Influential Magazine Fast Company Ranks Trader Joe's Near the Top as One of 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World

Analysis/Commentary

Influential magazine Fast Company has named Southern California-based grocer Trader Joe's the 11th most innovative company overall and second most innovative in the food category - with PepsiCo first - in the 2011 version of its annual 50 most innovative companies in the world ranking.

Here's what Fast Company says about the Monrovia based Trader Joe's in awarding it at the top of its list as a global innovator:

Trader Joe's
For vaulting past Whole Foods to become America's favorite organic grocer

"Though Trader Joe's masquerades as a neighborhood store, it boasts $8 billion in annual profits. Its stores carry 4,000 different products, compared to typical grocery stores' 50,000. This meticulous stocking helps it sell $1,750 per square foot - twice as much as Whole Foods. Trader Joe's brand-name products offer low prices and 'pizzazz beyond plain old corn flakes,' says analyst Bob Goldin. It's a company that manages to borrow from the best of its competitors, with more than 350 stores compared to Whole Foods' 300."

Trader Joe's vs. Fresh & Easy

To put Trader Joe's amazing sales-per-square-foot and average weekly sales in perspective, the grocer's stores average about 10,000 square-feet in size and have combined average weekly sales of $500,000-plus per-store. In contrast, the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA stores owned by United Kingdom-based Tesco, also average about 10,000 square-feet but currently have average weekly sales of under $100,000 per-store.

Trader Joe's operates about 350 stores and has estimated annual sales of $8 million. There are 169 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores with sales estimated by Fresh & Easy Buzz of about $800 million. In October 2010 Tesco reported mid-fiscal-year 2010/11 year sales of $388 million for Fresh & Easy. [See - October 5, 2010: Philip Clarke's Early Welcome to America: Tesco Logs $151 Million Half-Year Loss For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.] Tesco's 2010/11 fiscal year ended at the end of February 2011. It reports its preliminary financial results in April 2011. Our about $800 million in sales estimate for the year is based on the mid-year numbers and our research.

Trader Joe's, which is privately-held and owned by a trust in Germany set up by the late Theo Albrecht (he died in July 2010) for his children, has been around for 30 years. Tesco's Fresh & Easy is only a little over three years old. Therefore we aren't suggesting Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, which does have average store sales that are considerably below the U.S. grocery retailing industry standard, should be on par with Trader Joe's from a store-count-to-sales perspective.

Rather we use the example for two reasons, which are: To highlight the exceptional performance of Trader Joe's vis-a-vis a very similar format, Fresh & Easy, and to illustrate how far Tesco has to go with Fresh & Easy to even come close to doing 50% of what iconic Trader Joe's does in sales, let alone in profit. (See the October 5, 2010 story linked above for Tesco's mid-year loss with Fresh & Easy.)

Innovation in food and beyond

Trader Joe's is one of just two grocers to make the Fast Company 50 list. The other food and grocery retailer is United Kingdom-based Marks & Spencer, which came in as the 36th most innovative company in the world out of the 50 named by the magazine this year.

In the "food" category, which mixes retailers, food-makers, restuarants and other food-related companies all together, Fast Company named 10 innovators. Three of the ten - number one (in the food category) PepsiCo , Trader Joes and bean-to-bar chocolate-maker Madecasse (number three in the food category) - ranked in the overall 50 most-innovative companies ranking.

The other seven food innovators named are:

>04 / Cargill
For charging into the sweetener market with a plant-based product that's aims to be eco-aware and health-friendly. The agricultural giant has perfected a process to grow and refine sweet leaf extracts from stevia, a type of South American plant, allowing it to quickly command a sizable slice of the faux-sweetener market.

>05 / Foodhub
For creating an online tool to connect local food producers to food buyers big and small. Think of FoodHub as the Match.com for the locavore movement. Wholesale food buyers log on to access thousands of small and regional producers, as well as info on varietals sold, minimum orders, insurance, and delivery options. Launched by environmental not-for-profit Ecotrust, FoodHub has already signed on hundreds of Portland restaurants, grocery stores, and businesses and expanded to neighboring states.

>06 / Current Energy
For greening restaurants (and saving them money in the process). Fast food eateries such as Jack in the Box and Qdoba are turning to this Dallas-based energy firm's smart sensors to majorly slash their energy use (and costs). For instance, sensors can ping restaurant managers with text messages if a walk-in refrigerator is left ajar for too long, or coordinate pizza-oven temperatures based on real-time sales.

>07 / Chipotle
For boldly taking advertising in-house. After burning through four ad agencies in five years, the burrito mecca took on its own advertising, including replacing wacky promotions with on-message marketing. For instance, "Boo-rito" giveaways for Halloween were replaced this year by a campaign to promote how truly scary other fast food is, with sales of discounted meals going to support Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

>08 / McDonald's
For changing the way we think about the most iconic restaurant in the world. With a $2.4 billion budget, McDonald's is launching its first total makeover campaign since the Carter administration, redoing at least 400 domestic outposts, refurbishing 1,600 restaurants abroad, and building another 1,000.

>09 / Bolthouse Farms
For its ambitions to double the $1 billion baby-carrot business by using junk food tactics. Jeff Dunn has tapped his past as a Coca-Cola exec to goose baby carrots from a flat industry to a hotly marketed snack food, from adrenaline-fueled ads (think: Mountain Dew) to snazzy grab-and-go bags (think: Doritos).

>10 / Max Burger
For being the first carbon-footprint fast-food chain. Calories printed on fast-food menus seems downright quaint compared with Max Burger, which is one of the first burger chains in the world to print the carbon emissions of each sandwich right alongside its cost.

The five top overall most innovative companies out of the 50 all except for one, auto-maker Nissan, come from the high-tech, Internet and social media spaces. The top five most-innovative companies in the world, according to Fast Company are:

(1) Apple, (2) Twitter, (3) Facebook, (4) Nissan and (5) Groupon. Google came in at number six.

