Fresh & Easy

Great store! I am really going to miss the Fresh & Easy chain and it’s super-​conveniently-​fresh concept. For whatever reason, many Americans didn’t quite get into them or never even heard of the stores. I would drive across town passing Safeway and Trader Joe’s to shop here as it’s the only SF location.
My first trip to an F&E was in late 2013 – that’s when I first heard about the marketing and expansion issues in the U.S., as well as the sale and possible closure of the company. Although I always felt like there was still hope that they’d recover, the F&E Friends email I received on Thursday said otherwise. The company confirmed on October 23^rd, 2015 that ALL store locations were closing. Such a bummer.
Today will probably mark the last day of this location. Goodbye F&E…

Sad to see you go. Loved all of your organic items. Hope the space will not be left empty for too long. Hoping for another grocery store.

After you’re done picking out your food from the mediocre selection, get ready to ring yourself up because self-​checkout is the only option.
I don’t mind doing some extra work, but I do mind poorly designed systems that make my life more complicated. I tried bagging while my wife scanned everything but that’s not allowed. The system kept popping up windows and interrupting the check-​out process. One of the many employees standing by to help everyone check out explained you can’t bag until everything has been scanned.
Fuck your shitty checkout system, Fresh & Easy. If I ever come back it will be with a sledgehammer and a dozen unemployed people who would be happy to have a job ringing customers up.

I really like Fresh & Easy. It’s a small market with everything you need.
They have great fresh vegetables and fruits, awesome dishes you just have to pop into the oven, good meats, cheeses, etc… And the products from the Fresh & Easy brand are quite nice.
They have a section of food on clearance, when the items are getting close to their expiration date. It is a great deal if you know you’ll be consuming something soon. Look for those at fruit/​veggie section and the meat section.
The cashiers are automated, and you do your own scanning. Beware of fruits and veggies with individual bar codes, to make your life easier. They have an employee to give assistance to customers at check out.

The good:
many organic vegetables
pita and naan
*three twins ice cream (limited flavors)
easy parking
really nice employees
pretty clean inside
never a long line
*three twins ice cream (limited flavors)
could do most of my grocery shopping here in a pinch
The bad:
not as cheap as Grocery Outlet
most of the prepared stuff isnt very good, but that’s true for most grocery stores. I have no idea why I continue trying stuff hoping that it’ll be really good cuz it never is…
The Ugly:
nothing really, but I needed to complete the title
*Oh yeah, did I mention that they have three twins ice cream, but that the flavors are limited?

Just lost a customer Fresh & Easy. Went to the store on Tuesday and four out of five items I buy were not on the shelve. I returned on Sunday and once again the shelves were almost empty. I actually thought they were in the process of closing the store.
When I asked the manager/​assistant manager not sure which, he gave me a very curt answer and said that was just the way they stock items.
This location has a history of supermarkets closing after a short time. I try to shop there once in a while to support them. However, even though I have to drive I will continue to shop at Trader Joe’s where the staff is accommodating, intelligent and friendly.
Too many options here in the City to put up with this kind of service.

Prices went up…(once again) on my favorite drinks– f&e’s own strawberry water and all Yerba Mattes. I also think the customer service is really lacking. They’re either no where to be found when you want them or they’re hiding in between aisles to avoid all human contact. (Well, I guess either way, no one there is excited to be there.)
I also really don’t appreciate the attitude that one particular employee gives… everyone. You’re constantly rushed (when buying alcohol), and she goes so fast that i can’t even ask to put in my friends card number. She rushes you and acts like you’re an inconvenience.
Only because I can walk here do I shop here.

I heart Fresh & Easy and the concept — since I first visited a store location in Arizona a few years ago…
Re: this location… High quality and still, reasonably priced (i.e., when compared to Whole Foods). Organic and fresh produce. A variety of food (including meals & snacks) = vegetarian & non-​vegetarian /​healthy & non-​healthy (i.e., candies). A cool cheese section! Lots of wine and beverages (including juices). Convenient grab and go type of food choices (i.e., salads, pastas, sandwiches, burritos, fruit bits, and more). Bakery selections (i.e., bagels, cupcakes, and so forth). A huge freezer section. International items — such as pupusas, tamales, Heinz beans (and more!). AND, sale /​clearance items; though be sure to check the expiration dates on those! Also, coupons via their phone app — you can get the Friends Card to earn points toward «rewards»! Self-​checkout. Friendly staff, and adequate parking (which is a major plus considering this is San Fran).
Fresh & Easy, thank you for existing! I wish there were more of you across this nation!

