Back in the early 90's when I first really started researching good foods, it was almost impossible to buy anything from a store to snack on. I literally had one bag of chips I could buy at Trader Joe's, everything else had to be made. I couldn't understand why no one could understand what we are eating is making us sick and fat. Slowly, the companies are catching on and now , it is quite easy to buy prepackaged snacks and foods. Yesterday I went in to one of these new markets, Fresh & Easy that are popping up everywhere. I don't know if this is just and AZ thing or not, but when I really went through the store, I was instantly in love! There is so many good foods to choose from. The instant oatmeal is free from junkie fillers and tastes great. We had the strawberry cream this morning. They have good whole wheat and honey pretzels and tortillas, great chips and organic pastas. The best thing is, the prices are great. They also carry hot dogs and lunch meats that are preservative and nitrate free. They mark things half off all of the time in the produce and meat section. The prices aren't real great on the meats and produce but when the markdowns happen, which is in the afternoon everyday, the prices are smokin'. I bought 10 packages of the hot dogs yesterday, which usually cost me $5 per package at Sprouts for on $1.99. I bought the hormone free chicken for half price too. A 10 lb bag of oranges was about $3.5 dollars and a 10 lb bag of potatoes was $2. They also had a really good deal on tomatoes. I talked to the manager about the store and he told me a bit about it. He said that what Fresh & Easy did was research the big stores to figure out what people buy most. The big chains make most of their profits off of only 10% of their food. Fresh & Easy sells this 10%. They also buy directly from the manufacturer and package very simply to save cost. I was so impressed with the manager and the store, that I actually brought my cart all the way back into the store when I unloaded the bags into my car. I hope these stores stay in business. They even sell fresh whole wheat pizza dough for only $.99. I get so easily excited when it comes to food! Try it out. If you don't live in AZ, sorry. AZ is just getting cool.
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6 comments:
Shari,
I saw one the other night and wondered what it was. I'm glad you shared your find with us. I am going to check it out. Thanks for the great ideas and for encouraging us to eat better.
I don't think you need to worry about Fresh & Easy going out of business. They are the UK food giant Tesco, and their goal is to become the #1 food retailer in the United States in the next 5 years. They are already the third largest food retailer in the world and are looking to beat out Wal-Mart. They currently have stores in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona, but are expanding rapidly. They've said they plan to be as ubiquitous as starbucks.
you inspire me to eat better and cook better for my family. I get a little overwhelmed with what i'm looking for in the stores. It would be so nice to have a place that did it for me. We are big snackers so most of that i've cut down on. I'm not much of a baker or cook so this hasn't been easy. if Arizona is just now getting cool then Arkansas is not even close.
You'd think all the tree huggers up here would love that sort of stuff! Maybe they'll figure it out eventually and get us some cool stores like that!
I have been wondering about that store. It sounds great!
wish we had one here....
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