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| - Fresh and Easy offers more than convenience, it also offers a great selection of food. This is the first grocery store where I have found private-label, regional olive oils (not the generic "Pompeian" or "Bertolli" oils that are pressed in 2 different countries and made with olives from 12 different countries), raw, wild honey and own-brand, private label bread that actually has some heft to it, unlike the spongy, chaff-like yellowish bread like Holsum that you'll find at all other grocery stores. And the ready-made meals are great! This place truly is unique, and the prices are some of the lowest I've seen for quality food!!!
As far as the complaint go about the cling-wrap and the packaging of the fruit and veg, I guess it just might be a difference of custom, IMHO. Fresh and Easy is owned by Tesco PLC, the big British grocery store chain (think of it as a British Wal-Mart, except Tesco is far more socially responsible and actually vends decent food), and at most British grocery stores, much of everything is packaged in the same way. The American grocery store business has adapted us into [sometimes falsely] thinking that lush piles of fruit and veg=good and fresh, whereas in the UK, sales densities are alot higher for a retail or grocery store chain (UK cities are denser, and less suburban), and the stock comes in and is moved out fast, without much time for customers to peruse the store and appreciate the stagecraft of their food. Fresh and Easy's small size and self-check-out machines, and even the sometimes bare shelves and cling-wrapped food (I think) are all kinks held-over from its original British planners, but eventually (again, I think) they'll have these things worked out and adapted to American tastes.
Overall, this place is my favorite place to shop. The selection is amazing and unique, and ranks up to be an affordable Whole Foods or Sprouts, but is in some ways so much more than you're average gourmet, organic food store. You can find a can of illy coffee in one aisle, and in this next are killer organic tortilla chips that set you down only $2.25. Fresh and Easy is the best thing to happen to grocery shopping in AZ for a LONG, LONG time.
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