I’m still coming back even though I no longer live near here; I’m about 2.5 miles away with a number of grocery stores closer. Why?
The simplest answer: Orange Juice. That, along with their various premade items. This grocery store has THE BEST grocery store bakery I’ve ever experienced; it’s on par with many dedicated bakeries. It also:
–Isn’t overly pretentious
–Isn’t focused mainly on exotic and premade things (i.e. Trader Joe’s)
So what are my favorite things to get here?
–OJ. There just aren’t a lot of places to get a large quantity of TRULY fresh-​squeezed orange juice in SF at a reasonable price. You can get single glasses of it at restaurants for $$$, or pricey brands (more than $ 10 per 64oz bottle) at places like Whole Foods. Fresh and Easy has awesome, fresh-​squeezed OJ for $ 6…not even double the cost of Tropicana.
–Doughnuts. Their maple doughnuts are crack.
–Cakes! Sugary, but so much less artificial tasting than any other grocery bakery. Mmm.
Do note that it is still small. That means it won’t have 100% of every variety of everything. Like they have Ghiradelli chocolate chips but not Guittard. But that’s still way better than Trader Joe’s where you’ll likely find some cool habanero-​chocolate chips, and some store brand chocolate chips, but not the chocolate chips you actually WANT because those are far too pedestrian for that store.

Small but quality selection of groceries. Everything I’ve bought from them thus far has been pretty good.
Note that all the checkout stations are Self-​Service and if you purchase alcohol, it buzzes one of the employees who then come over to your station and scan your groceries for you.

I don’t know why there isn’t a Fresh & Easy in downtown San Francisco? This would be PERFECT for city dwellers. Everything is prepared for you! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this grocery store. And everything they prepare taste very good and fresh (DO pay attention to the expiration dates!) It’s super convenient. And I think their prices are competitive to cheaper.
I do take the 38 from downtown all the way out to 33^rd in Outer Richmond. I don’t mind too much. But yes, PLEASE make one downtown! Have you seen Trader Joe’s on Hyde and California? It’s super popular. Ditto to City Target at the Metreon. No brainer!

Good variety of organic produce, packaged foods, and frozen section. You may be able to find more competitive prices elsewhere but this store is an «easy» go to grocer for last minute pick ups or cravings.
Large parking lot makes shopping easy.
Always look in the «make room» section for price cuts on produce nearing the expiration date. Most items on this shelf are still in good edible condition.
I love the reasonable seasonal flowers by the entrance!

I come here for several things that I consider quality and reasonably priced
1. Canned beans
2. Flour (They have an organic line as well)
3. Milk and Heavy cream
4. Chocolate chips (made for dipping strawberries, so more cocoa fat I assume. You don’t really see this anywhere else in grocery stores… white, milk, and bittersweet, but not this type)
5. Chips
6. Bread (Their fresh bread is good. super good)
What I do not come here for:
Produce and meat.
That’s only because if you walk a few blocks down Clement you’ll find a super awesome Mexican produce market and a small Chinese seafood/​meat shop.
Also their workers seem like locals and are pretty helpful when you ask them for help.

I had 3 bad experiences in a row here
#1– I bought some pork chops that said they expired in 2 days The next morning the container was extremely bloated and when my husband opened it, it stunk horribly. I wasn’t losing $ 8 so I took it back
#2– During the trip to return it I decided to pick up a few more things and noticed there were 4 packs of bacon on the shelf that were green, it looked like they had been accidentally sliced open with a box cutter & put on display anyway. I picked them up & took them to the checkout where I announced I had rotten meat to return & found more rotten meat in the fridge as well. Disgusting. One of my moms friends mentioned getting rotten meat here recently as well.
#3– They now mark down things that are going to expire today to 50% off. So as I was looking at some bagels, I noticed they expired today and weren’t marked down so I asked the cashier if she could give us 50% off and she said she would have to get the manager.
Several minutes passed and she came back and said she can’t find her in her office, she must be on the floor. So I asked if I should keep waiting or what. She then said she would look through the store for me.
After another several minutes she came back and said «The manager said she is busy and she can mark them down later» I asked what does later mean, I wanted to check out & leave now, and she said hold on, let me go ask! So I wait AGAIN and she comes back and says it will be about 2 hours.
WHAT??? I told her that is ridiculous, can I please speak to her myself? And she walked me over to her. I asked if I could get the bagels 50% off since the expire today and she said sure and grabbed her price gun and changed them. I told her the other woman said I’d have to wait 2 hrs for this! Why on earth would she tell me that? And she explained that each dept is marked down at a different time of day and it was only 4pm, bakery gets marked down at 6pm. So she should have explained that to me and not just told me to wait 2 hrs!
Seems like a very funky system to me, like they are somehow worth full price about to expire at 5pm and not 6pm? I don’t get it but that whole ordeal cost me about 15 mins of my life to save about $ 1. Not to mention the time coming back to return rotten meat. The employees really need to wake up.

