Comet Logo

[Mich]

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.

No, I worked, at the Nuneaton store. I'm guessing that Focus are trying to get rid of Petworld. It makes much more sense to sell fewer big ticket items than stink the place out with animals. I'm sure one of the original ideas was to bring people to the store more frequently, but i'm not convinced that it worked.

Is the last comment re: The signs I mentioned. I was referring to, around the inside of the store, on all of the walls, above the displays, a green band running around the store with, "Building", and "Gardening" on it.

[Mich]

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.

I'm more of less certain that Morrisons will rebrand all Safeway stores, firstly the adverts in national press and sandwich boards aren't just done for fun. More importantly, the chairman of Morrisons, is Ken Morrison, a relation of the founder, and keen on the "Market Street" crap!

I agree that it makes more sense to rebrand Morrisons, but it won't happen.

I see Morrisons as an Asda like brand, but with "Market Street", slightly more yokel. Safeway have more in common with Sainsburys really. To put it in social class terms, Safeway are more ABC, and Morrisons CDE, merging the two will be quite a challenge.

[tvmercia]

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)

I thought the Co-Op had taken over the Alldays chain?

i heard that alldays went bump after franchising the stores - then buying them all back.

i have the feeling that CWS bought all of the stores, which were then sold on to local co-operative societies (excluding the areas in which CWS trade - northwest & northeast for example). midlands co op have since integrated all the midlands stores into the company, and i believe most of them are now trading well.

[cwathen]

I thought the Co-Op had taken over the Alldays chain?

All the Alldays stores near me changed to Local Plus in 2002.

Is that really part of Co-Op since they now seem to be replacing all their old store brands with the 'your local co-op <place name>' brand?

[James Martin]

When Somerfield bought out Kwik Save there wasn't that many changes to Kwik Save I don't think - the admin side is rather merged I think (or so it seemed when I worked for Somerfield) but Hinckley's got both Somerfield and Kwik Save working fine.

The big issue in Hinckley now is that Morrisons were supposed to be building a branch on the Bus Station site - only now there's the minor detail of a Safeway being in Hinckley too! And... they're not selling it off.

But they still reckon they can plonk their supermarket - which nobody in Hinckley wants btw, we need a cinema or bowling alley: we've literally JUST got a Lazerzone - on the bus station site.

I don't think so...

[Anonymous]

I dont know about u , but there is a lot of kwick save in the north and a lot of somerfields in the south.

[nwtv2003]

I dont know about u , but there is a lot of kwick save in the north and a lot of somerfields in the south.

There aren't many Somerfields in the North, in Warrington there's one in Stockton Heath and in Lymm and frankly I don't see what the fuss is about. Stockton Heath used to have a Kwik Save but it closed a year or two ago, as apparently it was 'out of place', plus no-one ever went in there, last time I went in was in 2000 when a tub of Pringles was 99p. Though from what I know not many KS stores have been rebranded to Somerfield.

Before Somerfield we used to have a Gateway and all of them have since disppeared.

[Anonymous]

I dont know about u , but there is a lot of kwick save in the north and a lot of somerfields in the south.

There aren't many Somerfields in the North, in Warrington there's one in Stockton Heath and in Lymm and frankly I don't see what the fuss is about. Stockton Heath used to have a Kwik Save but it closed a year or two ago, as apparently it was 'out of place', plus no-one ever went in there, last time I went in was in 2000 when a tub of Pringles was 99p. Though from what I know not many KS stores have been rebranded to Somerfield.

Before Somerfield we used to have a Gateway and all of them have since disppeared.

In Preston, Lancs there is still a Kwick Save store in the town centre

[Pete]

Well we now have a Safeway Compact in Kelso, it's very exciting, they've stuck the word compact between the squiggle and the name and stuck stickers on everyone's namebadges. So thrilling.

[Mich]

...we need a cinema or bowling alley: we've literally JUST got a Lazerzone - on the bus station site.

Well I doubt you'll get one. The population of Hinckley (60,000?) is much lower than Nuneaton (120,000+), and the cinema and bowling alley are only viable because of their proximity to Coventry.

[nwtv2003]

Before Somerfield we used to have a Gateway and all of them have since disppeared.

There's still one in Barnsley. Similarly, Barnsley is the only place I've seen a "NETTO" recently.

There's one in Liverpool, not too far from Knowsley, if you go to Liverpool via Runcorn and Widnes you go past it, the only place I know which has one.