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

[cwathen]

Wasn't part of the reason because they way Safeway worked was fundamentally different to Morrisons - ie the discounts they got on good etc was worked out differently to what Morrisons were expecting this caused the poor people 'up north (who after all cant count) to go into meltdown and not know where the money was going.

Changing the behind the scenes working was not in itself wasn't a reason to 'convert' the stores. There are so many things which they could have learned from their aquisition of Safeway - for instance Safeway operated three distinct classes of store, Morrisons have only one, and still have only one. Why didn't they go into the Safeway Megastores as they existed and see about developing a 'megastore' Morrisons format? Why didn't they compare the efficienct of checkout queries between Safeway's telephones and their flashing lights before deciding that voice contact between each checkout and other parts of the store was not required?

Why didn't they conduct a staff survey to see if they'd rather wear a Morrisons version of Safeway's modern uniforms or stick with Morrison's drab old fashioned outfits?

Now that they owned two brands, why didn't they look at the possibility of using both, with Safeway aimed at one market, and Morrisons at another? Or at least soft-introducing the Morrisons brand into new areas (much like the dual-branded marketing they used immediately after the takeover).

There is so much they could have taken out of Safeway. Instead they seem to have proceeded from the assumption that their own format was perfect and needed no modification (besides some minor details like retaining Safeway's 'the best' brand), and that the chain they'd just bought, and their style and way of working was not different, but wrong, and so could just be dispensed with.

Since they've disposed of everything of substance but the buildings, I do wonder if it would have been cheaper for them to just launch a huge national rollout rather than taking over another supermarket chain - if they never intended to use anything they aquired with it except the buildings themselves, what was the point?

I really believe the wank handed way this takeover has been handled is going to come back and haunt them again and again. If Sir Ken had spent any time at all seriously thinking about what he was doing before destroying Safeway, he might not now have to be cutting 60 million working hours (which apparently will be mainly through 'staff turnover' - meaning that staff who leave won't be replaced, leaving the remaining staff with more to do for the same money) to shore up losses

[James Martin]

Hinckley's was completely overhauled and extended, however Safeway had planned to do this for some time so Morrisons had it fit in with the conversion programme.

It does look reasonably OK although it does have a lot of the 80s branding about it, and a bastardised Cafe which looks hideous - and had a smoking area introduced.

Can't say I really use it though - I prefer Tesco myself.

[all new Phil]

You're all going on (and on) about this drab image that you perceive Morrisons to have, and how "Northern" it is because we're all so poor up here :roll:

Wouldn't it be fair to assume that this "old fashioned" look they have is popular with quite a large audience? Much as I used to like our local Safeway, to me it was just another supermarket with nothing particularly special about it. It was never particularly busy, compared to the local Morrisons, which is usually heaving, and has been pretty much since it opened all those years ago.

I think we need to be a bit fairer to Morrisons to be honest. I'm pretty sure they will have carried out a lot of research before converting the stores, they won't just have gone about changing things willy-nilly. Just because most of you don't particularly like it, a lot do, particularly the older market (judging by the huge amount of pensioners that go to my local one) and that is obviously the market they are going for.

As for the comment about being able to smoke in Morrisons cafes... AFAIK you can't any more.

[nwtv2003]

As for the comment about being able to smoke in Morrisons cafes... AFAIK you can't any more.

Correct sir, it ended on Monday 30th January 2006, we even still have loads of 'This Cafe Is Now Non-Smoking' signs lurking about, amazingly we thought this would be a real test of Customer loyality, and those customers who preferred to smoke still come in on a Regular basis.

Staff are still allowed to smoke, but AIUI it will be ending sometime soon, sometime before the National Non-Smoking ban comes into effect in England.

[James Martin]

I think we need to be a bit fairer to Morrisons to be honest. I'm pretty sure they will have carried out a lot of research before converting the stores, they won't just have gone about changing things willy-nilly

I believe they didn't research it, and they did change stuff willy-nilly!

[all new Phil]

Well that's very nice for you James, dear.

[cwathen]

You're all going on (and on) about this drab image that you perceive Morrisons to have, and how "Northern" it is because we're all so poor up here Rolling Eyes

I didn't perceive Morrisons to have a drab image - I'd just vaguely heard of them. But seeing what they've done to my local (virtually brand new) store, I fail to see how you can draw the conclusion that they are anything but drab and old fashioned - why else would you build a blockwork wall which isn't even painted or plastered in front of what was an illuminated frontage with fresh fruit and vegetables on it?

