Canada Safeway Brings Back “Ingredients For Life”

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retailfanmitchell019
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Re: Canada Safeway Brings Back “Ingredients For Life”

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

storewanderer wrote: May 20th, 2020, 12:34 am Wow- Sobeys is actually opening a new Safeway banner store in Vancouver. Granted it is a replacement, but this is still surprising.

https://biv.com/article/2020/05/redevel ... pen-may-21
I'm surprised that Sobeys isn't using the Thrifty Foods banner for this store. Thrifty Foods (based in Victoria, BC, on Vancouver Island) has built a handful of stores in the Vancouver metro since Sobeys acquired them in 2007. They are a stronghold on Vancouver Island, but they only have 6 stores in the Vancouver metro.
Thrifty recently opened a store in Courtenay, BC (Vancouver Island) that is a former Safeway that closed in 2013.
I will say this though: The Thrifty in Delta has a very nice interior. Looks like they took some inspiration from early-mid 2000's Albertsons decor.
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Re: Canada Safeway Brings Back “Ingredients For Life”

Post by storewanderer »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: May 20th, 2020, 2:16 pm
storewanderer wrote: May 20th, 2020, 12:34 am Wow- Sobeys is actually opening a new Safeway banner store in Vancouver. Granted it is a replacement, but this is still surprising.

https://biv.com/article/2020/05/redevel ... pen-may-21
I'm surprised that Sobeys isn't using the Thrifty Foods banner for this store. Thrifty Foods (based in Victoria, BC, on Vancouver Island) has built a handful of stores in the Vancouver metro since Sobeys acquired them in 2007. They are a stronghold on Vancouver Island, but they only have 6 stores in the Vancouver metro.
Thrifty recently opened a store in Courtenay, BC (Vancouver Island) that is a former Safeway that closed in 2013.
I will say this though: The Thrifty in Delta has a very nice interior. Looks like they took some inspiration from early-mid 2000's Albertsons decor.
Thrifty Foods is kind of a joke. Those ones in Vancouver metro do low volumes and aren't very well located. They are smaller in size than the typical Safeway. Sobeys has really crippled the Safeway banner but of the ones they've kept open, they are still much higher volume stores than the Thrifty Foods are.

So I am not surprised they used the Safeway banner again; it is still a stronger and better known banner in Vancouver. Thrifty Foods looks like a cheap independent with discount prices; it is actually a very high priced store and a nice enough store but with average quality items at best, not at all what its name or logo implies.

I am wondering if both banners exist for Union reasons.
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Re: Canada Safeway Brings Back “Ingredients For Life”

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

I might be wrong on this, but Safeway is union and Thrifty Foods is non union.

Over in Calgary, Alberta, the competition is also very steep, maybe steeper than Vancouver. Both the Safeway and Sobeys banners are used in Calgary. Safeway has a very strong presence there (around 30 stores), while Sobeys has a smaller presence (around 15 stores).
Loblaws is also competitive with its Superstore format, and some No Frills stores (a few stores in Calgary proper, and some stores in the Calgary exurbs that were previously Extra Foods). There is also a Loblaw CityMarket store in NW Calgary.
Save-On Foods entered Calgary a few years ago, and has expanded agressively there similar to how Hy-Vee has entered MSP.
Then there is locally based Calgary Co-op, with around 30 stores.
Walmart has a handful of Supercentres there too.
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Re: Canada Safeway Brings Back “Ingredients For Life”

Post by storewanderer »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: May 21st, 2020, 12:50 pm I might be wrong on this, but Safeway is union and Thrifty Foods is non union.

Over in Calgary, Alberta, the competition is also very steep, maybe steeper than Vancouver. Both the Safeway and Sobeys banners are used in Calgary. Safeway has a very strong presence there (around 30 stores), while Sobeys has a smaller presence (around 15 stores).
Loblaws is also competitive with its Superstore format, and some No Frills stores (a few stores in Calgary proper, and some stores in the Calgary exurbs that were previously Extra Foods). There is also a Loblaw CityMarket store in NW Calgary.
Save-On Foods entered Calgary a few years ago, and has expanded agressively there similar to how Hy-Vee has entered MSP.
Then there is locally based Calgary Co-op, with around 30 stores.
Walmart has a handful of Supercentres there too.
That was what I thought on the union vs. non union thing too and why both banners Safeway and Thrifty may be existing.

Loblaws has I think a City Market in North Vancouver; a very nice store by any measure. Save-On Foods doesn't seem that great (it really did not impress me back when the Safeway was still connected to the US Safeway) but again they have seen an opening in how Sobeys has run down Safeway and taken good advantage of the situation. I really like Loblaws, I think they do an excellent job with their different formats (including the drug stores). They are an effective merchandiser with high standards for cleanliness and quality and run really good stores. Sobeys, based on how they have run Canada Safeway, is a terrible operator. I hope they run their namesake stuff better; it couldn't be any worse than what they have done to Canada Safeway.
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