RIP Safeway: 1962-2005 - Morrisons have finally done it

[Nick Harvey]

"Cab" to us laymen isn't it?

To be a pedant, and as it's a Tuesday, then why on earth shouldn't I?

You can have a cab on any kind of lorry, articulated or not. Only the bit on the front of an articulated one is actually called a tractor unit.

[Davidjb]

Have to say i do miss Safeway, our Safeway Megastore dissapered very quickly after the takeover to become a Waitrose Megastore. Its not as good. As for the re-painting of Lorry's. This is hard as the units are required daily. I would magine they are painted when sheduled for a service to save on downtime.

[ClerkByron]

I miss Safeway so much . I hope it all turns pear shaped Sir Ken.

[Nick Harvey]

I see Uncle Ken announced the closure of two of the distribution centres yesterday.

One in Bristol and one in Kent.

[TVDragon]

I see Uncle Ken announced the closure of two of the distribution centres yesterday.

One in Bristol and one in Kent.

Indeed -- added to the Warrington one, closed but moments after I spoke so fondly about it earlier on in the thread. 700 jobs I believe.

Oh Morrisons really make me ill, I just can't go in them. All they care about is bananas. You know I still have loads of vouchers for the place that work gave me two years ago -- just can't shift them.

[Jamez]

I find Morrisons not bad, really.

At least their staff uniforms don't make me want to throw up, unlike Asda where their staff have to wear those vomit-inducing lime green fleece jackets.

Their prices are very competitive with Tesco and Asda, but by far the cheapest supermarket is Aldi! OK, so you don't get the brand names, but who cares when you can get a trolley load of food for twenty quid!!

[rts]

The food tastes of fuck all from Morrisons. I made a spag-bog once, and was utterly flavourless. Compared to ones I made with ingredients from Tesco or Sainsburys, cooked exactly the same, which actually were rather scrumtious if I may say so myself.

[nwtv2003]

I see Uncle Ken announced the closure of two of the distribution centres yesterday.

One in Bristol and one in Kent.

Indeed -- added to the Warrington one, closed but moments after I spoke so fondly about it earlier on in the thread. 700 jobs I believe.

Oh Morrisons really make me ill, I just can't go in them. All they care about is bananas. You know I still have loads of vouchers for the place that work gave me two years ago -- just can't shift them.

Yup, the Warrington Distribution Centre closed just before Christmas, but it was an ex-Safeway centre.

Well I think the general opinion is that people are starting to not shop at Mozzers, there was a memo from Head Office today saying that Sales at Core stores (ie not ex-Safeway) were down 0.7% from Christmas 2004, and I think it was over 1% at ex-Safeway stores, not much but it says something.

But the company is cutting back, they're making all of these redundancies at Distribution Centres, plus they're making cuts in store in terms of Staff, since September last year they have hired only a few people, previous to when they would hire new members of staff at least once or twice a month, and overtime is also a complete taboo now.

But to be fair they weren't that tight arsed to staff at Christmas, all staff got a free Christmas Dinner and a gift bag that had an awful bottle of Red Wine and a box of Nestlé white chocolates that haven't been opened, but rumour has it this won't be around next year.

[cwathen]

But to be fair they weren't that tight arsed to staff at Christmas, all staff got a free Christmas Dinner and a gift bag that had an awful bottle of Red Wine and a box of Nestlé white chocolates that haven't been opened, but rumour has it this won't be around next year.

Probably a bit of willy-waving to save face - "Look how great we're doing - we can afford to give all the staff a freebie at christmas" - except it appears that they can't afford it and they're not actually doing that well, and several hundred of those staff might not be around to sample next years' crimbo pressie from work.

I must say though, I've finally found a positive thing to say about Morrison's closing down Safeways - the BP & Safeway petrol station near me has recently become a Tesco Express - what a difference to the range now stocked in that store. And Tesco's have been so creative with the space to cram so much more in - it's hard to believe it's the same unit.

[Jamez]

Morrisons need to sort out their god-awful retro branding before they do anything else.

The stores look shite even before you get inside.

[martindtanderson]

The brand is not even retro, as retro is in these days. But the content, and customer service kicks the shit out of the safeway that came before it. Who thought of white on light blue, and those tacky W.H.Morrison Fishmonger and Baker. Who are they trying to kid, it may work up north, but not in London, its just cheesy and tacky.