Yet another rant at Morrisons

[James Martin]

Eventually at about Lunchtime we managed to open up the Café, or as the staff kept calling it; Coffee Shop (which I assume is how Safeway used to name it), basically as it was so late in the day we couldn't do a full menu.

Yep, Safeway call it the Coffee Shop.

Hinckley's getting converted at the moment, but they're extending the store quite a bit. It's still officially a Safeway but there is now a Morrisons petrol sign up.

[mr smuf]

I'm not sure if people have short memories, or just dont know, but the Safeway most people know is defo not the Safeway it used to be. When Safeway first came to the UK, it was an american-owned chain and was actually a pretty decent supermarket. But then the UK division was sold off - the only thing that remained was the name but this had NOTHING to do with the US chain anymore - it was an entirely seperate company in it's own right. That was the first stage for Safeway going down the pan. The fact Morrisons took over was no suprise really. The Safeway you know was not the Safeway I knew in the early days!

[nwtv2003]

Stores below a certain size are retaining the Safeway brand, AIUI.

No, they're being sold off to Somerfield, if I remember correctly.

Thats interesting, as I was on my way to London the other day on the West Coast Main Line and noticed going past Crewe that there's a Somerfield that was shared with a Total Petrol Station. The first I've seen of one of those.

It doesn't surprise me at all that they are selling off BP/Safeway, all the bullshit when the takeover happened said that there would be no change to Safeway Compact and BP/Safeway, where as now Safeway Compact has been sold off, and BP/Safeway is going to be aswell.

[Pete]

Eventually at about Lunchtime we managed to open up the Café, or as the staff kept calling it; Coffee Shop (which I assume is how Safeway used to name it), basically as it was so late in the day we couldn't do a full menu.

Yep, Safeway call it the Coffee Shop.

Hinckley's getting converted at the moment, but they're extending the store quite a bit. It's still officially a Safeway but there is now a Morrisons petrol sign up.

Cafe Fresco after the £5 million revamp of Berwick with it's LCD shelf edge lables and big swooping deli.

[Pete]

One would expect Morrisons would prefer them to scrawl the prices on the shelves in shit.

I did read a little propaganda leaflet that said they were updated at the end of the day like normal prices although whether than consituted "updated by hand after close" or "updated when 'end of day' is run on the EPOS system" wasn't explained.

Unless they had RFIDs in them I think they would have to be updated by hand as the description and EAN information was a sticker stuck onto them with a hole for the display.

I think it was more a case of showing off and looking posh than actual benefit.

[Dr Lobster*]

I've been to Morrisons only a couple of times; I find the very layout of the King's Lynn store perplexing, although, I do like some of their fresh bakery items.


I have only one rant at Tesco, ours is getting bigger and bigger, it seems to flog everything now, and that is some foods seem to go out of date quite a few days earlier than it says on the label.

I'm not talking about the dregs of the milk going a bit stinky two days before the sell by date, but Tesco Finest Beef Steaks or something of that nature going black 4 days before the display until date... not happy about that, even though they arn't mine!

[Nick Harvey]

Tesco Savers cheap white bread has a regular tendancy to go green the day before its "use by" date.

Take it back on your next visit, or give it back to your delivery driver next time, and they'll always credit you, even if, by then, it's a week or more since the date.

[BBCNicky@Yorks]

I've been to Morrisons only a couple of times, and I can honestly say that it is quite possibly one of the most tackiest stores I have visited. One thing I've noticed over the years is that some 'low-quality' stores (i.e. Morrisons, etc) seem to cater for the working-class public whilst stores like Tesco, Safeway and ASDA seem to have become more 'upmarket'.

[James Martin]

Couple of points carried over from the TVF thread...

if you think the Plymouth Tesco was bad, you obviously had never seen the Tesco's in Rugby! Until late 98 that WAS the one time forgot. It looked like Morrisons does now, hiedous.

I know the big Tesco at Mansfield BTW - my grandma lives just round the corner - I didn't know the Garden Centre was no more though.

[Spencer For Hire]

I've been to Morrisons only a couple of times, and I can honestly say that it is quite possibly one of the most tackiest stores I have visited. One thing I've noticed over the years is that some 'low-quality' stores (i.e. Morrisons, etc) seem to cater for the working-class public whilst stores like Tesco, Safeway and ASDA seem to have become more 'upmarket'.

There was quite an interesting programme on BBC Two last night all about Tesco's domination of retail. Through extensive surveys they analysed which types of shoppers go to which supermarket. Unsurprisingly Sainsbury's and Waitrose were more frequented by the middle class whilst Asda and Morrisons were more working class. They concluded that Tesco didn't have a 'typical customer' as such, and was just as popular with the working class and the poor as with wealthy middle class people. Essentially they said that this universal appeal was the key to Tesco's success.

Strangely I seem to be in just about the only sizeable town in the country without a Tesco (except a Tesco Express/Esso petrol station). The nearest one is about fifteen miles away.

[thegeek]

Now Somerfield in Kelso is an interesting case. It's a wonderfully Kelso shop in the manner of being quirky and bizzare - the entire shop is still Safeway with the exception of yellow shelfedging and some Somerfield POS that you walk into all the time. The bakery (apaprently one of the only ones Somerfield have) still is covered in the brown safeway bakery signs and the apples are still around the fuit and veg asile.

My local Somerfield has got rid of most traces of Safeway, although there are still some bits of signage from when it was a Safeway 'City Store' - like the big green decals on the windows with pictures of apples and things about fresh made sandwiches and pizzas.

I'm not sure if the sandwich counter is still in use, last time I was in, it wasn't open, and some staff were trying to remove a pigeon from it.

As I mentioned in the other thread, I did manage to get some Safeway, Morrisons and Somerfield products in the the same shop once, but there's pretty much no Safeway things left now, and just a handful of Morrisons things, typically next to their Somerfield equivalent, or in the Reduced to Clear bit.

I tend to do most of my shopping at Tesco Extra these days, or sometimes a big Asda. But I'm off to Morrisons today to make use of their el-cheapo dry cleaners, so think I might do the weekly shop while I'm there and see what it's like.

(But I have to admit, I've been sucked in by Clubcard points. Must.. collect.. more..)