Fresh & Easy Getting Closer

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I’ve been wondering if the Fresh & Easy concept was faltering before it hit the ground. Initially, they announced a large number of locations around Phoenix metro and indicated that they would all be opening in November. However, the one nearest me hasn’t even begun building up yet, and the ones that were under construction seemed to languish as if they were intentionally slowing down.

Now they finally seem to be kicking into high gear. Not long ago one opened about 8 miles from us, but it’s 8 miles in completely the wrong direction. It’s nowhere near anywhere we ever go. About 3-4 weeks ago, they opened one 9 miles from our house, but immediately next door to a restaurant we frequent and on the way to Michelle’s Chinese school. Still inconvenient unless we’re in the area.

Finally, this week one has opened under 3 miles from our house, and construction is finally moving along on the one under a mile from our house. When that opens, it will be within walking distance.

Fresh & Easy isn’t exactly a place to do all your shopping – that is if you’re stocking up – since most of their foods are low on preservatives, they all have very short shelf lives, but they do have several items that are uncommon. Irene and the kids are practically addicted to the unpasteurized orange juice, which, everyone we know who’s tried it agrees, is the best tasting orange juice they’ve ever had. They also carry the imported butters and English back bacon, which is almost unheard of here in the states. It makes a nice change of pace.

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4 thoughts on “Fresh & Easy Getting Closer”

  1. It’s really hard to tell as just a customer, but I can never help asking myself how this can work, either.

    I suppose now that I’ve been shopping Fresh & Easy for a few months, I should write up a new post on the experience?

    The stores are often lightly populated with customers, but, for example, the store in the picture above is diagonally across an intersection from a full supermarket (equivalent of a full-sized Tesco) that’s been there for at least 15 years and well-established. That seemed like a bad location to me.

    On the other hand, the one being built closer to me is immediately adjacent to expensive new townhouses, and very close to several other new large town home complexes built along the city’s central business corridor. Grocery stores in that area seems like good placement.

    There’s a store down in the souther extremes of town, and there are no other stores around it. It always seems to be busy.

    Could the Tesco have missed the mark completely? I feel like they’re expecting people to be driven to the store because of “concept, concept, concept” when it’s obviously “location, location, location.”

    Of course, with the economy and gas doing what it is, this has to be a poor time to be starting a business, too.

  2. It’s really hard to tell as just a customer, but I can never help asking myself how this can work, either.

    I suppose now that I’ve been shopping Fresh & Easy for a few months, I should write up a new post on the experience?

    The stores are often lightly populated with customers, but, for example, the store in the picture above is diagonally across an intersection from a full supermarket (equivalent of a full-sized Tesco) that’s been there for at least 15 years and well-established. That seemed like a bad location to me.

    On the other hand, the one being built closer to me is immediately adjacent to expensive new townhouses, and very close to several other new large town home complexes built along the city’s central business corridor. Grocery stores in that area seems like good placement.

    There’s a store down in the souther extremes of town, and there are no other stores around it. It always seems to be busy.

    Could the Tesco have missed the mark completely? I feel like they’re expecting people to be driven to the store because of “concept, concept, concept” when it’s obviously “location, location, location.”

    Of course, with the economy and gas doing what it is, this has to be a poor time to be starting a business, too.

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