You can view the entire list and details of Fast Company's 50 most innovative companies in the world here.

Innovative grocers

In our analysis, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market and Wegmans are currently the three most innovative food and grocery chains in the U.S. Close behind in our analysis is Texas-based H-E-B and the fast-growing natural foods chain Earth Fare, which is based in North Carolina. There are a number of other food retailers neck-to-neck in terms of innovation though. But key is looking at overall innovation, across everything a grocer does. That's our criteria.

If you expand that universe to the entire world, it makes picking a top three much more difficult. For example, United Kingdom-based Marks & Spencer, which Fast Company included as the 36th most innovative company for 2011, is one of the world's most innovative, as is fellow British grocery chain Waitrose, to name just two.

The global small-format, hard-discount chain Aldi, which is headquartered in Germany, has to be on any short list when it comes the world's most-innovative food and grocery retailers as well, in our analysis and opinion.

And Walmart is fast-moving up in terms of innovation because of its green, organic and health initiatives, its multi-format and multi-channel retailing strategy - huge stores, medium-sized stores and small-format stores, along with Walmart.com - along with a number of other initiatives.

In terms of picking one grocery chain, we really can't argue with Fast Company's choice of Trader Joe's, although if the magazine had chosen Whole Foods, which has been named by Fast Company in its ranking in the past, or Wegmans (and perhaps Aldi), we wouldn't put up much of a fight either, as we think all have very high levels of innovation.

But looking at performance - those amazing sales-per-square-foot numbers Trader Joe's turns in, for example - and profitability, if push came to shove and we had to pick one out of our top three, at this point in time we too would choose Trader Joe's. The grocer is not only innovating strongly but it's firing on all cylinders in everything it does (that overall crieteria we noted earlier), from operations and customer service to private brand development, merchandising and marketing.

Related Stories

March 15, 2011: There's Nothing Pie-in-the-Sky About Trader Joe's 'Elegantly Simple' Pie Recipe Contest

January 5, 2008: Learning From Trader Joe's: Setting the Bar High For Fresh & Easy

February 14, 2009: Bloggers-At-Large - Weekend Frolic: Video Blogger Spoofs Trader Joe's in YouTube Video Commercial Spot

January 15, 2009: Small-Format Food Retailing USA -Trader v. Trader: Gristedes Complies With Judge's Order; Covers Up 'Trader' Portion of its 'Trader John's' Store Sign and Small-Format Food Retailing USA: The Big Apple Won't Be A Two-Trader City: Judge Says No to Gristedes' 'Trader John's' 'Trader Joe's' Knockoff

November 14, 2008: Store Brands: Trader Joe's Long Private Label Products Journey - How Do Fresh & Easy's Store Brands Stack Up to Those Created & Sold By Trader Joe's?

November 10, 2008: Competitive Retailer Wine Category Report: First Person Singular - 'How I Sold 37 Bottles of Wine in 45 Minutes at Trader Joe's'

October 27, 2008: Southern California Market Report: Beverages & More to Join Trader Joe's and Fresh & Easy to Form Manhattan Beach Food and Beverage Retailing Triangle

June 6, 2008: Manhattan Beach First Look: Fresh & Easy Buzz Has First Photos of First New Fresh & Easy Grocery Store Set to Open After the Three Month Pause

July 22, 2008: Obituary: Innovative Trader Joe's Head Wine Buyer and Popularizer of Value Wines Robert Berning; 73

March 4, 2008: In Vino Veritas: Fresh & Easy Store Brand Wines Win Two Silvers and Lots of Bronze Medals; Trader Joe's 'Two-Buck Chuck' Chardonnay Wins a Double-Gold

July 9, 2008: In Vino Veritas: Fresh & Easy Announces 63 Wine Awards to Date; Will Face Off Again Against Wine Award Winning 'Big Kahuna' Trader Joe's at State Fair

September 22, 2008: Fresh & Easy Buzz Strategy Session: Trader Joe's and the Key to Enlightenment?

November 6, 2008: Serendipitous Marketing & Cooking With the Trader: Trader Joe's Hits A Marketing Home Run Without Doing A Thing

June 11, 2008: Vox Populi: Let The People Speak: Fresh & Easy Vs. Trader Joe's On QVC: The TV Shopping Channel's Online Food Forum...Not Actually On TV

March 11, 2008: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Surpasses Competing Phoenix, Arizona Area Small-Format Grocers in Total Store Count...But Not in Sales and Market Share

Frugal Gourmets: Fresh & Easy's 50% Off Discounts Make it Into LA Times Piece on Eating Well Without Spending Like Crazy in These Tough Times

Frugal shopping and cooking in frugal times: Christine Jory has written the 99-Cents Only Stores Cookbook. She wrote it with the cooperation of the retailer but the book isn't a product of the 99-Cent Store Only chain.

Marketing consultant Shauna Dawson has learned well about Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's 50% discount or mark-down policy on fresh foods that are near their package out-of-code date it appears, based on a feature story by staff writer Jerry Hirsch in today's Los Angeles Times' Business Section.

Below is the opening paragraph of the helpful piece about how consumers can eat well--and even gourmet--without taking out loans in this current inflationary, and in California and numerous other states, darn right recessionary, U.S. economy:

Gourmet eating for less
Despite raging inflation, it's possible to eat well without spending like crazy, chefs and other food gurus say. You just need a strategy. ¶ Here are some of their secrets.

By Jerry Hirsch, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer June 20, 2008

Marketing consultant Shauna Dawson likes good food and good deals, and that has turned her into a bold shopper. ¶ The 34-year-old Carthay Circle resident will troll a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, checking to see if the "sell by" date on a product is that very day. It's almost like food bingo. When Dawson finds something she wants, she asks a clerk for 50% off. ¶ "I bought a package of fresh cream puffs this way -- just the other day," she said. ¶ It can be tough these days to be a gourmet. With food prices rising at the fastest pace in 18 years, Dawson and other shoppers must look harder and shop smarter to get the special items they want. But they say they have figured out ways they can still afford some of those premium goodies such as a double-cream brie, perhaps a juicy rib-eye steak or even a small bottle of truffle oil. ¶ Despite raging inflation, it's possible to eat well without spending like crazy, Dawson and other food gurus say. You just need a strategy. ¶ Here are some of the secrets to eating well for less.

