Fresh & Easy Proves Fast & Pricey
Posted on July 23, 2008 by Gary McCarty
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I mean, $4.95 for warm-and-eat Mac ‘n’ Cheese?
Let me provide some background. I’d been reading for months how, first, Fresh & Easy was coming to Orange County and, then, Fresh & Easy opened here, opened there, opened everywhere.
Fresh & Easy springs from the UK’s Tesco group of retail operations, though it bills itself as being locally run, which is more or less true, I suppose.
Before visiting a store, I scoured the Fresh & Easy Web site and found a great motto: "Great food you can trust, at prices you can’t believe."
Well, they were right on that front. I couldn’t believe the prices when I finally visited a nearby F&E market in La Habra, Calif. (home to the cheapest gasoline in Southern California for some reason).
The store I ventured into was certainly spotlessly clean, almost like a sanitation station in a hospital or something. Eerie, almost, with few customers and only one or two staff people. Of course, it was 8:30 a.m. Maybe things pick up later in the day.
Tesco can cut down on staff because the checkout is automated, just like those scan-and-pay stations at Home Depot. This also speeds things up since no old lady (sorry) can pull out a checkbook.
I didn’t really need anything for my fridge or cupboard, so I bought some "free-range" eggs (which taste like the non-free type) and some dill pickle slices, which I actually did need. Prices on those two items were fairly normal, but for the fruit, vegetables, juices, and prepared foods (for the microwave, etc.), the fast and pricey description clicked in.
In all fairness, I probably need to revisit some afternoon and see how things are going and check the prices again. Meanwhile, Alpha Beta here I come.
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