Why Fresh & Easy failed

I love Fresh & Easy! The rewards program is great. Everything I buy is fresh & delicious, from the fresh fruits & meats to the pre-prepared items. There's something for every cook. Sometimes I like to make everything from scratch; sometimes I like to cheat a little; sometimes I just want to reheat & eat. The prices are good, too. I wish they did take manufacturers' coupons, but the coupons they do offer are great.

Fresh and Easy market is the best for me!  The commodities are fresh, prices are reasonable.  Let us  start to patronize healthy products!

Too bad for them; the problem is that most Americans don't eat healthy so they would rather go to traditional grocery stores in order to get thier fill of junk food. The most of us who eat healthy are still the minority against the majority of Type II Diabetics who can't run out of their own home without being out of breath.

This sucks. I like my fresh and easy store. I can get more organic foods at whole foods or trader joes, but I never go to trader joes. I don't like it. I can get better deals at whole foods; I get more for the buck. Whenever I go into a trader joes I walk out with nothing. It is always a disappointment to me, and I have never understood the big deal about it. However, fresh and easy is closer to me than whole foods, in fact, it's right next to my church, so I stop in there to get my organic almond milk or gluten free cookies that are hard to find anywhere else. I would shop there more if I could get organic meats or organic fresh produce, or the dairy free yogurt I can eat, they hardly ever carry the flavors I can. I think the cost of fresh and easy is affordable. Eating healthy, I've been to far more expensive grocery chains. A co-op I went to used to shock me every time I checked out. I could never understand how the cost was that high, but fresh and easy prices work for me.

Well, this consumer and her family is extremely bummed.  Since Fresh & Easy opened up less than 1/4 mile from our house they've received 75% of our grocery budget and we stopped going to our local Sprouts completely which normally got at least that missing 25%.

What do we love about it?  Small so it's easy to get in and out of quickly.  Consistently best prices in town for dairy products (we go thru 5-7  gallons of milk weekly) and the hub can ride his bicycle there if need be.  Knowledgeable and friendly staff.  Fresh baked goods, not just french bread loaves like most markets.  Good prices on the occasional Brit treats like canned Spotted Dick.  As far as produce goes, they are price competitive with the 6 (!) (Stater Brothers, Ralph's, Sprouts, Food 4 Less, Target and WalMart) other local chain stores within 2 miles of our house.  How, in an area known for it's strawberries, they can beat them in prices but taste as well is always a surprise to us.

They also offer a wide range of organic food products, both canned and fresh.  And their own line of ready-to-eat meals, salads, soups and desserts.  All of the ones we've tried (about 2/3 of what they offer) have been tasty and warrant repeat purchases.

If that weren't enough, you can also pick up green products like detergents for competitive prices.  The same with pet products, kitchenware and fresh flowers!

In case you think I'm making this up, I went there on Tuesday.  I bought 4 packages of 80/20 ground beef at $3.98 for 2 LB each.  No one has it for $1.99 a pound here and I bought enough to last the entire month!  We swear by their pasta sauces and use at least 2 jars of it a week so $1.99 for each of those is a real bargain too.  4 tomatoes at $.98 and great roll-your-own pizza dough so we had a quick and delish dinner that night.  Let's get real and name names here.  I also bought 2 12oz boxes of Special K with Red Berries Cereal at 2/$5.  My local Food 4 Less had it for the next cheapest price...$4.35 for the same size package.  4 avocados were 4/$2, in-between the highest and lowest Food 4 Less prices but better tasting and quality.  Add milk and we topped at just over $30 and used a coupon had us paying under than amount for a lot of food.

I'm not saying they always have the best prices on everything all the time.  One must be an informed customer to get the best savings and live within a budget.  If I wasn't then I would have paid the $3.49 cost of Best Foods mayonnaise at F4L instead of F&E's $2.48.  I'm just saying...if I had only one store to choose from, I would bite the bullet and pay the higher prices on some things.

AND...as budget conscious buyers, they more than any of the other shops, make us feel like they care about us.  We get weekly coupons good for X amount of dollars off Y amount of purchase (sometimes $5 off of $25 or $3 off of $30 or $10 from $50) so we made sure to unify our shopping to get those discounts.  Plus, their Friends program gives us a percentage back from the purchases we do make.

Where do they fail then, in my eyes?  Lack of advertising.  I think if they worked harder at that, they wouldn't be in the shape they must be in right now.

I could have told them the first day they opened they would fail.  This is a classic example of terrible market research.  Don't forget to fire your market research consultants while you are closing your stores.

I like Fresh and Easy, it was a nice place to stop by and get a quick dinner that wasn't frozen. Its prices are competative. We were hoping that one would open in our neighborhood, maybe their Market Research firm thought opening in a Lower Income area was good, but for me the area they chose in my City was not the best.

PS: Are there any commercials of fresh and easy on tv? What about bulletins? Radio announcements?