Metropol

Martin Phillp wrote:I suspect like all Morrisons decisions of recent years that it's too little, too late.

Bring on the merger with one of the big four.

... Morrisons are themselves one of the big 4. It could never happen.

Remember that Morrisons themselves were required to divest 53 superstores from the chain after taking over Safeway. The big 3 were told to get lost by the Competition Commission when they entered bids for Safeway.

The only takeover prospects are from otherwise groups who don't already compete (Kingfisher/Arcadia; although both are now concentrating on specific sectors rather than being the one-for-all stables they became in the late 90s) and/or overseas groups.

A better view, care of SirKen's twitter feed: https://twitter.com/retailsnoop/status/ ... 4659756032

Looks brilliant I think. A shame it didn't come 11 years ago, when they were in the process of rebranding 150ish stores, or 4 years on when they changed the logo - a bit.

Not sure on the logo, Morrisons always seem a bit behind the times with logos, the stores are looking better but logo and uniform wise it's a time warp.

So Morrison only sells lemons now right? Or is it foreshadowing that they become one, a lemon?

The eleven stores to close are Burnham-on-Sea, Castletown in Sunderland, Clevedon, Little Hulton, Northallerton, Oldbury, Salford, Shildon, Streatham, Tyldesley and West Bromwich.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/yo ... ng-6449198

Oh balls, I just did a load of internet surfing to compile a list of the histories of the 11 stores listed above, then lost it all through user error.

Anyway, it was an interesting mixed bag ranging from the very old to the very new; roughly a 4-way split between stores that were previously Safeway, Netto, Somerfield (one a former Kwik Save) and purpose-built Morrisons.

The latter were the most surprising, as they both opened in 2011 (Salford and West Bromwich).

Incidentally, I've never come across a single case of a purpose-built "classic" Morrisons having reopened as something else. Does anyone know of such an example? When the Competition Commission ordered Morrisons to sell X number of stores in 2004, did Morrisons only get rid of former Safeway properties? I'd be interested to see how another brand dealt with a refit of an original Morrisons, given the stylised architecture and layout.

In time for 5th October, the current Morrisons bags for life have gone down from 12p to 10p.

rdobbie wrote:Oh balls, I just did a load of internet surfing to compile a list of the histories of the 11 stores listed above, then lost it all through user error.

Anyway, it was an interesting mixed bag ranging from the very old to the very new; roughly a 4-way split between stores that were previously Safeway, Netto, Somerfield (one a former Kwik Save) and purpose-built Morrisons.

The latter were the most surprising, as they both opened in 2011 (Salford and West Bromwich).

Incidentally, I've never come across a single case of a purpose-built "classic" Morrisons having reopened as something else. Does anyone know of such an example? When the Competition Commission ordered Morrisons to sell X number of stores in 2004, did Morrisons only get rid of former Safeway properties? I'd be interested to see how another brand dealt with a refit of an original Morrisons, given the stylised architecture and layout.

I thought all the ex-Netto branches had closed back in March? Which ones remain, and will that be all of them?

Seems that what Morrisons used to refer to as "Rump" stores (where the full 'market street' as was couldn't be achieved) are the ones which are going?

To answer your question, Southport Morrisons was sold to Waitrose at the time the Competition Commission insisted on a sell off (which looks appalling, has since closed and is generally troubled) and Ripon Morrisons was sold to Sainsburys (which doesn't look like it would have been a typical Morrisons). The 10 branches Tesco bought were all Safeway.

Streatham Morrisons is sandwiched between a Tesco and Sainsburys, so no real surprise there.

Martin Phillp wrote:Streatham Morrisons is sandwiched between a Tesco and Sainsburys, so no real surprise there.

Plus it's horrible as well.

gottago wrote:

Martin Phillp wrote:Streatham Morrisons is sandwiched between a Tesco and Sainsburys, so no real surprise there.

Plus it's horrible as well.

Most of the London Safeway conversions are pretty bad.