what an awesome sound it produces, the best ipod player I've come across by far), having just eaten our chicken enchiladas (which I have to say are pretty damn good), and enjoying a glass of our Reflexion 2003 Rioja, which has just been awarded 90 Parker points.

I'm not a great wine connisseur, so the fact that 7 of our wines have recently won medals in the San Francisco Chronicle and California State Fair wine competitions, and now the Reflexion Rioja, makes buying so much easier.

We employ an accredited Master of Wine (of which there's only 265 in the world, 20 in the USA) to help us achieve this.

But all I can say is the Rioja's great, it's only $9.99, and goes really well with Depeche Mode at full blast.

Now what about Neil Young...?

fresh&easy - weekly round-up

It’s refreshing to hear the various stories and comments from our customers, especially when they understand exactly why we are going about things a bit differently than other grocers…

For example, Jasmyne Cannick has nailed it! Thanks Jasmyne for posting about our efforts to go into all kinds of neighborhoods so everyone can have access to fresh affordable groceries. We look forward to seeing you, your aunt, godmother and co-workers around our stores again soon...

Also, Nancy appreciates the simple design of our stores according to her blog Right Brained Gal. With low shelves, wide aisles and honest low prices everyday, her shopping trips in our neighborhood-sized markets are apparently quick and easy without clutter or confusing promotions. Blimey! That’s just as we planned it! Mind you, I have a feeling if she designed our markets, they'd be pink & blue instead of green...

Thanks everyone for your comments, we try and read everything we can. We welcome your thoughts, and try to learn from them. We can't do everything, but thanks to you, our shopping trip will get better and better. And that, of course, is how it should be...

pausing for breath at fresh & easy

Phew!

We've opened 31 stores in 66 days so far this year...now we're pausing for breath.

We've been delighted with the openings. There's always been a line of customers waiting for each store to open. Indeed at some, such as Long Beach pictured above, the lines were almost too long, they took hours to clear - I'm sorry if anyone was inconvenienced.

And every week, we attract more customers in our existing stores.

However, after opening our first 50, we planned to have a 3 month break from openings, and other than a couple more in Phoenix, we're taking it (albeit, in our usual fashion, with 59 stores already open).

Why?

Quite simply, to allow the business we've created to settle down.

In 9 months, we've gone from a project team of 200 people to a business employing nearly 2500 people - and in another 9 months, it'll be over 5000.
In a little over 4 months, we've gone from a business with no stores to one with 59 - with hundreds more in the pipeline.

We've learnt a huge amount about running the operation, and talked to thousands of customers about what they like about fresh&easy, and where they'd like us to improve.

So we've given ourselves a little bit of time to kick the tires, smooth out any wrinkles, and make some improvements that customers have asked for.

Of course, improving the operation and the shopping trip is what we do every day. I've always been a believer in continuous and never-ending improvement - ever since listening to Tony Robbins on the subject many, many years ago (more than I care to remember!).

And today, our stores are better than they were last month, which were already better than the month before, and so on - our recent move to accept Amex as well as Visa & Mastercard is one small example of that.

But the next 3 months will allow us to accelerate this process, before we restart what's been described as an opening program on steroids.

Our customers now, and in the future, will be the beneficiaries of this, and that, of course, is how it should be.....

Some fresh & easy listening…

As we continue to open our doors in new neighborhoods, we have seen all sorts of interest and commentary on the Internet about our products and stores.

We certainly welcome the feedback and want everyone to know that we are listening… After all, we built fresh&easy by listening to customers in the first place.

For example, Tim writes about his new found passion for our markets on his blog The World of Tim. I must say we are pleased to hear you are now eating better in the mornings. Rest assured fellow “Fresh Head,” we are working hard to perfect our pepperoni so it’s nitrate-free; and it will soon be available in stores.

Julie Tilsner, from Wallet Pop, wrote about her first experience at a fresh&easy in Southern California. We might as well add her to the team; many thanks for the fantastic review!

The same goes for Arizona mother of three Bethany, who writes her own blog BETHANDRE. While we are glad she likes the in-store soundtrack, I’d still prefer more radiohead and dépêche mode.

Each week more and more people are writing us to share their thoughts about our stores. We enjoy listening to our customers, and our stores are getting better because of it. And that of course, is how it should be...

family matters at fresh & easy

I was very touched recently at one of our store openings in Las Vegas.

I walked into our new store, and there, helping customers at the checkout, was one of our customer assistants I'd seen the previous day, in one of our existing stores. On talking to him, it transpired that it was his day off, but his mother was the store manager of our new store, and he'd come in to help.

On mentioning it to my store colleagues, they quoted several other examples where different family members have joined us.

From the start we wanted to create a great place to work, as many people we originally talked told us they preferred to shop in stores where people enjoyed working.

This struck me as a real sign that we're building something special. And the great thing is, customers are noticing.....