Metropol

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.

My local Safeway (Southport) closed last Friday to reopen this Friday as Morrisons.

The local Morrisons is closing down on Friday to become Waitrose.

tillyoshea wrote:

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.

My local Safeway (Southport) closed last Friday to reopen this Friday as Morrisons.

The local Morrisons is closing down on Friday to become Waitrose.

For Waitrose it must be their most Northern store, but wouldn't they have been easier if they closed the Safeway and changed that to Waitrose rather than the Morrisons, anyway I've been looking on the net tonight and if anyone wants more info

For Morrisons shoppers Morrisons
For Safeway shoppers Safeway

Both have pop up letters from Sir Ken Morrrison.[/url]

cwathen wrote: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).
.

I wouldn't say that. In the North there are loads of Morrisons and they are seen as fairly cheap and low cost, around the same level as Tesco.
I do wish they'd change their logo though, that yellow and black "M" looks so 80s

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?

I don't think I've ever seen a Local Plus, whatever one of those are.

Local Grocery franchises are very complicated as as you say you can't tell if your local owner is just changing his franchise or if there's been a national takeover, also you don't know if its just one of those shops where the owner doesn't care for how his shop looks and leaves defunct brand names about. There's a shop near me that still has an "8 till late" Spar slogan outside but hasn't been a Spar for years, also another one is still a 'Today's' although I'm not sure if that name is still going.

Co-Op is equally complicated as they are all different regional societies that use different brands around the country. Then there are also co-op department stores that use different names as well. In my area I believe there is the Yorkshire Co-Op society but also a Leeds Co-Op society, despite the fact that Leeds is in Yorkshire!

Andrew wrote:

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?

I don't think I've ever seen a Local Plus, whatever one of those are.

Local Grocery franchises are very complicated as as you say you can't tell if your local owner is just changing his franchise or if there's been a national takeover, also you don't know if its just one of those shops where the owner doesn't care for how his shop looks and leaves defunct brand names about. There's a shop near me that still has an "8 till late" Spar slogan outside but hasn't been a Spar for years, also another one is still a 'Today's' although I'm not sure if that name is still going.

Co-Op is equally complicated as they are all different regional societies that use different brands around the country. Then there are also co-op department stores that use different names as well. In my area I believe there is the Yorkshire Co-Op society but also a Leeds Co-Op society, despite the fact that Leeds is in Yorkshire!

Near us there's a Spar which for a few years during the mid 1990's changed to something like Centre Point, it was the same but it looked more hidious, but by the end of the 1990's it changed back to Spar which was quite odd, the same I'm told also happened to another Spar in the Warrington area.

Now for Co-Op, the only ones that exsist in the Warrington area is the Late Shop, which were originally Co-Op's, they changed to Late Shop's and now they've gone back to Co-Op Late Shop with Co-Op branding all over the place. For some time Warrington had a huge Co-Op down Sankey Street which was a supermarket and a home and lesiure store, in 1995 it changed to a Co-Op Gate House, it got rid of the supermarket and focused more on the home and lesiure, with it they got a new logo which was more upmarket than the previous one, but it closed and changed to TJ Hughes. Plus we still have a Co-Op Funeral Service somewhere and there's still the Co-Operative Bank on Bridge Street, the whole thing with the Co-Op as you said is difficult to explain.

Just think, Ison could have been working for Morrisons!

Seeing him in the yellow and black uniform would have been funny though...

Not sure when Hinckley gets its makeover... I presume they're putting all the Market Street crap in them? I don't know if I like the idea of not? Sounds like all the counters get lopped together in one place and the grocery in another.

Flava wrote:Just think, Ison could have been working for Morrisons!

Seeing him in the yellow and blue uniform would have been funny though...

Heeeeyy! I work for Morrisons you know.

But I don't have to wear Blue and Yellow uniform. AFAIK I don't think anyone has to wear blue and yellow.

nwtv2003 wrote:

Flava wrote:Just think, Ison could have been working for Morrisons!

Seeing him in the yellow and blue uniform would have been funny though...

Heeeeyy! I work for Morrisons you know.

But I don't have to wear Blue and Yellow uniform. AFAIK I don't think anyone has to wear blue and yellow.

What does 'AFAIK' mean?

Barrett wrote:

nwtv2003 wrote:

Flava wrote:Just think, Ison could have been working for Morrisons!

Seeing him in the yellow and blue uniform would have been funny though...

Heeeeyy! I work for Morrisons you know.

But I don't have to wear Blue and Yellow uniform. AFAIK I don't think anyone has to wear blue and yellow.

What does 'AFAIK' mean?

As Far As I Know

nwtv2003 wrote:

Barrett wrote:

nwtv2003 wrote: Heeeeyy! I work for Morrisons you know.

But I don't have to wear Blue and Yellow uniform. AFAIK I don't think anyone has to wear blue and yellow.

What does 'AFAIK' mean?

As Far As I Know

Ok

Black and yellow, doh

nwtv2003 wrote:

Andrew wrote:Co-Op is equally complicated as they are all different regional societies that use different brands around the country. Then there are also co-op department stores that use different names as well. In my area I believe there is the Yorkshire Co-Op society but also a Leeds Co-Op society, despite the fact that Leeds is in Yorkshire!

the whole thing with the Co-Op as you said is difficult to explain.

not really that difficult. there are lots of regional co-operative societies throughout the country, some pan-regional/semi-national in scale - some single shops. all of the societies are independent from each other - just like any company - and owned by their members.

their only link to one-another is their shared operating structure (being a co-operative company owned by its members) and purchasing goods from eachother.

there is no such thing as "the co-op" or a "national co-op". the nearest there is to a national co-op is CWS (also known as the co-operative group), who are a big society based in the northwest who run the co-op bank, and stores throughout the north of england.

and so, naturally (just like on itv in the past) branding of these wholly independent societies varies from region to region.