ClownLoach wrote: ↑August 27th, 2024, 3:25 pm
Interestingly enough, Loblaw's ACE Boulangerie breads are now being sold in the service bakery at Ralphs. I almost fell over when I saw the display. They are frozen and thawed in store. A lot of the ACE product at Provigo (Loblaw's version of a "Pavilions" type banner) appeared to be thaw and bake, with a few dozen items explicitly labeled as scratch baked.
Having spent a lot of time in Montreal and other parts of Canada, the 10-7 hours make sense. Nobody shops after 7pm except for drugstores. Everything else is dining, bars, nightlife etc. but not retail. It is a very different feeling country.
I went to Provigo when I was in Montreal in June. They seem to be the Montreal version of Loblaw and not really a premium operation.
Assuming you went to an "old" Provigo. There are quite a few. The "new" locations are beautiful. There are a few cases where they closed a Loblaws then opened a Provigo a few blocks away. The one on Jean-Talon near the Parc station is beautiful. But then there are also some real mediocre old stores like the one near Cote-Vertu, which seems to be a franchise operator. I should have mentioned that the newer premium stores use the name Provigo Le Marché.
I don't fully understand the arrangement of Loblaw and franchise operators. I've been watching as Loblaw in Western Canada scales back a banner called "Extra Foods" which was basically like "Superstore junior" and some even had light clothing departments, and converts them to franchise operations either under the banner "Independent" or downgrades the stores to "No Frills." What I am not clear of is if these "Extra Foods" things were corporate or franchise operators. I went into a very rural one before COVID and it seemed like it was corporate but it was an oversized depressing store for the town it was in, then it became "sold" and rebranded to "Independent" and under local owners with marketing methods similar to what you see Grocery Outlet do (owner photos, etc.)..
On the Shoppers Drug Mart side it seems the pharmacies are almost all independent operators but the store front ends are corporate operations. But I may not be fully clear on that either.
I went to Provigo when I was in Montreal in June. They seem to be the Montreal version of Loblaw and not really a premium operation.
Assuming you went to an "old" Provigo. There are quite a few. The "new" locations are beautiful. There are a few cases where they closed a Loblaws then opened a Provigo a few blocks away. The one on Jean-Talon near the Parc station is beautiful. But then there are also some real mediocre old stores like the one near Cote-Vertu, which seems to be a franchise operator. I should have mentioned that the newer premium stores use the name Provigo Le Marché.
I don't fully understand the arrangement of Loblaw and franchise operators. I've been watching as Loblaw in Western Canada scales back a banner called "Extra Foods" which was basically like "Superstore junior" and some even had light clothing departments, and converts them to franchise operations either under the banner "Independent" or downgrades the stores to "No Frills." What I am not clear of is if these "Extra Foods" things were corporate or franchise operators. I went into a very rural one before COVID and it seemed like it was corporate but it was an oversized depressing store for the town it was in, then it became "sold" and rebranded to "Independent" and under local owners with marketing methods similar to what you see Grocery Outlet do (owner photos, etc.)..
On the Shoppers Drug Mart side it seems the pharmacies are almost all independent operators but the store front ends are corporate operations. But I may not be fully clear on that either.
Here's the explanation for Shoppers/Pharmaprix. Somehow this reminds me of Chick-fil-A.
For some reason, franchise models such as these are very common and long-standing in Canada. There seem to be multiple models (from straight franchising like Tim Hortons and the classic supermarket model to more hybrid types like noted here for Shoppers or Canadian Tire.
I formerly worked for one of the Big 3 automotive companies, and they had dealership development programs which were similar in concept between the US and Canada, but had a far smaller investment requirement in Canada (logical because teh country is less populated and the vehicle fleets are different).
So all of these Shoppers front ends are actually controlled by the pharmacist who owns the store too. That is very interesting.
The way the stores are so heavily merchandised I thought the front end was run by Loblaw and the pharmacy was run by the pharmacist.
They seem to have a very tight grip on how those front ends run on the Loblaw end as far as things like merchandising, self checkout, pricing, etc. But they do seem to run a lot of varying promotions between store locations but that is like most Loblaw chains so I didn't think much of that.
There was some of this happening during the Target Canada debacle---the pharmacists who owned the pharmacies (they may have a law in some provinces requiring individual ownership of pharmacy--IDK) had put in some significant $$$$ to set up their pharmacies in the Target stores and were essentially locked out when TC went bust.