Read the entire Los Angeles Times feature article, "Gourmet eating for less," here.

Five Quick frugal gourmet and everyday shopping and eating for less tips from Fresh & Easy Buzz:

>Shop the 99-cent and dollar stores. They currently have lots of specialty, gourmet and natural foods items because many suppliers are having cash-flow and high inventory problems and thus are selling more shelf-stable specialty and gourmet grocery products to these format
stores than ever before.

You can buy gourmet oils, vinigars, condiments and other items for example for 50% -to- 75 less in the 99-cent stores than the items regularly sell for in supermarkets. You have to take what the 99-cent stores have though. They work on an in-and-out basis. What's there today might not be next week. But it can be fun shopping as well. They sometimes even have huge discounts on wines.

>Always shop the supermarket weekly advertising circulars. Supermarkets are running hotter and better promotions in their weekly advertising circulars currently than any time in the past 15 years. Value is in, and the retailers are hammering their suppliers for better deals and promotions to pass on to consumers in order to remain competitive and maintain sales and market share.

>Don't pass up store brands. Today's store brand items are in the main close to or as good as nearly all nationally branded products in terms of quality. There are exceptions of course. Fresh & Easy Buzz has never found a store brand liquid bleach as good as Clorox, for example--but we often purchase the store brand anyway.

The same is true with Mayonaise. It's hardto beat the taste of Best Foods brand, if you like or use mayo. But with store brands as much as 25% -to- 30% cheaper than Best Foods', we often buy them as well. Here's all you need to do, depending on the use of the mayo of course. Add a little crushed garlic and a squeeze of fresh lemon to the store brand mayo, especially if using it as a dressing and such. Not only does it give even Best Foods mayonaise a better, gourmet taste, it makes most store brands and Best Foods brand iindistinguisable in terms of taste.

>Use coupons, but only for those items you regularly buy. The majority of "cents-off" coupons distributed in newspaper free-standing-inserts or mailed to your home weekly are for items you likely wouldn't buy anyway. That's why many manufacturer's use the coupons; to generate consumer trial. However, many manufacturers--Proctor & Gamble which makes Tide, Crest Toothpaste, Downey Fabric Softner and numerous other top brands is a good example--of items you do buy regularly also issue coupons. Use the coupons you get for the items you regularly buy, but avoid using the coupons for the impulse items you don't regularly buy, and you will save lots of money.

>Coupons 2.0: Leverage store promotions with coupons. A great strategy with coupons is to combine them with items promoted in a retailer's weekly advertising circular. In other words, you get a double discount; the discount the retailer is giving on the promoted item, and the added discount from using the coupon.

For example, last week Safeway Stores had a mega-pack of Scott brand paper towels on sale for 30% less than its everyday price. The weekly newspaper FSI also had a $1.00-off coupon for that size package of paper towels. By combining the $1.00 coupon with the 30% discount, the total savings would be 40%. That's what we call shoppers' leverage. Also, if you are in an area where retailers use "double coupons," take advantage of it. But again only for those items you regularly purchase.

Vox Populi: Use the comments box below to share your frugal--gourmet or non-gourmet or both--shopping and cooking tips with your fellow Fresh & Easy Buzz readers. Fresh & Easy Buzz has many readers who are food and grocery industry experts, as well as having many smart and savvy readers from all walks of life. Share the wealth--and your knowledge.

Vox Populi: Let The People Speak: Fresh & Easy Vs. Trader Joe's On QVC: The TV Shopping Channel's Online Food Forum...Not Actually On TV

Fresh & Easy Buzz's Las Vegas, Nevada correspondent Vegas Mike tips the blog off to a discussion and debate currently going on at the online food forum on QVC.com, the website of the popular television channel which features and sells all things food--plus just about everything else; from comedian Joan Rivers' faux jewelry to actress and author Suzanne Somers' "Thigh Master" thigh and buttocks-shaper.

The topic for the discussion is: Fresh & Easy vs. Trader Joe's...but like is always the case with online forums, most of the participants don't actually stick to the topic entirely, which is fine with us as long as they keep to it generally.

The discussion features a wide-variety of opinions about Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market small-format grocery stores, comments about Trader Joe's, and even Whole Foods Market, among other related offerings.

Here at Fresh & Easy Buzz we think online discussions such as this one not only are interesting...but are a good source of consumer research when aggregated and categorized as well.

After all, Vox Populi.

View the ongoing discussion on QVC, the website food forum not the TV channel, here.

Thanks Vegas Mike.

Tesco is Incorporating New Interior Design Elements and Enhancements Inside its 61 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Grocery Stores

The Fresh & Easy store pictured above in Laguna Hills, California is one of the first of the 61 stores currently open to receive the retailer's new interior design enhancements. For example, The mural-graphic above the front doors in the photograph is brand new. (Photo: Courtesy Fast Food Maven Blog, Orange County Register.)

Tesco has started making some interior design additions and upgrades to its Fresh & Easy small-format, convenience-oriented grocery stores.

The retailer currently operates 61 of the combination basic grocery and fresh foods markets in Southern California, the Phoenix Metropolitan-East Valley region in Arizona, and in the Las Vegas Metropolitan area in Nevada.

The interior design enhancements and upgrades include adding brighter colors inside the grocery markets, more directional, informational and product signage, some new graphics, and creating a brighter, warmer and less sterile in-store experience overall for shoppers.

Fresh & Easy Buzz welcomes these in-store design changes, additions and enhancements, since we've been one of the first and most-regularly vocal constructive critics of what we've called a lack of a "sense of place" inside the Fresh & Easy grocery stores.

