Somerfield is bought out by The Co-Op

[wells]

The Somerfield name is set to disappear from the high street after the 880-strong supermarket chain's owners agreed to sell it to the Co-operative Group for £1.57bn.

Although the Co-op plans to rebrand all the Somerfield stores it keeps, more than 100 of the 880 Somerfield outlets around the UK will probably have to be sold to larger rivals such as Tesco and Asda to satisfy the Office of Fair Trading's competition concerns. Morrisons along with upmarket chain Waitrose and frozen food grocer Iceland have also been tipped as potential interested buyers of individual stores.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008 ... somerfield

Seems like good news, I'm not of the Somerfield brand.

[Philip Cobbold]

I can't imagine Asda buying many Somerfield stores - they're mainly of the small supermarket variety that Asda don't seem interested in running.

[barcode]

I heard about this last week, bit surpired when I was told,

My local somerfield well: Presto, Safeway, somerfield, now Co-op, I can;t see them keeping this one so it probably go to someone else.

but it is more likely that Morrisons, Waitrose , Iceland or even aldi would be more likely to take these stores

[wells]

My local somerfield well: Presto, Safeway, somerfield, now Co-op, I can;t see them keeping this one so it probably go to someone else.

How interesting.

[nwtv2003]

My local somerfield well: Presto, Safeway, somerfield, now Co-op, I can;t see them keeping this one so it probably go to someone else.

Our local Somerfield has been Mak-Mart, Gateway and Somerfield, although it still felt like Gateway til a couple of years ago as it still had most of the old interior.

It's nice to see the Co-Op going back to the Co-Op name, up here the stores were the Co-Op, then the Late Shop, the Co-Op Late Shop, now it's co-operative, and now it's The co-operative Food. In fact Warrington town centre used to have a Co-Op Supermarket, which then became the Co-Op Gate House (department store) which was later sold off to TJ Hughes.

[wells]

My local somerfield well: Presto, Safeway, somerfield, now Co-op, I can;t see them keeping this one so it probably go to someone else.

Our local Somerfield has been Mak-Mart, Gateway and Somerfield, although it still felt like Gateway til a couple of years ago as it still had most of the old interior.

It's nice to see the Co-Op going back to the Co-Op name, up here the stores were the Co-Op, then the Late Shop, the Co-Op Late Shop, now it's co-operative, and now it's The co-operative Food. In fact Warrington town centre used to have a Co-Op Supermarket, which then became the Co-Op Gate House (department store) which was later sold off to TJ Hughes.

The Co-Op in Studley (Village near Redditch) was branded Pioneer, it was knocked down because the locals hated it though, and they rebuilt a Co-Op on that site.

[rdobbie]

Oh dear. This just means one less big player in the grocery market, and that's bad news for consumers. Less choice, less competition, more of a stranglehold over suppliers, etc.

I have absolutely no respect for the supposedly "ethical" Co-op after their decision to downsize the British pint of milk to 500ml (and 2 pint bottles to 1 litre, etc) without any pro-rata reduction in price. It's a nasty, grubby little trick which relies on the fact that most of their customers won't notice and will just assume the bottle is a pint when they pick it off the shelf. And I don't know about other regions, but in the North West their customer base is largely comprised of the elderly and the poor, who rely on these stores because of their locations.

There would have been uproar if a company like Tesco had shaved 12% off the size of a British pint of milk, but Co-op seem to get away with it because they've created this saintly image for themselves which puts them beyond suspicion in peoples minds.

"Ethical responsible community retailing" my arse - they're just rip-off merchants.

[marksi]

So if a small container of milk had stayed at 568ml but the price had gone up by 12%, would that have been just as bad?

Methinks you've been talking to Luxton. Or reading the Daily Mail. They're much the same thing.

[Nini]

Yup, nothing screams "reactionary hissy fit" like complaining about losing some 68ml of milk (with the qualifier British no less, very Daily Mail) and not having less than 5p taken off to compensate.

If the term "silent majority" is mentioned, all hope is lost for your argument.

[wells]

Oh dear. This just means one less big player in the grocery market, and that's bad news for consumers. Less choice, less competition, more of a stranglehold over suppliers, etc.

I have absolutely no respect for the supposedly "ethical" Co-op after their decision to downsize the British pint of milk to 500ml (and 2 pint bottles to 1 litre, etc) without any pro-rata reduction in price. It's a nasty, grubby little trick which relies on the fact that most of their customers won't notice and will just assume the bottle is a pint when they pick it off the shelf. And I don't know about other regions, but in the North West their customer base is largely comprised of the elderly and the poor, who rely on these stores because of their locations.

There would have been uproar if a company like Tesco had shaved 12% off the size of a British pint of milk, but Co-op seem to get away with it because they've created this saintly image for themselves which puts them beyond suspicion in peoples minds.

"Ethical responsible community retailing" my arse - they're just rip-off merchants.

On the flip side, they do a good offer on chocolate buttons.

[Nick Harvey]

Our local Somerfield has been Mak-Mart, Gateway and Somerfield.

I suspect you mean Mac Market in the middle of there.

The Devizes branch started life as a Mac Fisheries, then changed to Mac Market, then Gateway, currently Somerfield.

No Co-Op in Devizes for many a year, so I suppose we've now got one again.

It's interesting that the former Co-Op building in Devizes, criticised with venom by John Betjeman as an ugly monstrosity, has only been pulled down in the last couple of months to make way for something new.