Shoppers may have migrated their model (that article was >10 years old).
Romr123 wrote: ↑August 30th, 2024, 7:21 am
There was some of this happening during the Target Canada debacle---the pharmacists who owned the pharmacies (they may have a law in some provinces requiring individual ownership of pharmacy--IDK) had put in some significant $$$$ to set up their pharmacies in the Target stores and were essentially locked out when TC went bust.
Shoppers may have migrated their model (that article was >10 years old).
It's old but my Canadian relatives indicate they still run the same way.
Romr123 wrote: ↑August 30th, 2024, 7:21 am
There was some of this happening during the Target Canada debacle---the pharmacists who owned the pharmacies (they may have a law in some provinces requiring individual ownership of pharmacy--IDK) had put in some significant $$$$ to set up their pharmacies in the Target stores and were essentially locked out when TC went bust.
Shoppers may have migrated their model (that article was >10 years old).
It's old but my Canadian relatives indicate they still run the same way.
I think when you make a purchase at Shoppers, the "legal name" of the pharmacy is printed on the receipt along with Shoppers Drug Mart.
I am not even clear if Loblaw controls the front ends or those are part of the legal entity that operates the pharmacy too.
It seems like between the stores like FreshCo, No Frills, etc., there are a lot of "opportunities" for store operators in Canada to operate their own store but be backed by these very large retailer/supplier groups. I think this model is similar to Grocery Outlet in the US.
Romr123 wrote: ↑August 30th, 2024, 7:21 am
There was some of this happening during the Target Canada debacle---the pharmacists who owned the pharmacies (they may have a law in some provinces requiring individual ownership of pharmacy--IDK) had put in some significant $$$$ to set up their pharmacies in the Target stores and were essentially locked out when TC went bust.
Shoppers may have migrated their model (that article was >10 years old).
It's old but my Canadian relatives indicate they still run the same way.
I think when you make a purchase at Shoppers, the "legal name" of the pharmacy is printed on the receipt along with Shoppers Drug Mart.
I am not even clear if Loblaw controls the front ends or those are part of the legal entity that operates the pharmacy too.
It seems like between the stores like FreshCo, No Frills, etc., there are a lot of "opportunities" for store operators in Canada to operate their own store but be backed by these very large retailer/supplier groups. I think this model is similar to Grocery Outlet in the US.
I'd agree with you w.r.t the pharmacy register, but never recall seeing anything but Shoppers Drug at the general merchandise registers. They frequently have trouble processing our US credit cards (requiring a signature which is difficult on the self-serve registers at their locations in DT Toronto). They have hot specials on consumables available at all stores which seems to lean toward more centralized control of front-ends/general merchandise.
They have a -lot- of franchising opportunities in Canada....with multiple types of support depending on your interest/capability/community. Canadian Tire is another hybrid type retailer with significant franchising (in addition to the standard hardware co-ops like RONA or Home Hardware).
It's old but my Canadian relatives indicate they still run the same way.
I think when you make a purchase at Shoppers, the "legal name" of the pharmacy is printed on the receipt along with Shoppers Drug Mart.
I am not even clear if Loblaw controls the front ends or those are part of the legal entity that operates the pharmacy too.
It seems like between the stores like FreshCo, No Frills, etc., there are a lot of "opportunities" for store operators in Canada to operate their own store but be backed by these very large retailer/supplier groups. I think this model is similar to Grocery Outlet in the US.
I'd agree with you w.r.t the pharmacy register, but never recall seeing anything but Shoppers Drug at the general merchandise registers. They frequently have trouble processing our US credit cards (requiring a signature which is difficult on the self-serve registers at their locations in DT Toronto). They have hot specials on consumables available at all stores which seems to lean toward more centralized control of front-ends/general merchandise.
They have a -lot- of franchising opportunities in Canada....with multiple types of support depending on your interest/capability/community. Canadian Tire is another hybrid type retailer with significant franchising (in addition to the standard hardware co-ops like RONA or Home Hardware).
I ran into that signature problem too, they seem to make it work at Superstore self checkout, but at Shoppers, for whatever reason the system doesn't work right when a non-PIN credit card is presented. I had them multiple times on a staffed register at Shoppers just throw away the signature slip and say it was "fine." Also if you tap your card it will not require any signature. By now most of us have enough tap cards probably that it shouldn't be an issue anymore. Additional tap cards may be the only positive that came out of COVID.