[This pertains to the majority of the stores which are located in former retail buildings Tesco has remodeled into its Fresh & Easy format and stores. We've visited two stores, one in Las Vegas the other in Indio, California, which are brand new, built from the ground up Fresh & Easy markets, and have a generally favorable opinion of the interior design and look of those stores, which are built to the Fresh & Easy new store prototype.)

Many other analysts have joined Fresh & Easy Buzz's "lack of a sense of place" position over the last few months regarding the look and feel of the Fresh & Easy stores. We based our assessment of the store interiors not only on our own experience and analysis, but on conversations we've had with about 250 Fresh & Easy customers over the last five months or so, as well as on reading hundreds of online comments from consumers about the stores, lots of emails and comments on the blog.

In addition to our own analysis that the stores are too cold and sterile and lack a "sense of place," this opinion has been predominant in our conversations with customers, as well as from the other information sources mentioned above.

It appears Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market also agrees with our and others (especially customers) assessment, as the retailer sent a memo to all its store-level employees in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada, informing them of the new store interior design additions and enhancements, saying in the memo the retailer was responding to customer feedback that the stores are cold and sterile, and therefore is introducing the interior design enhancements.

Thus far, Tesco has introduced the interior design enhancements at two Fresh & Easy stores in Southern California: the Laguna Hills store in Orange County and the Eagle Rock store in Los Angeles; along with making the additions in a couple stores in Arizona.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market says all of its stores will have the interior design enhancements by July 2. July 2 also is the date the next new Fresh & Easy grocery store opens, in Manhattan Beach, California.

Tesco is taking a new store opening pause from April until July 2, as we've written about several times.

One Wednesday, we talked to an employee of the Laguna Hills store, who told us customers have been responding rather positively to the interior design enhancements. In particular the employee said numerous customers have mentioned the store feels much less sterile and is far brighter than it was before the new brighter color and other design additions were made.

Additionally, Mike Ragone, a Fresh & Easy Buzz reader who lives not far form the Laguna Hills store and has been in it before the design enhancements were made, told us he visited the Laguna Hills store this week, and noticed the changes.

Ragone says the improvement is considerable in terms of brightening the store up, but added he thinks other interior changes should be made in order to give the store (and all the Fresh & Easy stores in the converted buildings) a warmer, more appealing look and feel.

A consumer, Troy, commented in the Fast Food Maven Blog written by Orange County Register business reporter Nancy Luna, he particularly likes the "Thank You For Shopping With Us" mural in the picture at the top of this piece that's been added on the wall above the entrance doors in the Laguna Hills store. Troy's comment:

Troy Says: May 12th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
I like the new “thank you for shopping with us” mural they just added to the Laguna store, pictured above. That’s exactly the type of decor and personality infusion these sterile stores need. See Tesco, it’s not that hard to have a personality! Keep it up and I may give the Orange store another try after you fix it.

Fresh & Easy Buzz is looking forward to seeing the new interior design enhancements in the stores in the coming week or so.

Since we've been one of the major proponents suggesting Tesco needs to make the stores warmer and brighter in a quest to create a "sense of place" in them, we think the changes--whether they are enough or not at this point in time--are a good, positive and welcome move by Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.

As our regular readers know,--and non-regular readers will learn by reading further--Fresh & Easy Buzz also suggests Tesco needs to customize and localize the store interiors a bit on top of its basic Fresh & Easy blueprint and footprint.

For example, we suggest adding Southwestern or similar flairs in the Arizona stores, along with minor things unique to particular neighborhoods in the region, as well as doing the same with the Southern California and Las Vegas Metropolitan area stores, regarding local attributes in those store's areas.

In many cases, this can be as simple as using signage, artwork and murals reflecting local history, culture and demographics.

The customization and localization process also can be tied-in to bringing in locally-produced foods, and then using in-store graphics and signage to play up the local products. This serves two purposes: it promotes local foods, and it better localizes the stores to their respective neighborhoods. In other words, it helps to put the "Neighborhood" in Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.

Fresh & Easy Buzz recently talked with a source who was present when Tesco's Fresh & Easy was interviewing potential new public relations firms a couple months ago. As we reported here, the retailer has chosen a new PR firm. The source told us during the "pitch meeting" Fresh & Easy executives mentioned recognizing a need to better customize and localize the stores, including using the phrase "to better reflect the history and culture of the neighborhoods."

The Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market executives said in the meeting however, that it wasn't something they were going to be able to do anytime soon, because of the rapid new store opening pace on the agenda, along with some other "more pressing" things.

Based on this information, it does appear a couple key Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market execs clearly get the need to and the importance of customizing and localizing the store's interior design elements as a way to create a better "sense of the place" in the stores, which most likely will result in our analysis in creating more repeat and primary customers, bigger store average ring or market basic averages, and generating lots of new customer trail for the stores. Of course, often timing is everything in food retailing.

Perhaps they current decision to add the interior enhancement package is in part a stop gap to eventually being able to also add regional and local customized design elements to the stores on top of the basic Fresh & Easy store format blueprint?

As we've often written here on Fresh & Easy Buzz, one of Tesco's key strengths as a retailer is its proven ability to course-correct. We give Fresh & Easy credit for doing so in the current design enhancement package the retailer is adding to the stores--even if when we see the enhancements we personally don't like them--which would not in any way detract from our giving the retailer credit for making them, and making the course correction.

We don't shy away from our analysis that Fresh & Easy has numerous problems. But like we always caution, those who've already ruled Tesco out of the success equation with its small-format, convenience-oriented Fresh & Easy grocery stores do so at their own peril.

After all, most of the 61 stores haven't even been open for more than four months, and Tesco is course-correcting by making the interior design package enhancements to the stores. Perhaps they should have done it sooner, and perhaps it won't make a difference--but then again perhaps it will. A bit of time is needed to make a proper assessment either way.

