Yet another Morrisons thread

Inspector Sands
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WillPS wrote:
all new Phil wrote:Just to add - I love how Morrisons permanently have a member of staff manning their revolutionary banana-hanging station, usually stood behind it rotating the holders every so often. You can always be sure of a well stocked banana section when you visit Morrisons.
The banana situation signifies all that is wrong with Morrisons.
It's now changed, at least in the 2 branches I go in. Instead of having someone splitting and labelling them up then hanging them, they've deckchair-like holders for bananas and they're not priced. The great thing being that if you want 2, you can buy just 2 as they're weighed at the till
Inspector Sands
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rdobbie wrote:Agreed, the initial conversion was reckless and hasty, a point I'll never get tired of making! It wasn't just the vandalism to the stores with that hideous yellow signage, but the way they obliterated the entire Safeway own brand portfolio of products and all of Safeway's endeavours to be modern (e.g. Pay@Pump technology). And forcing the Pie Shop into every store, including those in cosmopolitan parts of the South of England.... words fail me.
As a customer of 2 of London's ex-Safeway stores they are a lot better under Morrisons.

However the only thing I really disliked about the changeover was the sudden amount of clutter in the aisles when Morrisons took over. They're not the biggest of branches but they suddenly put refrigerated units in the middle of the back aisle near the counters which are a right pain, especially when someone's shelf-stacking too.
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Pete
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WillPS wrote:Hell yes. Safeway's systems were absolutely top notch, ahead of even today's supermarkets. Stuff like the Digital SELs they had were fantastic investments which obviously needed 5+ years to become cost effective - hastily ripped out and never replaced by Morrisons.
I was surprised to visit Waitrose in Glasgow the other day only to discover they're doing a version of scan'n'go which is practically identical to what Safeway had over 15 years ago. I recall Safeway even got a second wave of the machines in as they were installed in the new "Cramlington 2" branch (as it was called on the ABC Card) which had a much bigger screen.

IMO a far superior option to self scan checkouts which simply end up being irritating. How things go in circles.

It is also my dream to one day have a house with a garage full of Safeway greenboxes. Luckily I didn't say that out loud.
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andyeccy
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Hello, long time lurker etc...

Intresting piece on Morrisons ''concept store" in Kirkstall... it's in three parts (i'm not associated in anyway with the page btw)

It's all looking very "Safeway" to me!

http://ukretailers.blogspot.com/2011/04 ... store.html
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WillPS
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andyeccy wrote:Hello, long time lurker etc...

Intresting piece on Morrisons ''concept store" in Kirkstall... it's in three parts (i'm not associated in anyway with the page btw)

It's all looking very "Safeway" to me!

http://ukretailers.blogspot.com/2011/04 ... store.html
Bloody ruddy hell.
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Ebeneezer Scrooge
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Thought I'd already mentioned this, but I can't see it so I must have imagined it.

I went to the Maggie Mash branch of Morrisons a few months ago for the first time ever. The fresh food area certainly is striking when you walk in. Looks amazing, sadly once you go back to the other aisles, you still hit the same old cramped poorly lit and disorganised store all Morrisons seem to be!
Hope they carry the concept through the store at some point!
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Nick Harvey
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You didn't imagine it because I remember you mentioning "Maggie's Morrisons".

I think it was in another thread.
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Pete
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Nick Harvey wrote:You didn't imagine it because I remember you mentioning "Maggie's Morrisons".

I think it was in another thread.
http://www.metropol247.co.uk/forum/view ... 1&p=109787

Yes, a thread about Walking.

Is Kirkstall an original Morrisons then or an old Safeway?
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WillPS
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Safeway I'm pretty sure.
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Jamesypoo
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Kirkstall was a new build in the mid 2000s. Not a Safeway. I used to live not very far at all from it and noticed the vast improvement when buying spuds there earlier this year.

The market street area really is quite good when you first walk in; you can see where everything is right from the front of the store. The stalls are all quite low down so you get a good view of everything.

There were people dotted about with microphones giving talks on how to prepare fish etc. All quite interesting and there did seem to be a bit of a "buzz" about it all.

There's an updated post on that blog here: http://ukretailers.blogspot.com/2011/05 ... -york.html.
SirKen
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Hi,

I'm the writer responsible for the UK retailers blog that has been linked to on here, I noted that I got a massive spike in traffic last week and most of it came from here so thanks! I thought I'd sign on and try clear up some points regarding Kirkstall, Safeway and the like.

I've had a good read of the forum, it has some very good content.

Firstly, I'm not affiliated with Morrisons in any way, I'm a retail writer / spectator who gets about a bit and being based in Bradford it's been somewhat fortunate that I've been close to Kirkstall and the like and could get to new stores first and collect a good chunk of photographs.

The Kirkstall store was built late '98 I think, former Waddingtons games (remember them!?) factory and Morries bought the site in '94 but there were legal wranglings galore, it's a heritage Morrisons store.

It's always been a very good store for M, attracts a lot of students from Headingley (tax dodgers will know area well!) which is up the road and can be ridiculously busy at peak times.

A lot of the trials have come from Loblaw in Canada (where Dalton Philips, the CEO worked previous to Morrisons) especially the Produce trial but there'll be influences from all over.

The store was selected for the trial due to the mixed demographic, attracting students, folk from a housing estate up the road and general shoppers on their way to Leeds. It's a key store in terms of revenue and I understand that it takes more now post refit than it did before (although it cost £3.5m to change around) and wastage has been an issue, there's a 2 hour freshness guarantee on the chickens, not sold within 2 hours then they're taken off sale.

There's loads in there, food 2 go is the main bit as you go in and they have hot sandwiches, soup, hot pastries, coffee to go etc. Basically everything you could need for the lunchtime rush shopper again underpinned by the 2 hour guarantee of freshness.

It's not been without problems though as after another change around shoppers were given £5 vouchers to compensate as there'd been another changeover and people were getting a bit sick of it. There's been subtle changes to grocery lines which have also alienated some shoppers - packet sauces and mixes (a fave with every student) have seen their shelf space reduced to make space for other lines as the trial continues to evolve.

They do have a lot of letters in showing support, one revealing that they make a trip over from Wetherby (20 miles or so away) to do their shopping at Kirkstall.

Another visit is due for the blog as they've changed things a bit more again, it was buzzing on Friday though with the chef cooking fish and the store was trading very very well.
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