Metropol

cwathen wrote: Hmm...well in the town there's Armada Centre Sainsbury's which is rather grotty and dingy...

Yes... I think that Sainsburys is going for the early 90's look, complete with' J Sainsbury' signs. I think it got missed off about 5 reburbishment programmes for some reason.

Nice to see the dump below get demolished though. Roll on 2006.



Picture courtesy of Colin McCormick

There's a good chance of a new branch of Morrisons being built in my hometown of Whitefield soon . . .

Computer generated impression of what the new store might look like . . .

Plymouth's new Morrisons has just opened. I think they need to tidy up the car park a little though.





Sorry... too much time on my hands this afternoon.

For shopping I go to Safeway in Swinton or just Tesco in Prestwich near Whitefield.



Definitely needs something, maybe paint the lamp pole a different colour

DJGM wrote:There's a good chance of a new branch of Morrisons being built in my hometown of Whitefield soon . . .

Computer generated impression of what the new store might look like . . .

Looks better than the one at Warrington, it is stuck in the 1990's, which is the only downside, but it's a great company to work for. But if you think the one in Plymouth is a dump, go to the one in Leeds City Centre!

Morrisons gives me a headache. Their stores are tacky, noisy, too warm, poorly laid out...

I'm glad the two Safeways that I'm ever likely to use are both being sold to Waitrose.

I like the tack, but I agree about the actual building plans. They're absoloutly awful.

"Wheres the mayonaise?"
"Well, if you take a left by toiletries then right by the fish then go forward past the breads, youll see it next to the Jam."

I don't understand all the fuss about Morrisons to be honest. I work just around the corner from the one in Preston and I think it's really cool. Admittedly the store is pretty modern, but the inside of the store is really nicely done. Their cafe is also miles better than any other supermarkets' I know of. I'm not too keen on the uniform though but otherwise it's fab, and the products are excellent.

Saying that, I live very close to the Safeways in Longridge near Preston, and I'll be sad to see that change. It's in a great location, surrounded by a load of hills and fields, and I simply can't imagine it as a Morrisons. I've always thought of Safeways as being a nice place to go to for a change, whereas Morrisons is good for your average shop.

Saying that, I live very close to the Safeways in Longridge near Preston, and I'll be sad to see that change. It's in a great location, surrounded by a load of hills and fields, and I simply can't imagine it as a Morrisons. I've always thought of Safeways as being a nice place to go to for a change, whereas Morrisons is good for your average shop.

I think it's more of a north/south thing. Morrisons isn't really a brand which is identified with very strongly in the south. I have never even seen a Morrisons store, let alone shopped in one, and many (most?) people from the south can probably say the same.

And I think the resistance to it seems to be that Morrisons apparantly are going to banish the Safeway brand as quickly as possible. Perhaps in the north that doesn't sound so bad but looking at it from a southern viewpoint, all I'm seeing is a weaker brand displacing a stronger brand (even in terms of raw numbers of stores, Morrisons is weaker than Safeway), almost immediately.

cwathen wrote:

Saying that, I live very close to the Safeways in Longridge near Preston, and I'll be sad to see that change. It's in a great location, surrounded by a load of hills and fields, and I simply can't imagine it as a Morrisons. I've always thought of Safeways as being a nice place to go to for a change, whereas Morrisons is good for your average shop.

I think it's more of a north/south thing. Morrisons isn't really a brand which is identified with very strongly in the south. I have never even seen a Morrisons store, let alone shopped in one, and many (most?) people from the south can probably say the same.

That is quite true really as the majority of Morrisons stores are rather nicely designed and are very good for the average shop. But cwathen your views are shared with the majority of people who have contributed to this thread, well everyone except me and Phil, but I work for a Morrisons and all of the effort that goes into preperation of all departments is very high. If you go to one here in Granadaland it is like an Asda if you want to put it like that.

When it was my first day there we watched loads of videos one of them being: Why you should Invest, buy and work for Morrisons, which was presented by Dianne Oxberry that was very funny, but it explained alot about the company. It also says that they like to adapt to the local culture and have some form of monument or something, in the case of the Warrington store being so close to the Manchester Ship Canal that in the Café there are loads of pictures of Boats on the Ship Canal in the 1890's. Shame they can't do the same with the Safeway stores, but that would take years to do, as the amount of Safeway stores outnumbers the Morrisons stores by four times or so.

And I think the resistance to it seems to be that Morrisons apparantly are going to banish the Safeway brand as quickly as possible. Perhaps in the north that doesn't sound so bad but looking at it from a southern viewpoint, all I'm seeing is a weaker brand displacing a stronger brand (even in terms of raw numbers of stores, Morrisons is weaker than Safeway), almost immediately.

In a way you don't blame them as it is a takeover and they do want to make their brand work in the South of England, but they're doing it all wrong, they're doing it all at once which it isn't helping. IMO The best thing for them to do is to lower the prices and make people aware of the fact that Morrisons owns Safeway, but not as cheesey as the adverts, then bit by bit they should Morrisons-ise it, like the same way Carlton did with Central. People call Morrisons signs and in store promotions tacky I think the one's that Safeway have been using look like some reject Asda ones.

i think morrisons NEED a new logo and NEW corporate colours, then they might be in with a chance of looking almost credible.