But, what's important is the retailer listened to those (especially customers who are the most important) and made a course-correction in terms of realizing the stores were too sterile and cold, and is attempting to do something to improve that fact by adding the interior design enhancements.

That's what good, world-class retailers do. [By the way, we also like the mural/graphic depicted in the photograph at the top of this piece, which is above the front doors in the Laguna Hills' Fresh & Easy store.]

Vox Populi: Let The People Speak

Feel free to use the "comments" link below to offer your analysis and opinions on the design of the Fresh & Easy grocery stores, along with offering any ideas and suggestions about interior design enhancements Tesco could or should make to the stores in order to improve them. If you like the stores just as they are, feel free to express that opinion as well, and to elaborate as much as you like.

Things Are Improving Over at the Fresh & Easy Corporate Blog: Perhaps They've Been Listening to Us?

On January 21, we wrote this piece, "Click, Click!: Who's Minding the Fresh & Easy Corporate Blog?" In the piece, we noted how infrequently Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market corporate marketing director Simon Uwins and his marketing staff post in the corporate blog they created as a marketing and communications tool for the small-format grocery stores prior to the first stores' opening in November, 2007.

We likened proper maintenance (frequent posting of quality information) of a corporate blog to proper maintenance of a retail store, in that websites and corporate blogs are an electronic extension (or electronic storefront) in many ways of a retailer's brick-and-mortar stores. And, just like poorly maintained stores, infrequently updated corporate blogs can actually be a negative for a retailer rather than a positive.

Then, a couple weeks after our January 21 piece, we started to notice more frequent Fresh & Easy corporate blog posts in February. The electronic storefront seemed to be starting to be better maintained.

As a result, we wrote this piece, "It Looks Like Somebody is Minding the Fresh & Easy Corporate Blog a Bit Better of Late," on February 14, in which we noted the fact we were seeing more frequent (and better) posts on the Fresh & Easy corporate blog by Mr. Uwins and/or his marketing staffers. In this piece and in our original January 21 piece, we suggested at least one post, once a week, should be the minimum for the F&E corporate blog.

Between late February and early March we were a bit saddened to see that once again the blog posting frequency started to revert to the old ways--weeks passing without a post and poor quality posts. In fact, we even considered another "Click, Click" piece on the topic.

However, things started to improve on March 18. Between March 18 and March 28, the Fresh & Easy corporate blog has had four posts: one on March 18, another on March 21, a third post on March 28, and the most recent on March 28. That even beats our suggested minimum of at least one post per-week. It seems Spring is coming in like a lion over at the Fresh & Easy corporate blog. Congratulations.

We've also noticed a new aspect to Mr. Uwins' and staff's blog posts. They're now quoting what bloggers are saying in some cases about their experiences (only the good ones of course) at and with Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market grocery stores.

Since this is something we started doing in December, 2007 (and continue to do today), the very first month we began publishing Fresh & Easy Buzz, we obviously like it. [Just don't use our megaphone graphic please.] Most specifically, we created a feature called "Vox Populi: The People and Bloggers Speak on Fresh & Easy" many months ago, which we use to bring our readers consumer and blogger opinions on the small-format, convenience-oriented Fresh & Easy grocery stores.

If Mr. Uwins and company got the idea from Fresh & Easy Buzz, we're fine with it. [it's good to know the blog is being read.] If they didn't, it's still a good addition. After all, it isn't an uncommon practice in the blogesphere. Of course, in our "Vox Populi" we will continue to bring a balance of the positive and less-positive consumer (and blogger) opinions and posts about Fresh & Easy stores and operations.

So, we tip our organic cotton, Fair Trade hats to Mr. Uwins and company for a good mid-to-late March in terms of better maintenance of the Fresh & Easy corporate blog. As we argued in our January and February "Click, Click" pieces, a corporate blog--like a retail grocery store--is part of the whole of a retailer's operations, customer service and marketing strategies and practices. Further, just like with a store, if a company lets the electronic communications storefront of its business lie fallow, it will hurt that retailer's customer service reputation.

We've noticed more--and more positive--comments on the Fresh & Easy corporate blog since the posts have been more frequent. That's no accident. More frequent and better quality communications leads to a better perception of customer service, both at the brick and mortar store level and with a marketing and communication tool like a corporate blog.

We suggest Mr. Uwins and company not let March come in like a lion, but then allow April (in corporate blog terms) go out like a lamb (infrequent posts). After all, it's a customer service issue. And the improvements are already being noted.

Vox Populi!: The People Speak Out on Tesco's Fresh & Easy Grocery Stores on the 'Fast Foods Maven's' Blog: We Analyze the Data and Offer Results

Nancy Luna, a business reporter for the Orange County Register in Orange County, California, who also writes a food-oriented blog in the paper called the Fast Food Maven, wrote a blog post yesterday about Fresh & Easy's announcement that the grocer will now accept American Express Cards (they didn't before for some reason) in addition to the other credit cards it takes in its 59 stores in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. [Note to Raphael: The other credit cards the retailer takes are Visa, MasterCard and Discover Card, according to the manager at the Anaheim, California Fresh & Easy store.]

At the end of her blog post yesterday, Luna asked the newspaper's readers a question: 'What would you like Tesco (Fresh & Easy) to do next to win your shopping dollars' She also opened the comments box to their opinions of the stores by virtue of the question.

As of this evening, there are ten total responses (and comments) to Ms Luna's reader question. Bu, as you will see below, we're only using seven of them because one is a response from blogger Luna, another respondent posted twice, and a third comment is just informational.

