RIP Safeway: 1962-2005 - Morrisons have finally done it

[nwtv2003]

Well, some good news on the front anyway, which appears that Morrisons is just about to enter into the 21st Century. We were told today that every Café will ban smoking which will come into affect from Monday 30th January, every store will be given display cards that will be put on Smoking Area tables in advance to this ban. In the same memo it lists the reasons what customers should be told about if they're unhappy with the ban, it consists of bullshit such as "Reserach has found...."

Overall I think this is great news, about time IMO and everywhere else has had the same policy for years, good to see Morrisons do this, better news for ex-Safeway stores which AIUI never allowed this either.

[Dr Lobster*]

it would seem as though morrisons are now in critical financial difficulties. i have heard from a well placed source that a number of stores are cutting staff hours (in an attempt to save money and prevent redundancies)

[Sput]

it would seem as though morrisons are now in critical financial difficulties. i have heard from a well placed source that a number of stores are cutting staff hours (in an attempt to save money and prevent redundancies)

Is this the same well-placed source that told you dabs and ebuyer were in liquidation?

[Dr Lobster*]

Is this the same well-placed source that told you dabs and ebuyer were in liquidation?

no this person actually works at the company in question.

i did pass on the other information in good faith - the person it came from was in an executive position in an it supplier company a few miles down the road and apparently had applied for a job there and had contacts in dabs. i don't know why she told me it, as it clearly wasn't true. it has to be said, we no longer deal with the company she works for due to a pricing dispute but if she ever rings me up cold calling i will ask her why.

[fusionlad]

the BP & Safeway petrol station near me has recently become a Tesco Express

So is it a BP Tesco?

No it's a Tesco branded petrol station too. The BP branding has completley gone. Quite smart actually, and very busy, as it's the only Tesco that's open 24hrs a day 7 days a week.

[Skytower]

the BP & Safeway petrol station near me has recently become a Tesco Express

So is it a BP Tesco?

No it's a Tesco branded petrol station too. The BP branding has completley gone. Quite smart actually, and very busy, as it's the only Tesco that's open 24hrs a day 7 days a week.

One I pass occasionally, that has switched from a Safeway to a Tesco Express, has sadly been downgraded in its opening hours - from being a 24 hour store to 6am - 11pm.

It was always a useful stop-off late at night for emergency supplies, and you still get the odd cabbie who slows down as if to pull into it, clearly forgetting it's no longer open at three in the morning.

[Johnny]

I'm not suprised that Tesco's have bought several of them considering they seem to be everywhere at the moment. Absolutely loads of them in East London & not a single Morrisons in sight but then again I don't remember many Safeways in East London anyway, the only one I know is in Stratford

BTW anyone else think Tesco's are going a bit too far now. On recently visiting the Gallions Reach, Beckton store they had stocked:- Mobiles, TV's, DVD's, PC's, CD's, hifi's, MP3 players, toys, a bigger magazine selection than WHSmiths, and paint!

There was also rumours about them opening high street stores (probably to finish off the local cornershop) & even their own dedicated opticians at one time although nothing more has come of this since abotu a year ago when I first heard about this.

[James Martin]

Why do you think they're leading the way in supermarkets in this country?

They continue on and on forward whilst Morrisons just get left further behind.

[Johnny]

Why do you think they're leading the way in supermarkets in this country?

They continue on and on forward whilst Morrisons just get left further behind.

Oh I know that my old man works for them (although doesn't speak very highly of them). I just think Tesco's Paint is taking it one step too far. I mean is it really neccessary, Wickes, Homebase, B&Q, etc have supplied paint for many years, I can't really see many people thinking "ooh, I'll go to Tesco's for my paint"

[nwtv2003]

The range of colours is pretty limited; along the same lines of Wilkinson's. I think the main reason for their paint venture was to have stock for their new fleet of Home Plus, entirely non-food, stores (one of which has opened I believe).

It's somewhere in the Greater Manchester area, and even on the day it opened it was doing quite well.

Even though I work for Morrisons (though I don't intend to for much longer) I have to agree that Tesco's is far better, more choice in everything, it's cheaper, not that crap and very spacious. Well I've only ever been in Tesco Extra and Tesco Metro, I think normal Tesco's seem hard to come by in my part of the world.

[Johnny]

Tesco superstores seem to be bottom on Tesco's priority list. Ironic really as they are what got them where they are today.

The efforts are now being pumped into covering suburbia in Tesco Express stores, converting out-of-town superstores into Extras and expanding the online company, most recently with their skype-esque VoIP service.

That's very true apparently the Extra store in Gallions Reach wasn't doing that well last time I was told back in mid 2005. It only really got big sales on Saturdays & Sundays