Decent neighborhood market that’s closer to me than the two Safeways in the Richmond district.
Most produce items and fridge items are pre-​packaged in small portions and/​or ready to cook. This caters to city professionals and busy moms and dads who may wish to pick up something fast and already-​prepped to finish cooking at home. This is nice if you want to grab say, a small bag of apples. But at the same time it is inconvenient if say I just want one avocado or something.
They carry a good variety of basic groceries with more focus on healthy options. You won’t find too many ethnic items. I wasn’t able to find cooking spray. Check out is all «self» so get ready to ring up and package all of your goodies.
You can also sign up to use their reward cards, which earns you coupons once you accumulate 500 points. I’m not sure how this place will fare since they just got purchased (right?) but as long as it’s here, I do come here for groceries, though I do absolutely prefer to go to the smaller markets with fresher produce.

Every time I go to SF, I wish I knew where they hide their grocery stores. Being a tourist there is challenging at best, for parking, for finding a quick snack, for locating anything that I can easily find on Main St USA in my hometown. So accidentally finding this new store (how on earth did they find an empty lot???) in the middle of a seriously residential area, I was ecstatic.
Now, honestly, seeing a security guard out front made me take a hard second glance before I traipsed through the little parking lot. But once inside, it was newish, clean, orderly, friendly, and had a little bit of everything.
Since we skipped lunch, I needed some snacks to hold me over until we could go to dinner. The best find was a little container with some freshly sliced green apple. It came with a small container of yogurt almond butter dip that I found absolutely refreshing. Perfect in every way. Enough to share, too.
I was pleased that Fresh & Easy made it easy on me to find something healthy rather than junk food, which they also have. This little store chain was a god-​send that day. I like their prices too. I really need to look up the F&E in my own neighborhood.

this Fresh & Easy escapes my memory cuz their opening was accompanied by «informational picketing» by the food clerks union who didn’t like their non union policy.
i didn’t shop here until the pickets disappeared. when i did, i checked out the «breads», some house brands of various eats and found the quality lacking so i haven’t returned for awhile.
alcohol selection here is very minimal.

I love this place! I had been to another off of 3^rd years ago and it was mediocre compared to this location. I really love how everything in this place is fresh and clean and it is NOTHING like going to any other grocery store.
I really enjoy their freshly prepared home cooked meals. They are single servings (which for me = to two servings 99% of the time) and at a good price. Even better with their rewards card.
Lots of organic food and tons of options for nearly everything you want. Bread, yogurt, cheese, meats… everything, and it is all fresh!
I told my bf they don’t have «leaky meat» like you’ll find in almost every other grocery chain, which for someone who has mild OCD is just repulsive. The isles are clean, never cluttered, the staff is extremely friendly, and I save money every time I go there.
Only downside some people may have with them is you have to bag your own food. Scan it, set it to the side, pay and THEN bag. The machine can be temperamental otherwise.

First time at a fresh & easy and my first thought: clean and nicely lit
A lot of fresh & easy stuff are their own brand which is cool. Their brands are usually well priced below safeway but some of their items are more expensive than the usual safeway.
Take your time to walk around the store and you’ll find some great deals on snacks and things that are on sale or on clearance due to being almost expired.
another plus are the self-​check out here. They make running a store more efficient by having people do self checkout to pay for their items and all other employees do the stocking and such.
Great concept here and I’ll be back soon.

With the ever changing food market, mostly due to the increasingly diverse SF population, there are more food choices than ever before.
For decades, there were only three major chains serving the greater Bay Area, Safeway, Lucky/Albertson’s, and Cala Foods. Due to increasing health consciousness, stores like Whole Foods Mkt. raised the bar for organic and nutritious food choices. It also made room for this chain’s entry to the Bay Area. On a recent visit, two notable finds at this former Safeway location were their take and go lobster Mac ‘n cheese (
) and guacamole. Using knuckle and claw lobster pieces, the meal wasn’t too salty like most prepared foods. The amazing part was the price at around $ 5.00.
I’m officially hooked on the guacamole which also is perfectly flavored with diced tomatoes. How good was it? Finished it in two sittings. Watch for the shorter shelf life on this though.
Their private shared parking lot with CVS makes it easy peasy in one of the City’s most competitive parking neighborhood. Just got another guac to tie me through the weekend!