squaring the circle at fresh & easy

Right from the start, we've been delighted by the customer response to our stores - they see us offering better/fresher products, cheaper prices, and just taking that bit extra care in everything we do.

For some, we've become their main shop. They've found that we help them eat better and save money on all their weekly shopping. And they've realized we can do it because we've kept things really simple.

But from others, there's one recurring point we hear - you can't be both better and cheaper, as you're only a small store. And small stores are either more expensive (specialty), or lesser quality (dollar). Since your quality is really good, you must be expensive if I tried to do all my shopping with you. It's just not possible to be both.

Now that we've got 125 stores open, we can tackle this point head on, with our first advertising campaign.

We sat down with customers, to explore ways of doing this, and as ever what emerged was refreshingly straightforward - show how keeping things simple lets you be both better and cheaper; and let your loyal customers tell the story for you.

So from this Wednesday, billboards and posters will be springing up around our stores, and banner ads on the internet, as well as a new treatment in-store - all pointing out in different ways how we keep things simple, to save you money.



While on the radio, you'll be hearing ads featuring some of our loyal customers, telling the story for us...

We may have set out to square a particular circle, by showing that it is possible for us to be both better and cheaper, through keeping things simple.

But the fact that a business that simply tries to listen to customers, and then give them what they want, has been rewarded by its customers wanting to tell its story for it, speaks to a deeper circle of trust.

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