1000 ways to show we listened at fresh & easy

Next Wednesday, we finish a 5 month programme, which has seen us add over 1000 products to our stores.

We've always taken a simple approach to business - listen to what your customers are asking for, then deliver it. By doing this year-in, year-out, you're always making the shopping trip better.

So when we heard our customers say they really liked our stores, we also heard them ask for more help in stretching their budget, in these difficult times - by providing more family packs, and low price alternatives to their favorite brands.

They also wanted more fresh&easy brand products, since they have ingredient lists you can actually pronounce, as well as a few more favorite brands, so they didn't have to go elsewhere.

And, there was little that they wanted taken away.

Of course, the walls of our stores aren't made of rubber - you can't just expand them - , but we worked out a way of accomodating all these products, by increasing the height of some of our fixtures, adding extra freezers and chillers, and refining our use of space. Naturally, we tested it with customers, and they preferred the changes we proposed.

However, to make this all happen across our 125 stores was a bit like a jigsaw puzzle - you had to put one piece in place before you could do another -, which is why it's been a 5 month programme. It's been a huge amount of work for everyone, but the end result is impressive.

There's now more family packs in key areas across the store, just have a look at our meat aisle, household and pet aisles, or cereals.

There's over 200 new amazingly low priced alternatives to national brands, but of the same quality, such as our Mothers Joy cereals, Riot Cola, Bistro frozen meals, Allegro bathroom tissue, or Steel Kettle beer.

There's a few brands we didn't have before, like Dreyers ice cream or Orowheat bread, and a much extended selection of Frozen, Household, Pet and Health&Beauty products.

And of course, more fresh&easy brand products, such as our microsteamer meals, family size meals, or breakfast bowls (all fresh from our own Kitchen), Goodness lunchables for kids, Black Angus beef, Pita chips, baby toiletries, or our Retreat natural spa range.

Finally, next Wednesday, we redo produce, which will add more fresh&easy products, more 98c produce packs, and a greater selection of loose fruit.

Has all this changed the original vision for fresh&easy?

Not at all.

It was always designed to offer fresh, wholesome food, as well your favorite brands, all at amazingly low prices, so you didn't have to go elsewhere.

By listening to our customers, and then doing something about it, we're simply ensuring the shopping trip continues to deliver that vision for them.

And that, surely, is how it should be...