Metropol

all new Phil wrote: Wed 03 Jul, 2024 13.51 I suppose it allows them to do an “*excludes Local stores” on adverts if they’re only running an offer in full stores. I don’t think there’s any supermarket with a blanket brand for all stores is there?

Not quite a blanket brand but I do think all M&S Simply Foods are just called Simply Foods regardless of size, whilst only full line stores are given the privilege of carrying the full Marks & Spencer name.
Although I have noticed some newer fascias just saying M&S Food / Foodhall so that might not be the case anymore...

I think the Simply Food name was replaced by Foodhall a few years ago.

Philip wrote: Sun 14 Jul, 2024 10.49 I think the Simply Food name was replaced by Foodhall a few years ago.

Foodhall is stand alone, simply food is franchise at BP garage / moto services.

At least that's how it was. It may have been ditched entirely as a brand now.

Pete wrote: Sun 14 Jul, 2024 18.02

Philip wrote: Sun 14 Jul, 2024 10.49 I think the Simply Food name was replaced by Foodhall a few years ago.

Foodhall is stand alone, simply food is franchise at BP garage / moto services.

At least that's how it was. It may have been ditched entirely as a brand now.

All the food halls, definitely used to be Simply Food at one point though.

As seen at Gosforth here which is relatively new - https://www.google.com/maps/@55.0122587 ... &entry=ttu

Seems the franchised sites kept the Simply Food name though but that seems to be getting ditched aswell now, see: https://motorwayservices.uk/wiki/images ... t_2023.jpg for example.

The Gosforth one opened as M&S Simply Food, was rebranded to M&S Foodhall, and is now M&S Food… three brands, and it’s not even been open a decade.

And the online store finder still lists it as Gosforth Simply Food.

tillyoshea wrote: Thu 18 Jul, 2024 13.28 The Gosforth one opened as M&S Simply Food, was rebranded to M&S Foodhall, and is now M&S Food… three brands, and it’s not even been open a decade.

And the online store finder still lists it as Gosforth Simply Food.

Never realised that got rebranded a third time. Must admit I was surprised it got a refurb into the new design aswell condsidering there's other stores like Cramlington which are older and haven't seen a penny on them since the day it opened.

The refurbs and rebranding does seem very random though in general.

gottago wrote: Wed 03 Jul, 2024 13.47 They're fitting out a new Sainsbury's Local between Shoreditch and Liverpool St, or at least I think it should be a Local as it seems to have no depth, but the signs in the windows so far are suggesting it's just "Sainsbury's". Possible phasing out of the Local brand? It did make me wonder if actually you do still need Local, Express etc in this day and age. We all know a city centre branch is going to be a small one with a tiny range so why flag it in the name? I guess it points out to some that there will probably be a price increase but is that something they want to flag as a company?

Ignore all this. They've slapped a great big Local sign up above the door. Though the location specific window stickers still say just 'Sainsbury's'.

Normal service resumes.

Sainsbury's have got a managed services agreement for their ATM's to NoteMachine who will take over cashpoints at Sainsbury's stores by May 2025.

https://notemachine.com/brinks-advances ... ainsburys/

My nearest Sainsbury's supermarket has already had their ATM converted to a NoteMachine one last week.

For the signage, they've used a slightly off Orange compared to the shade used by Sainsbury's Bank with again the font trying to emulate Sainsbury's, but slightly off saying "Free Cash Withdrawls" Underneath it has a sign saying Provided by NoteMachine.

The former Boots unit in Hammersmith Broadway is becoming a Sainsbury's local. The Boots was quite the time capsule when it was open, with older branding still in use everywhere. There are 2 (a large store on King Street, a 2 minute walk away and a smaller one about 10 minutes away down the Fulham Palace Road) nearby so the displacement isn't that vast.

So at some stage there will be a Sainsbury Local and a Tesco Metro/Express (forget which) in the same building, 30 seconds apart (again a similar situation further down FPR).

So far the works have been the old Boots shutters having orange stickers put over them and a Licensing application but no work seems to have happened.

My local Sainsbury’s is in the middle of a refit which, weirdly, is not something I can ever remember witnessing before. I’ve seen Tesco close a few stores for the purpose of a refurb (one of which accidentally took about six months), but presumably most stores are refurbished whilst remaining open and I’ve just never noticed it happening before.

Anyway, there’s a whole array of signage to explain how most things are now in a slightly different place to where they were before, along with some photos (presumably from other stores) of what it’ll all look like when they’re done:



They don’t appear to be ripping up the old tile floor, so I doubt it’ll look entirely like their images, but at the very least the purple Nectar price branded bay ends have started springing up over the past week or so. Beyond that, I wonder if they’ll do anything more exciting - they appear to have removed a load of kit from the in-store bakery recently, leaving a pretty sizeable (and empty) space. Part of the fake wall that blocks off the old counters has also been removed.

But, most importantly, little old bits of Sainsbury’s design keep getting exposed as they refurbish things, including some lovely orange and white subway tiles that have been revealed when peeling back a fake wall. I’m sure they’ll be covered up again by some shelving in a couple of days, but nice to see some old stuff peek through.