Dive Brief:

• Fresh & Easy stores have quietly rolled out a handful of in-store items branded with the name of defunct retailer Wild Oats. 
• The Wild Oats Marketplace brand disappeared in 2007, after the retailer was purchased by rival Whole Foods. But the brand name itself was purchased by supermarket mogul Ron Burkle, who bought the Fresh & Easy chain last year. 
• Among the Wild Oats products on sale at Fresh & Easy are brown eggs stamped with a "hen-laying date," a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Portlandia television show.

Dive Insight:

Hoo-ray!! This is wonderful news for those of us who have maintained our affection for the long-departed Wild Oats.

Back when Burkle bought Fresh & Easy, we were among the folks who hoped he'd use those locations to open a new version of the beloved retailer. Well, this isn't exactly what we would call a revival. The old Wild Oats was more than a retailer — it was a community center and educational resource — while the new Wild Oats is less than a retailer. It's just a brand name on some organic products.

But the truth is that we'll take what we can get. We've missed Wild Oats terribly, and we were never impressed by the holding-pattern that Wild Oats has held in recent years — selling a handful of products with the Wild Oats brand name. We could never imagine that was Burkle's real plan for the brand.

So we're going to pretend that the debut of Wild Oats branded foods at Fresh & Easy is proof that Wild Oats stores will return any day now.