Below are the (screen) names of the reader's who have responded thus far. Next to the names we score their comments and opinions as either positive, negative or neutral, regarding Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores where they have shopped. Remember, only 7 opinions are valid, which is why we are using that number. Here we go:

The People's Opinions::

1. A V Rabinowitz: Positive, Very pleased about F&E now taking Am-Ex. No other store comments though.
2. Go Ducks: Neutral, leaning towards negative. Says F& E needs to do a better job on nutrition items on the prepared foods items. Wants more low-fat and healthy items. Says F&E can "do a better job."
3. Troy: Negative; No love for F&E from Troy
4. Nancy Luna: Not Scored; She's the blog writer commenting on a comment.
5. Mike: Positive; especially on the prices.
6. Kimberly: Positive; likes the samples, wide aisles, store employees, the free $5 coupons for purchases of $20.00 or more (there goes the gross margin).
7. Dennis Roberts: Positive; Also likes the $5 coupons (guess so, that's 25% off a $20 order), likes the store brand products, wonders why the store doesn't have more business.
8. Raphael: Not Scored; just wants to know if Fresh & Easy takes credit cards other than Am-Ex. Since nobody answered him on the blog: Yes they do Raphael. See our first paragraph above.
9. Troy (second post): Negative Says he works at Disneyland. Was not pleased with the sample hostess last time he was in F&E. (We are only counting Troy once, by the way.)
10. Dawn: Negative: Doesn't sound like she will be going back to Fresh & Easy.

The Raw Numbers (as of March 19):

Total Comments: 10 in total but 7 usable comments:

We are only counting Troy once. His opinion is the same in both posts. We aren't counting Nancy Luna as she is the blog writer. We are not counting Raphael as he was just asking about credit cards and has no opinion. Thus there are 7 actual comments.

Consumer Opinion Ratings of Fresh & Easy:

1. Positive Comments: 3
2. Negative Comments: 3
3. Neutral comments: 1
4. Not Scored: 2
5. Duplicate Comment: 1 (Troy)

Based on our scoring system, it's a dead heat thus far between the Positive and Negative opinions of the Fast Food Maven blog's readers. There is one neutral comment. We scored it neutral leaning towards negative. However, it goes in the neutral column as it fits that category more than it does negative in our analysis.

Based on the universe of seven opinions (a small but real universe none the less) Tesco's Fresh & Easy gets about a 45% approval rating and a 45% disapproval rating. Further, since Go Ducks is leaning towards negative (we made a fair judgement call) that brings down the 45% F&E approval rating a bit (also in all fairness). But we will call that qualitative. The 45-45 still stands.

Since blog posts have a long life, these stats could change either way. Like professional polls, online opinions are merely a snapshot of a particular point in time. Remember, however, these seven people are consumers. They also have family, friends co-workers and the like, who they will tell what they think of Fresh & Easy based on their opinions stated here. Also remember: word of mouth marketing is perhaps the most powerful--in both positive and negative ways. [Read the blog post and the comments of "the people" here.]

In terms of the positives, we can't help but commenting that two of the three sited the free $5 off coupons on grocery orders of $20 or more as a key reason for "liking" Fresh & Easy. Our understanding is that these coupons (Tesco calls them vouchers in the UK) are given to shoppers in the stores and sometimes placed in the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market mass-mailed advertising circular.

We think the latter is probably a good idea. The former has some merit in terms of serving as a reinforcement or loyalty-type marketing strategy--but its utility is minimal in our experience and opinion. The ad circular-placed $5 off coupons can at least serve to generate new customer trail, which Fresh & Easy needs to do.

Five dollars off a $20 grocery purchase is a good deal for shoppers. If their order is only $20, that's over 25% off the grocery order. Of course, Tesco hopes the order will be $50, so that its only a 10% discount. Even if the average order is say $30 though, that's still a 15% discount.

A $5 coupon on a minimum $20 order isn't something the grocer--any grocer--can sustain for too long though, unless it's a non-profit. Even if Tesco is obtaining a 40% overall gross-margin (which we doubt) in its Fresh & Easy stores, the use of lots of the $5-off on minimum $20 order coupons are a major gross margin suppressor. However, right now the coupons can be chalked up to a marketing expense (and maybe budget line item); a way to drive shoppers to the stores and to keep those who have shopped the stores coming back...for a while.

Of course, the proof will be in the pudding--which is the case for all price promotions with all retailers--when Tesco stops distributing the coupons. In other words, what percentage of customers are just shopping the stores for the significant coupon discount? That's the 64 thousand dollar question. And, it's too early to know that yet.

End-of-The-Week Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market News Roundup

New Store Development(s)

Delta Fresh (& Easy): A developer in the city of Bethel Island in Northern California is in discussions with Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to locate one of its small-format grocery stores in Laurel Plaza, a shopping center being developed by local developer O' Hara Properties on the northwest corner of Laura Road and O'Hara Avenue in this small California Delta city of less then 10,000 residents in the Bay Area county of Contra Costa, according to Rebeca Willis, Bethel Island's community development director. The City Council approved the development yesterday.

The city is located in Northern California's Delta region. It's about 60 miles from both San Francisco in the Bay Area and Sacramento in the Central Valley. It's also about 30 miles from Stockton, where we've reported Tesco plans on locating its Northern California region distribution center, which would service its grocery markets in Northern and Central California.

The developer already has a Rite Aid drug store lined up to go in the shopping center. A bank and a coffee shop/cafe also are negotiating for space in Laura Plaza. The original plans for the center include two fast-food restaurants. However, the developer is negotiating with Tesco's Fresh & Easy as it would like to have a grocery store to anchor the new commercial development rather than the two fast food shops.

The project's architect, Tom Wilson of Arch Architects, seems to think its likely Fresh & Easy will sign a lease for a store in the center. His plans for the center show an attractive setting with contemporary buildings which blend in with the city's design, landscaping that screens the shopping center from the street, plaza's with tables and chairs, numerous pedestrian walkways, and about 160 trees located throughout the commercial retail development.

As we've reported, Fresh & Easy has thus far signed leases for 18 stores in the San Francisco Bay area and for 19 units in the Sacramento Metropolitan region in Northern California. The first stores are slated to start opening as early as the end of this year, but more likely in early 2009. We've said more leases--and store locations-- are on the way beyond those initial 37 for Northern California. It looks like the new Laural Plaza center in Bethel Island could be one of those new locations.

