Metropol

dvboy wrote: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'm the writer of the blog posted above... and not only is there stores really really warm, they make us dress up like a pr**k.... bloody shirt and tie job.

I can understand it in a office, but why make shelf stackers wear a shirt and tie... not just a shirt, but a bloody WHITE shirt.

If you don't like the uniform, find a new job where fashion comes first. If you think you had a bad, when I worked at Safeway ten years ago, I had to wear a clip on bow tie and a green tank top!

I think his point is the obvious stupidity of shirt and tie when on grocery. You had the choice in Somerfield when I worked there, and I tried it once and hated it. Aertex shortsleeve top is much easier to work with.

russnet wrote:If you don't like the uniform, find a new job where fashion comes first. If you think you had a bad, when I worked at Safeway ten years ago, I had to wear a clip on bow tie and a green tank top!

Personally I don't believe that the uniform is not too bad, at the moment my uniform consists of a Morrisons short sleeved shirt, a Morrisons Tie, Black Trousers and dependent on which department you are on an apron and cap are neccessary, but they're not too bad.

I know someone who works at Somerfield and his uniform is worse, it is currently a green shirt! Though I can be certain there has been worse.

I noticed today in the Hawick Safeways (which is quite big) that Morrisons have started clagging their logo onto the safeway EatSmart range. I'm not sure whether this is because Morrisons didn't have a diet range or whether they are now using safeway suppliers after the amount of complaints about shoddy Morrisons junk.

What Morrisons should have done of course is use the Safeway brand and get rid of their own stores but the man is such an egomanic he could never have done such a thing.

Hello people!
I've only just joined, but have been reading this thread with interest!
For my sins I live in Morrison's homeland.. Bradford, and have always had a loathing for said company.
When I was at school in about 1986 we had a course called Applied Art & Design, and even then I clearly remember the whole class shooting Morrisons down because of it's shoddy image. I mean... black and yellow? And that was just a class of 16 year olds!
I agree that Sir Ken would never in a million years got rid of the Morrisons name after taking over Safeway, but what I would of suggested is adopting Safeway's logo (ie the colour, font and squiggly line) but replacing the name with Morrisons. It could have looked good and would of made the transition easier to deal with for Safeway customers.
Also, it would of been a damn sight cheaper... there would of been alot less stores to rebrand!

Hymagumba wrote:I noticed today in the Hawick Safeways (which is quite big) that Morrisons have started clagging their logo onto the safeway EatSmart range.

You may not have noticed that they have done the same thing to Safeway's "The Best" range as well.

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I see on the Safeway website that Wm Morrison was voted Retailer of the Year by Retail Week Magazine. From the Retail Week Awards website:

This retailer will be, in view of the judging panel, simply the best terms of performance, drive for innovation and new ideas right across the business. The company will have an enviable track record and be able to show that it is ahead of the competition, not just in strategy and financial performance, but also in terms of people management, training, marketing, merchandising and other initiatives. This award is not about the size of the business, but genuine all-round excellence and its overall contribution to retailing in the UK.

The question is: did Wm Morrison deserve the award?

MarkN wrote:

Hymagumba wrote:I noticed today in the Hawick Safeways (which is quite big) that Morrisons have started clagging their logo onto the safeway EatSmart range.

You may not have noticed that they have done the same thing to Safeway's "The Best" range as well.

Yeah, Morrisons have 'adopted' quite a few of Safeway's ranges, the Italian ready meals range is another one. All they've done is tweak the fonts a bit and replace the Safeway logo with the chavvy 'M' logo. Interestingly they've brought these ranges into the original Morrisons stores as well.

So there's clearly at least one person at Morrisons who realises that the quality of Safeway's packaging and what lies inside is far superior to the existing Morrisons counterpart.

But sadly around 95% of Safeway's own brand products are being obliterated and being replaced with the cheap Morrisons muck. When you think that decades of delicate, painstaking product development went into all that Safeway own brand stuff - and it gets wiped out virtually overnight. Quite a shame really because they had some products you couldn't get anywhere else. It must be a really big blow for the actual suppliers of Safeway products too, just to be suddenly told their contract is finished.

It all seems to be ego-driven rather than intelligence-driven. I just can't see the affluent ex-Safeway shoppers of the South of England taking kindly to all that KwikSave-style stuff with the 'M' on it, no matter how much cheaper it is.

Aye, it's a bad intregation policy. All the crappy Morrisons stuff should have been dumped and the Safeway stuff used instead.

I can see why they'd want to keep the name but they should have replaced, as said, the Morrisons corporate image with Safeway's and ditched all the tacky stuff (including the uniforms... ugh)

They also dumped Safeway's Shop & Go system which was a damn stupid thing to do.

The Leicester Safeway has been done this Summer and now looks hideous. The Hinckley one is due to get the tack treatment in the next month or so.

Shop and Go was being ditched by safeways themselves JM. It lost them too much money.