Metropol

Well that's what I'm thinking. It would have made more sense if there were two types: the old red and white Comet logo and the new futuristic yellow and black logo. But the one above kind of suggests they haven't made their mind up or are phasing a rebrand.

The images were taken from the corporate website. All I know is that store is Paisley. The other one is Northampton.

As someone has said, they've been doing this for at least 2 years... i'd say even 3 or 4 now.

Back in Granadaland, the adverts used to feature stores with the new logo, but the old red and black affair on the advert graphics. Utterly bizarre.

Write to them and ask.

Perhaps they are wanting to designate some stores as 'special' ... like Woolworths Big 'W' or something?

c@t wrote:Write to them and ask.

I might just do that, thanks. Although I'll try email first, see if I get a reply.

Chris J wrote:Are all Safeway stores being rebranded as Morrisons then? I heard they were only doing the larger/smaller (can't actually remember which it was ) stores and leaving the rest as Safeway.

From what I have heard they are going to sell off a few stores to other supermarkets, because they were told to do so because of what the government and competition. But they are all being rebranded to Morrisons as I have been told so, so that means they will have crap like 'Market Street' and loads of counters serving special foods, plus there was an advert in the Daily Mail the other week that explained that Safeway will be changing to Morrisons and the prices will come down with immediate affect.

Chris J wrote:Focus and Do-It-All did a great job refurbishing their stores to the Focus Do-It-All look. That was a fantastic look too, it's just a shame they had to all go back to Focus. The logo is nowhere near as nice and all the signs in our store are just Focus logos stuck over the old Focus Do-It-All logos, where as before everything had been replaced and the store made unrecognisable.

From memory, the Do It All store in Nuneaton was slightly more DIY-y than the FDIA, with features like lower shelving was used in parts (around nails and power tools).
When it became FDIA, the inclusion of Petworld into the store lead to a smaller area for the traditional items.
The ex-DIA store in Nuneaton looked presentable enough as a FDIA store, the cream, blue and pine must have looked very good when done originally.
The ex-Focus store in Hinckley is now (or was a few months ago, and AFAIK is now), still awash with green, although strangely enough used the same high level signing around the walls but in green, not blue.
Anyway, when they became Focus again, stock with the new logo started appearing from the time when Great Mills stores were integrated, and new staff badges but that was all [well there were one or two other small signs], until the rebrand, IIRC even the tills changed at the same time. The main signs were changed, the trollies had new handles put on (not just stickers), and other insignificant signs had stickers placed over them (previously some DIA signs had been left).
The following autumn the store was refitted, with blue floor tiles (which really are badly scratched, tiling over the concrete floor wasn't a great idea), but some new racking, and new shelf edges were put in. Some space was regained with the closure of petworld, but not much as a Wickes showroom was erected over much of the area. The store, in comparison to others looks really quite tidy, but working there it really looks untidy.

Anyway, that's about all for now.

Focus in Wolverhampton had a Petword in it too, they seperated that from the main shop in the end when it became a FDIA and Petsworld became the shop nextdoor.

nwtv2003 wrote:

Chris J wrote:Are all Safeway stores being rebranded as Morrisons then? I heard they were only doing the larger/smaller (can't actually remember which it was ) stores and leaving the rest as Safeway.

From what I have heard they are going to sell off a few stores to other supermarkets, because they were told to do so because of what the government and competition. But they are all being rebranded to Morrisons as I have been told so, so that means they will have crap like 'Market Street' and loads of counters serving special foods, plus there was an advert in the Daily Mail the other week that explained that Safeway will be changing to Morrisons and the prices will come down with immediate affect.

The Penn Road store in Wolverhampton has been snapped up by Waitrose. But there are two other Safeways near in Wolverhampton too, smaller than the Penn Road store - one in Pendeford and one in Sedgley, Dudley, dunno what's happening to them.

A Safeway in Lincoln is going to be a Waitrose too.

Mich wrote:the closure of petworld,

You work at the Hinckley FOCUS? I bought my rabbit from Petworld in 1998 (he's still alive and in very good health btw) - what happened to the livestock?

Last time I checked it was blue but that was AGES ago.

^^^^^^IS COMETS LOGO ON THERE WEBSITE^^^^^^^^^^

From what I have heard they are going to sell off a few stores to other supermarkets, because they were told to do so because of what the government and competition. But they are all being rebranded to Morrisons as I have been told so, so that means they will have crap like 'Market Street' and loads of counters serving special foods, plus there was an advert in the Daily Mail the other week that explained that Safeway will be changing to Morrisons and the prices will come down with immediate affect.

Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't Safeway a much more prominent and recognisable brand than Morrisons? Aren't there also more Safeway stores than Morrisons? Wouldn't it therefore make more sense to get rid of the Morrisons name and rebrand all the stores to Safeway?

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).

And apart from anything else, if they must choose one brand (I don't actually see what's wrong with letting both brands co-exist) going with the Safeway brand seems the far more cost effective option and the option more likely to push the merged company forward.

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?

cwathen wrote:

From what I have heard they are going to sell off a few stores to other supermarkets, because they were told to do so because of what the government and competition. But they are all being rebranded to Morrisons as I have been told so, so that means they will have crap like 'Market Street' and loads of counters serving special foods, plus there was an advert in the Daily Mail the other week that explained that Safeway will be changing to Morrisons and the prices will come down with immediate affect.

Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't Safeway a much more prominent and recognisable brand than Morrisons? Aren't there also more Safeway stores than Morrisons? Wouldn't it therefore make more sense to get rid of the Morrisons name and rebrand all the stores to Safeway?

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).

And apart from anything else, if they must choose one brand (I don't actually see what's wrong with letting both brands co-exist) going with the Safeway brand seems the far more cost effective option and the option more likely to push the merged company forward.

I remember those ads, they were very good and popular at the time and proved successful, but they did start to disappear and their recent ads haven't been as good as some of the old ones. To be honest I agree it would make more sense ditch the Morrisons brand, I know down South, Morrisons is very unknown whilst in the North it is rather strong and popular. Plus like Safeway they used to have better adverts, as they used to have a jingle and the little 'M' man, but they have disappeared (He still appears on some of the posters for the staff)

Though I am not 100% sure but it is likely that Safeway will be disappearing, in the Daily Mail ad the other week it explained the change and showed the Safeway logo with 'Part of The Morrisons Family' underneath it, so some form of Morrisons branding will be going Nationwide. Though you are right at Morrisons only had 100 or so stores where as Safeway has approximately 400 stores. (We only have a small Petrol Station store Safeway in Warrington, but I take it that will be disappearing.) Though if you pop into a Morrisons store, or the Warrington one there is a sandwich board with a letter from Ken Morrison addressing the changes.

I don't see anything wrong with the Morrisons brand to be honest, but it does mean that the Safeway brand will have to be sacrificed, plus Safeway will be adopting the Morrisons culture, as we have been told that Safeway managers have been visiting several Morrisons stores to see how different they are.

But heck if you have been in a Morrisons store (Like I have, though I work for them) it's not too bad, as they have good offers and things like that.