(Retail) anchor away in Bakersfield: As we reported earlier this week, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is planning to open at least six stores in the Bakersfield, California Metropolitan area: three units in the city of Bakersfield and one store each in the nearby city's of Wasco and Delano.

One of the three Fresh & Easy grocery stores slated for Bakersfield will be the retail anchor of a new 11-acre shopping center called Mustang Square. In addition to the 10,000 square foot Fresh & Easy store, the center will include a Walgreen's Drug, a car wash and two drive-through restaurants. The new development is near the city's Stockdale High School.

Neighborhood residents were all for the Fresh & Easy grocery store and the Walgreen's, but a number of nearby residents recently came out against locating the car wash and the two drive-through fast food restaurants in the new center because they said the businesses would cause too much noise for the nearby residential neighborhood.

There was worry for a time that the entire project would fail to gain approval. However, the developer of the proposed shopping center said he would revise the center's design and make other changes in order to minimize noise from the car wash and fast food restaurants. That was enough for the Bakersfield City Council. Last night the legislative body approved the plans for the center on a 6 -to- 1 vote, with only one member dissenting. The center--and thus the new Fresh & Easy grocery market-- is scheduled to open sometime in 2009.

Spirits are down--beer and wine only: The state of California has refused to approve a liquor license application for a Fresh & Easy grocery store in Van Nuys (Southern) California after a coalition of community and neighborhood groups based in Los Angeles petitioned and lobbied the state booze board, arguing there are already too many stores selling spirits in the area. The state liquor license review board agreed and denied Tesco's application.

The store can still sell beer and wine, since virtually any retailer in the state can sell the beverages in the adult drinks categories as long as they meet minimal qualifications and pay for and legally obtain a permit. However, it's not known if Tesco will go forward with the Van Nuys Fresh & Easy store absent being able to sell spirits at the proposed location. A Tesco spokesman said one option would be to not locate a store in the city at all. The other would be to go forward and sell just beer and wine at the proposed Van Nuys unit.

Van Nuys is a district in the city of Los Angeles and part of Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles-based coalition tells us it plans to protest other Fresh & Easy proposed store liquor license applications in Los Angeles County, and perhaps in other Southern California counties as well.

Vox Populi: Bloggers Speak Out on Fresh & Easy

Jennifer's new love: JENMARIE702 (aka: Jennifer) is a working mom who writes a blog called...you guessed it, JENMARIE702. Blogger Jennifer lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, is 28 years old, and her astrological sign is Aries. what more do you really need to know?

Well, one more thing... JENMARIE702 says she has a new love. No, it's not a new significant other. Rather, she says in a blog post from yesterday that her new love is one of the Las Vegas Metro region Fresh & Easy grocery stores where she has been shopping of late. Read what Jennifer thinks--and feels--about this new love in her life here.

An underwhelmed brand manager: One the other hand, Dave Knox, who is a marketing guy and a brand manager for consumer products giant Proctor & Gamble (P&G), was recently visiting Las Vegas and spent some time in a Fresh & Easy grocery store there. Knox, who writes his own marketing blog called "It's a Hard Knox Life," when he isn't analyzing, positioning and messaging over at P&G, says he was very underwhelmed by the Fresh & Easy concept and store. Read P&G brand manager Knox's analysis--"Fresh & Easy Leaves Me Underwhelmed"--of the Fresh & Easy grocery market he visited in Las Vegas here.

When Tara Met Fresh & Easy: Tara Renee Settembre is a twenty-something woman who works in high-tech PR in Los Angeles. Tara also writes a personal blog called When Tara Met Blog. Tara's blog is hip, yet real. She's a New York native who picked-up and moved to the left coast--and often writes about the differences between the two regions in her blog.

Tara also writes about an eclectic range of subjects: her personal adventures, the celebrities she runs into in Hollywood, relationships, fashion, film reviews and even cupcakes. Tara Met cupcake...and loved it, by the way.

A few other facts about Tara: If she were a crayon, she says she would be a red one. Her favorite drink is green tea...and red wine. Baseball is her favorite sport. The New York Yankees are her favorite team, despite the fact she now lives in the heart of LA Dodgers' country. Also...Tara prefers the taste of chocolate but the smell of vanilla. And, despite the carbs, pasta is her favorite food. [More Tara facts here.]

Tara recently sent us a link to her blog post about her first visit to the recently-opened Fresh & Easy grocery store in Hollywood, California. The store is located on Hollywood Blvd., right along the famous "Walk of Stars." Read what Tara has to say about her first Fresh & Easy shopping trip here. Or, as we like to call it, "When Tara Met Fresh & Easy." [You can read our January and February coverage of the Fresh & Easy Hollywood grand opening here.]

Fresh & Easy-Ecetra

The 'World Retail Awards': Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has been nominated in the category of Innovative Retail Format of the Year for this year's annual World Retail Awards competition, which will be held on April 10th in Barcelona, Spain. Fresh & Easy is the only nominee in this category from the United States.

Tesco Tidbits

Breaking into Tesco: United Kingdom-based Tesco plc., the parent company of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in the U.S., now has its very own reality show on the telly in the UK. The new show is called "Breaking Into Tesco." The reality show's concept: It's about a bunch of home cooks and potential entrepreneurs competing against each other to get their dishes onto the shelves as products in Tesco supermarkets in the UK. Since Tesco is the largest food retailer in the UK--that's a big deal. Read more about the reality show here.

