Metropol

I might well borrow that picture for part 2!

Part 2 is up!

Looking forward to your Safeway comparison. It feels decidedly MegaStores to me - I'm sure at some point in their history Safeway did captioned pictures didn't they, also?

"Solid" is an unfortunate choice of words to describe a range of nappies, also

All puns intended!

Yeah, I've made contact with a couple of agencies who worked with SW and they're sending me some instore pics over, there's a load of influences, especially since director of format is a former Safeway man.

I think they did, I think the main concern over conversion wasn't necessarily just product, it was more 'feel' going back 10 - 15 years with the M signage etc.

It's going to be rebranded twice in 5 years which shows you how far behind they think they are.

SirKen wrote:All puns intended!

Yeah, I've made contact with a couple of agencies who worked with SW and they're sending me some instore pics over, there's a load of influences, especially since director of format is a former Safeway man.

I think they did, I think the main concern over conversion wasn't necessarily just product, it was more 'feel' going back 10 - 15 years with the M signage etc.

It's going to be rebranded twice in 5 years which shows you how far behind they think they are.

*facepalm* what a wasted opportunity the last two rebrands were. This would all have been avoided if Sir Ken would have had the humility to realise the best stores in the enlarged chain (in terms of format) were Safeway MegaStores.

I know ultimately trade in the older stores picked up following conversion (after a slump in the mean time), but based on anecdotal evidence I'd say it took longer for the Mega Stores to recover following conversion - as you say, it effectively took the stores from feeling ahead of their time to significantly behind their time!

But yeah, great that the Safeway talent is beginning to rear its head again. Get the feel of Wrexham out where possible (and Kirkstall where it isn't) across the chain, and they're on to a winner.

Any ideas why the eSELs aren't going in "stores of the future"?

From SirKen's blog:



I had to do a double-take at that photo... it could almost be the final Safeway branding before the Morrisons takeover. The font in the first panel is nearly identical to the italicised marker felt font on Safeway's POS (see here for example), and the lime green and British racing green colour combo was used extensively by Safeway on exterior and interior permanent signage, and was also the shirt and tie colour combo of their uniform (here).

The second panel, with the chalk/blackboard effect, is also reminiscent of a lot of Safeway POS (e.g. here)

I wonder if it's all pure coincidence, or if it's some kind of homage by Morrisons' latest design team to the branding that was so cruelly desecrated 7 years ago?!

Remarkable, I'll borrow a few of these pictures when I draw it all together. No doubt it'll please some of your pro safeway bods!

When the takeover happened, I was at JS and remember admiring Morr for their stellar stores, but based on what I've seen since. The SW model as a business was fundamentally flawed, as Ken put it 'their busiest day was when the promotions changed on a Wednesday'.

Brutally flawed but that's not to say there were good pieces, a document that I found from when the bid was submitted detailing the timescales was notably interesting, indicating there'd be real consultation about what to take forward, we may never know what caused Ken to rock up to Hayes and tell them it was a merger not a takeover and there were no doubt failings in how Morrisons took it over, their store environment when compared to Safeway was poor despite the fabric of M being better.

Some of the pics on that stream show it, the counters and such look great but the fridges look knackered...

There are a lot of stuff around profit warnings and the like but their way was the only way perhaps, I don't think their proposal to retain the SW name for convenience stores would have worked and selling them off wasn't the right move either......

Christmas blog for M and Asda now up, a quick look at what they've been up to.

Feedback welcomed, Tesco / JS to follow, anything you think should be noted for those then I'll add it in if you can let me know.

I know the £25 voucher deal must tick some boxes, but it strikes me as amazingly poorly executed in terms of logistics. It's the sort of deal where a loyalty card would certainly come in handy, but even with their IT allergy surely giving out a sticker or a stamp or something would be easier to process?

Wouldn't be surprised to see some form of Morrison's loyalty card in the future to be honest. They've made a real push on loyalty and customer retention so this seems the next logical step.

I'm enjoying the packaging on the new 'M Savers' range. Obviously inspired by the Sainsburys Basics range, but its nicely done.

all new Phil wrote:Wouldn't be surprised to see some form of Morrison's loyalty card in the future to be honest.

They could call it ABC, the Added Bonus Card.

Oh look, I happen to already have one here ready!