cwathen wrote:When Safeway, pre-takeover, invested so much in the modernisation of their stores and not that long ago operated huge TV advertising campaigns to raise the profile of their brand (remember the 'Harry and Sally' ads?), it seems a bit ridiculous to replace it with the comparatively obscure Morrisons brand (which, from where I come from anyway, has exactly the kind of high brow inaccessible image which has worked against Sainsbury's for years and they are now having a hard time shaking off).
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I wouldn't say that. In the North there are loads of Morrisons and they are seen as fairly cheap and low cost, around the same level as Tesco.
I do wish they'd change their logo though, that yellow and black "M" looks so 80s
On another note, does anyone know what's happening at Spar? From about 12 months ago, my local Spar has seen the gradual introduction of the Local Plus brand (which replaced Alldays, which replaced Londis, which replaced Todays - the chain has certainly had a hard time establishing a solid brand over the last 10 years or so), with staff all wearing Local Plus shirts, and various other levels of proliferation of the brand in the store, even though the Spar sign is still outside, the spar.co.uk website still exists, and Spar own brand products still exist.
I did wonder if the owner of that particular shop was in the process of changing his franchise, until I've seen several other stores (not remotely near each other nor owned by people with any business connection) go down the same route. What's happening there?
I don't think I've ever seen a Local Plus, whatever one of those are.
Local Grocery franchises are very complicated as as you say you can't tell if your local owner is just changing his franchise or if there's been a national takeover, also you don't know if its just one of those shops where the owner doesn't care for how his shop looks and leaves defunct brand names about. There's a shop near me that still has an "8 till late" Spar slogan outside but hasn't been a Spar for years, also another one is still a 'Today's' although I'm not sure if that name is still going.
Co-Op is equally complicated as they are all different regional societies that use different brands around the country. Then there are also co-op department stores that use different names as well. In my area I believe there is the Yorkshire Co-Op society but also a Leeds Co-Op society, despite the fact that Leeds is in Yorkshire!
) stores and leaving the rest as Safeway.
AFAIK I don't think anyone has to wear blue and yellow.