Tesco v. Sainsbury's in the UK : One man's view: A blog called Economics Help has a short and interesting piece comparing Tesco, the UK's largest retailer with about a 34% share of the grocery sales market, and Sainsbury's, the number two grocery retailer in the nation. The blog is written by an economics teacher, Tejvan Richard Pettinger, who lives and works in Oxford, England. Read Mr. Pettinger's comparison between the two United Kingdom grocery chains--and their stores--here

UK 'green' grocers: Joanna Blythman, a writer for Scotland's Sunday Herald newspaper, has an essay in the paper about the movement to banish, or greatly reduced, the use of plastic grocery or carrier bags in the United Kingdom. She talks about the various retail players, including Tesco, and their behavior vis-a-vis the plastic bag issue in her piece called "A misleading shade of green," which you can read here.

One bag per sprout please: Speaking of plastic bags, it seems that a man named Howard Cooper made a small mistake when he placed an online order for Brussels Sprouts through Tesco Direct, the retailer's home delivery service website in the United Kingdom. Mr. Cooper meant to order a whole bunch of the little Green Brussels sprouts but somehow ended up only ordering one solitary sprout. Tesco Direct however filled his order, and packed the single sprout in its very own plastic bag, Read more here.

A taxing situation: There's been lots of talk in British business and political circles since the Guardian newspaper ran a series of articles a couple weeks ago which suggested Tesco has been avoiding paying its fair share of taxes in its home country. Rather, the Guardian says Tesco has been sheltering funds offshore so as to avoid paying its full share to the man. Other UK newspapers have picked up the story as well. Tesco denies the Guardian's (and others) claims in its stories. The UK Parliament says it plans to investigate. Read more here, here and here.

Vox Populi!: The People Speak: California Wiz Kids' Likes Fresh & Easy in Arcadia, California

The California Wiz Kids (CWK) is a family-owned and operated preschool and kindergarten in West Los Angeles, California. The goal of CWK is to send its young students on to their next educational challenges with the knowledge and confidence gained by preparation and practice, tempered with encouragement and kindness.

California Whiz Kids' says everyone, especially parents, are on the hunt for fresh, safe, nutritional foods for their families.

The Chief Whiz Kid says she thinks she has found these types of foods--and more--at the Fresh & Easy grocery store where she's been shopping at in Arcadia, California. And, she has her mother to thank, as that's who she says introduced her to the store.

Read what the Whiz Kid-In-Chief thinks about that store. Her opinions, review and evaluations are here.

Vox Populi: The People Speak: A Rose (By Any Other Name) Gives Props to A Fresh & Easy Store

Rose, a single, professional woman who lives in Phoenix, Arizona and works as a project administrator in the construction industry, looks to us like the kind of customer--and potential Fresh & Easy booster--Tesco should nurture.

Not only is Rose, who also writes a blog called A Rose By Any Other Name, a professional woman in an industry that's dominated by men, she also returned to college as an adult to complete her BA degree, which she finished in 2005. Now she is completing her Masters Degree, in addition to working full-time. [Read more about Rose here.]

We don't know Rose personally. But we can tell by her bio on the blog she is a busy, time-pressed woman. Rose also is a great demographic for a food retailer--well-educated, professional, literate (writes her own blog), a homeowner (she says she bought a new home in 2007) and well-traveled; she's lived all over the U.S. in her lifetime.

Rose also likes the Fresh & Easy store she recently visited for the first time last night in the Phoenix, Arizona area where she lives.

Rose says overall she was impressed with what she saw and that is reminded her of "the old neighborhood markets that I went to as a kid."

We've wrote enough though...read what Rose writes about her shopping trip to the Fresh & Easy store in the Phoenix area last night here.

Vox Populi: The People Speak and Opine About Fresh & Easy Stores

Brandon C. isn't a big Fresh & Easy fan. "I did not find Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to be fresh or easy, he says, writing at the online review site yelp.com. It seems Brandon bought a package of Ciabatta bread rolls one day. The next day, when he was ready to dig into the rolls, he says they were already bad--"gone south," to quote him. He says when he checked the "sell by" date, the package had already reached it's experation date before he bought it.

This isn't the first we've heard of code dating--and freshness--problems at Fresh & Easy, by the way. It's frequent. Frequent enough in fact that the grocer has now started a markdown program in some of its stores in which it offer various percentage discounts depending on how close to the experation date a fresh product is. Fifty-percent reductions aren't uncommon since this markdown experiment started recently in some stores. Not a good sign.

Unlike Brandon though, Debbie T. of Los Angeles loves the Fresh & Easy store she shops at, she says. Some of her reasons why: "Yum, (prepared) Chicken Marsala for only $3.99," she says. "Guava nectare. I made guava margaritas (with it) last weekend. Chocolate chip cookie dough. Good raw, even better baked," she says.

Debbie T. says: "I'm really impressed with the Fresh & Easy, and so is my neighbor. The place is clean, convenient, and the food is really good, and you cannot beat the prices. A wonderful addition to the neighborhood,"she says.

Ben C., also from Los Angeles, thinks Fresh & Easy "is awesome." He also says he thinks the fresh produce and prepared foods are better than those at Trader Joe's.

However, Maximillian M. from Los Angeles is more in the Brandon C. Camp vis-a-vis Fresh & Easy. A few words from Max: "I couldn't help giggle at the name Fresh & Easy. It reminds me of how one would describe a really bad couple who weren't meant for each other." He says Trader Joe's doesn't have much to worry about."

In addition to the points of view of the four consumers discussed above, you can read what nine more Fresh & Easy grocery store customers have to say--their likes, dislikes, suggestions for improvement--here

Vox Populi: The People Speak on a Fresh & Easy Store

Since November, 2007 when the store opened, 33 people (to date) have reviewed the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store on Eagle Rock Blvd. in the city of Los Angeles, California on the review website Yelp.

The 33 reviews range from very positive, to rather negative, and a few in between. They also range from long treatises, to reviews consisting of short and pithy sentences. (The store is located at 4211 Eagle Rock Blvd., Los Angeles, California, 90065.)

Based on our sources and on reader comments, the Eagle Rock store has been on of the busiest and most popular Fresh & Easy grocery markets to date. There currently are 33 Fresh & Easy grocery markets in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada.

Read the Yelp.com store reviews here.