Imagine that you are Sir Ken and you had just completed the takeover of Safeway. Your own business was big in some parts of the country, but was an unheard of brand in much of it.

You had just bought a brand which had the national recognition and national coverage which your own could only dream about at this point.

You had taken over a chain with twice as many stores as you had, and with many stores which were either new-built or newly refitted.

The chain you had just taken over had more than one strategy with their stores (normal Safeways, the BP&Safeway joint venture, Safeway Megastore etc etc) whilst you only had one.

The chain you had just taken over had implemented more modern working practices (giving each checkout operator a phone rather than a flashing signalling light), implementing a computerised stock control system which can automatically order more stock rather than rely on a guy with a clipboard to notice you are running low.

Given that you've just bought alll of this - it is now your property, at what point do you do what Morrisons have done? What rational reason is there for doing what they have done?

Ever since their virtually immediate announcement that they'd be killing off Safeway and rolling out existing-format Morrisons nationwide 2 years ago, I've scratched my brains out over it. I still can't find a reason whiich can't ultimately be translated into 'willy waving from Sir Ken' - and is that any way to run a business? I've got more than an inkling that we're about to find out.

[rdobbie]

Not forgetting the most baffling thing of all - Sir Ken's decision to superglue pieces of black plastic with the Morrisons logo on top of the 24 hour "pay at pump" credit card slots on the Safeway petrol pumps. Now you have to queue at peak times to pay for your petrol inside the shop. Marvellous.

As with the removal of the phones on the tills, there is absolutely no business sense in destroying a great facility that cost a lot for Safeway to install and delivered added convenience to customers. It's simply one egotistical Yorkshireman saying "I do things my way - the old fashioned way".

Just look at Tesco - they're steaming ahead into the future: 24 hour store openings, express store formats, online shopping, banking, mobile phone tariffs, and modern and progressive in-house design team. And it's working for them - their profits are soaring. And Morrisons are gluing up credit card slots on petrol pumps. You have to laugh.

Either Morrisons drop this stupid resistance to embrace the 21st century, or their business will suffer badly.

[cwathen]

Either Morrisons drop this stupid resistance to embrace the 21st century, or their business will suffer badly.

The question though, is how can they do that now? They've now refitted all the stores they're going to keep at great expense - an expense which has led to them trading at a loss for a whole year for the first time in more than a century.

Even if they decided now that it was a good idea to modernise, what are they going to do? Refit every single store? Again? Considering how much it cost to refit all the ex-Safeway stores, how much will it cost to refit the ex-Safeway stores AND the Morrisons stores which were allready there? And considering that this week Morrisons announced an 'optimisation' (i.e. cost-cutting) plan to reign in their £300,000,000 loss, store refits which aren't allready planned are surely off the table for a very long time.

Even if it was proposed, how will the Morrisons board feel about a proposal to spend a fortune putting facilities back into the ex-Safeway stores when they've allready spent a fortune ripping them out?

It appears that they are going to have to try and recover with the tired old format that they have, which doesn't appear to have much of a chance, and with the company now trading at a loss, they're in a much weaker position to change it. When they bought a bigger chain than themselves, they really only had one shot at integrating that chain well into their business. Yet instead of lots of serious research and planning into how they were going to proceed, a ranting Yorkshireman proclaimed "I don't like change me. I want 'em all exactly't same 'us them we allready 'ad" That I feel, is going to cost him dearly over the next few years (incidentally, 'success was just around the corner' in July 2004 as the half-cocked 'conversion' programming shifted into high gear. Umm, how big actually is this corner Ken?).

[James Martin]

This is the point though. It would have made so much more sense to roll Safeway out across the existing Morrisons stores and I think the point about Ken being up himself hits the nail on the head.

He's the epitome of the "Northern Tosspot" IMO. Let's be honest.

[Fireboy]

This is the point though. It would have made so much more sense to roll Safeway out across the existing Morrisons stores and I think the point about Ken being up himself hits the nail on the head.

He's the epitome of the "Northern Tosspot" IMO. Let's be honest.

What the fuck is an epitome? Done a Google define:, which throws up defenitions that make no sense what-so-ever.

Also I don't know what this is about Morrisons only damaging business in the south, there were no Morrisons branches within 40 miles of here before they took over Consett Safeway.

The sad thing is that Consett Safeway was so bad to start with, I fail to see the difference now...