Friday, November 7, 2008

In praise of Fresh and Easy

This year I have drastically changed my grocery shopping. When I was traveling extensively, a neighborhood Von's and Trader Joe's were my staples. However, I rarely shop at Von's now. Von's is a rip-off. Everything in the store has gone up by dollars not cents. And I don't like the way they remodeled making it impossible to shop with a cart in the produce area. It's annoying and overpriced and there are always lines. No mas. Trader Joe's - still a great store - but I realized that I was drawn to their speciality items like their papaya salsa - nearly 4 dollars that doesn't make a meal and pretty soon you can be down $60 without real food in the house.



Then a new player comes into town - Fresh and Easy. The first go through I was mildly impressed. But I received a $5 coupon off $20 of shopping and I was motivated to go back. I spent more time perusing the isles and now I am a fan. They have a fairly good offering of staples, produce and convenience items. They are situated in shopping centers with plenty of parking in convenient areas. There are no lines. The prices are very fair and in some cases, down right cheap. They have a food sampler were there are at least 3 items you can taste. Fresh and Easy has a "Reduced" area - 50% off for those items that are expiring that day. My thought - stock up and freeze those items - for example a pizza for $2, rice pilaf for $1.50, chicken enchilda meal for $2 etc. Layer on top - the $5 coupon and what a deal - and the food is good! It's tasty. It's healthy. It's easier and cheaper than buying all the ingredients to make your own. Two thumbs up.

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