This is something I have noted with Safeway and all the other stores. The base price is inflated, the club card price is the "real" price. The answer is to join all the loyalty clubs and keep adding their little cards to your keyring.

Yes this indeed is a trick that Safeway play I know that some of the stores lead you to believe that you are getting a real bargin ie a EDLP (every day low price)its is a con lol....they will put the suggested retail price as lets say $6.99 but they are going to give you a EDLP of $5.99 they just add the top figure up to make it look like a bargin!!

I've only been in one in my life (at Scottsdale Rd and Shea Blvd), last year. I found it utterly depressing - much worse than a typical (refurbished) Safeway or Fry's. It seemed to be pushing the 'no frills' look (a la Costco, which is my favorite store), but the prices didn't seem to reflect that and the signage was not too helpful (in terms of finding stuff), and I just walked out without making any purchases. I was ever so optimistic, thinking it would be a more reasonably priced alternative to Whole Paycheck, but I was not inspired to ever return. So to me they were missing the mark and I'm not surprised to read this.

Felt the same way very disappointed.

So you walked in, then walked out on initial impressions? Bit superficial, old boy!

It certainly ain't the greatest thing since sliced bread, and we're more Trader Joe's shoppers than anything else. But some of the own brand stuff is rather good at F&E. And it certainly is different from the other sparse grocery offerings in the Phoenix market.

OK, I'll go back and give them one more try ... I'm starting to eat the prepared stuff (salads and main dishes) from Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, so if F&E's prepared stuff is good, I'll give it a try.

Where I live we are spoiled for choice (Shea/101 area) - Sprouts, 3 Safeways, 2 Fry's, Whole Foods up at Raintree, Trader Joe's at FLW, AJ's on Via Linda ... so if I'm not impressed I don't really have any reason to go back. But I'll give them another shot.

No choice on self-checkout really does sound shitty; I'm all fine with self checkout when it's obvious stuff with bar codes, but loose shit like apples, etc ... are they ALL bar-coded? do you have to do produce lookup ...? And as Renee pointed out, it's a bummer when alcohol enters the mix. Having a mix of self- and assisted-checkout seems to be the better approach to me.

I'm really surprised that people complain that it is expensive, where else can you buy a bag of apples, carrots, onions, oranges for 99c each, a whole chicken for $5, big bags of pasta for $1.19 and tinned tomatoes for 79c. A fresh apple pie for $3 and French Brie for under $6? Thats before you start on the English stuff with hobnobs $2.99 and Robinsons squash $3.99 and back bacon and sausages under $5. What are you guys buying that's so expensive?

The biggest problem with Fresh and Easy is that every store has exactly the same stock - they need to tailor the stores to the neighborhoods they are in. They do very well in areas that have a lot of people with European and Asian roots but very poorly in Hispanic areas. And you don't want to do that in California.

I often read Fresh and Easy Buzz and I hope Tesco management do as well - they talk a lot of sense.

Everything scans easily, if you buy a bag of loose apples you just run the bag over the scanner and it asks for the quantity you are buying. It's not really an issue if you are buying alcohol as the light immediately goes on but you continue scanning stuff, a member of staff wanders over and approves the sale on the screen while you are still scanning

Well I can get all of the mentioned at the same price give or take a few cents in Winco or when on offer on Raleys....the bacon I buy Canadian smoked from Grocery Outlet its really yummie and $2.99 for a big pack.......all the english stuff I don't really buy unless I see it on offer in Safeway or World Market!....fruit and veg I buy at farmers markets as much as I can!...GOD help me if I saw Hodnobs everytime I went shopping

Thats the difference though 'when of offer' as opposed to 'normal price' and shopping at various stores to get the cheapest price for each individual product is great if you have the time. Personally I struggle to fit one store in each week

Yes I guess I am spoilt being in the industry lol I get to know ahead of time whats going to be on Ad and I do have the time to sniff out the bargins

Fry's (AZ's Kroger), Albertson's, Safeway, are much of a muchness. I find it hard to tell the difference.

AJ's is part of the local Eddie Bashas' empire including the same-name store and the disgusting Food Cities. They've been on the verge of bankruptcy so long I'm still surprised any are open. AJ's is the high end.

Whole Foods is just overpriced for the sake of overpricing.

The idea behind the store is not to do a weekly shop but a daily one. It really isn't set up for piling your cart 5 feet high. The design criteria was TJ's meets 7-11, I believe. There's almost always someone to help you through the check out. There is no control panel for them to stand behind like in other stores, so they tend to be actively walking the lanes and helping out.

My local F&E (7th Ave & Indian School) is in the gay part of town. Seems both busy and popular.

OK, so I went to F&E tonight to give it a second look (you guys obviously have a strong influence on me ). It wasn't as depressing (from a layout/appearance perspective) as I recalled, and I made a point of going down each aisle. The layout is 'utilitarian' to say the least - row after row of basic aisles, but functional. It was quite small to me, and didn't have a lot of choices. The produce section seemed especially limited compared to other stores (see photos - first pic is F&E today, second pic is from an 'Andronicos' store in the Bay Area a few years ago - high end/full service, I guess like an AJ's in AZ).

The 'utilitarian' impression was reinforced by the way they left goods in their original boxes on the shelves (see third pic, paper goods).

The biggest negative, though, quite honestly, was the fact that it was utterly dead at 8pm on Saturday. I think there were only 4 people in the store. Now, I like not seeing lines at the checkout, but an empty store doesn't have a good vibe. Speaking of checkout, there was not one customer checking out so I had my choice of lines. The scanners were functional (but no better than anyplace else as far as I could tell), but the debit card reader was on it's way out and I couldn't read the screen - so I can't say it was a spectacular experience. The conveyor belt concerned me - I hate how these belts end up causing your goods to get squished at the end, if you can't turn it off, but - in my case, the incredibly bored girl who was 'monitoring' the checkout area leapt into action as soon as I started scanning and did all my bagging for me without being asked!

I did pick up 'sweet chili shrimp salad' and 'jambalaya' prepared meals, so I'll eat those soon and comment back.

I couldn't find a single non-alcoholic beer (yeah, I know, I'm weird) in the beer aisle.

I did keep my receipt and I'll try to compare prices to other stores.

Overall, not as bad as I first thought but utterly outclassed by Trader Joe's in every conceivable way, and not as good as the average re-vamped Safeway or Fry's. I'm glad several of you folks like it, and I hope they survive for your sake, but unless those prepared dishes blow me away more than the Trader Joe's equivalents, sadly I still won't be back!

@ SteerPike just an FYI sadly Andronicos is down to 4 locations now, the Palo Alto store closed about 3 months ago

PW's went under last year. 18 locations

Delano IGA is all but gone 8 locations

Cosentinos gone sold out the last store to Lunardis last year they had 3 locations.

My point is that it is sad the smaller hi-end independents are closing all over the place, yet Mollie Stones, Lunardis thrive