Safeway’s Small Footprint Store
Distinguished By High Service,
Upscale Look And Offerings
Safeway recently opened its new “small footprint” store. It is called “The Market by Vons” and is in Long Beach. Although this store is 15,000 square feet, it is a remodel of an existing Vons and thus was constrained by the available footprint. We are told that if Vons were building from scratch, the company […]
Passenger-Plane Cargo Soon To Be Inspected By The Individual Box
A hat tip to Nick Kukulan, President of Paramount Export Company headquartered in Oakland, California. He brought to our attention that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been charged by the US Congress with the implementation of strict new rules regarding the inspection of cargo that is to be loaded on passenger airlines. As Nick […]
Sunkist’s ‘Take A Stand’ Program
Gets Kids Involved In Charity Work
It doesn’t happen often but every once in awhile everything just clicks. So it goes with Sunkist’s “Take a Stand” promotion, now its fifth summer. With this promotion Sunkist gives away free lemonade stands to children ages 7 -12 who pledge to raise money for their favorite charity. It ties together youth, entrepreneurship, service, Americana […]
Decision To Survey Only Fresh & Easy Customers Leads To Circular Reasoning
We’ve studied Fresh & Easy from all aspects. One observation about the current report is that it includes a fair amount of circular reasoning. For example, look at how the report deals with what consumers want: The premise for the Fresh & Easy format is that customers want good quality fresh food at low prices […]
Spread Sheets Run Amok:
Data Provides No Basis For
Future Store-Count Conclusions
There are many different ways to do this type of research. A common one might be to do random-digit telephone dialing to identify a statistically valid cross section of the population. Very often you have to “over interview” in certain segments — say Jewish consumer or, perhaps, Fresh & Easy shoppers — to get enough […]
A Missed Opportunity —
Even Investors Deserve Transparency
We view this report as something of a missed opportunity. We work hard to understand Fresh & Easy and so value every contribution. It cost real money to do this research, and spending just a little more and being a little more transparent with its own clients in explaining the study would have provided a […]
Despite Rhetoric, Execution Data Confirms Pundit Sales Estimates
We are not exactly sure what it means to be the “new cult retailer” or to say that “F&E is already an incredible success story,” but it apparently doesn’t mean that current sales are very good. The report contradicts itself in some places and the rhetoric is over-the-top, so we prefer the more somber dictates […]
While Research Company Tries To Keep Details Under Wraps, Pundit Subjects Report To In-Depth Analysis
When the Financial Times published a brief article on some new consumer research on Fresh & Easy conducted by a company called “Execution Research,” it piqued a lot of interest. How could it not? Using terminology such as “the new cult retailer” and giving out superlatives liberally — such as claiming that Fresh & Easy […]
Making Research Productive:
Three Ways To Do It Better Next Time
To differentiate between hype and reality, and better understand if Tesco could build a business from scratch in the US and take market share from the likes of Wal-Mart, we decided to ask customers what they thought. So, with Tesco’s permission, Execution commissioned an independent market research firm to interview customers as they left Fresh […]
Execution Researchers
Acknowledge Limitations:
“We’re Not US Food Retail Analysts…”
We’ve studied many reports on many retailers including Fresh & Easy. If a report tries to predict future profitability, the speed of store rollouts, etc. as this report does it is essential to assess the prospects for competitive reaction. Yet the report acknowledges a lack of expertise in this area: ‘We’re not US food retail […]
