Canada Safeway Brings Back “Ingredients For Life”

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Canada Safeway Brings Back “Ingredients For Life”

Post by marshd1000 »

So in a effort to not talk all things Coronavirus, I found this interesting tidbit. Canada Safeway, as you know is owned by Sobey’s, brought back the “Ingredients For Life” tagline to it’s commercials. I was looking at their Facebook page today to see about their response to the crisis. In doing so, I found the resurrected tagline. So it looks like 2 months ago, in a different world, they brought it back. New commercials were posted about a month ago. This kind of reminds me of Safeway UK when they not only kept the “Everything you want from a store and a little bit more!” jingle longer than Safeway in North America but kept it after it was spun off as an independent company! I know that in areas like Alberta where there have been both Safeway and Sobey’s stores, they had joint ads, much like Safeway and Albertsons here in Seattle. I will check to see if Sobey’s adopted the same tagline! But here is one of the commercials!

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Re: Canada Safeway Brings Back “Ingredients For Life”

Post by Bagels »

Nostalgia is sometimes an effective marketing tool. It's sad what happened to Safeway Canada, but I guess the sell out was necessary for Albertsons' to acquire the core USA operation (and the interest in the Mexican chain).
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Re: Canada Safeway Brings Back “Ingredients For Life”

Post by pseudo3d »

Bagels wrote: April 3rd, 2020, 4:09 pm Nostalgia is sometimes an effective marketing tool. It's sad what happened to Safeway Canada, but I guess the sell out was necessary for Albertsons' to acquire the core USA operation (and the interest in the Mexican chain).
Safeway Canada was sold off in mid-2013, before private equities were officially reported to be sniffing at it. It was one of the casualties Safeway suffered as a result of the ill-fated 1990s-era acquisitions and Lifestyle branding, before Dominick's but after Genuardi's. The Casa Ley interest was offered up as a sacrificial lamb to appease shareholders; besides, Safeway hadn't done anything with it in decades.
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Re: Canada Safeway Brings Back “Ingredients For Life”

Post by Bagels »

pseudo3d wrote: April 3rd, 2020, 4:37 pmSafeway Canada was sold off in mid-2013, before private equities were officially reported to be sniffing at it. It was one of the casualties Safeway suffered as a result of the ill-fated 1990s-era acquisitions and Lifestyle branding, before Dominick's but after Genuardi's. The Casa Ley interest was offered up as a sacrificial lamb to appease shareholders; besides, Safeway hadn't done anything with it in decades.
KKR/Safeway definitely sold off the Canadian division to position the company for an acquisition:
https://chainstoreage.com/news/safeway- ... anada-exit

KKR was known to have shopped Safeway around, since at least the late 2000s. Kroger was frequently mentioned as having the most interest, but couldn't find a suitable party to purchase divisions (e.g. Vons) it needed to divest to gain government approval.
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Re: Canada Safeway Brings Back “Ingredients For Life”

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

Bagels wrote: April 3rd, 2020, 4:09 pm Nostalgia is sometimes an effective marketing tool. It's sad what happened to Safeway Canada, but I guess the sell out was necessary for Albertsons' to acquire the core USA operation (and the interest in the Mexican chain).
Safeway used that slogan from 2005 to 2015, when every banner started using the current slogan "It's Just Better". I don't see any nostalgia purpose in this slogan.
Is Sobeys paying Albertsons to use the "Ingredients for life" slogan, or does Albertsons no longer hold the trademark rights? I still see a few Vons semis with the "Ingredients for life" slogan on their trailers.
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Re: Canada Safeway Brings Back “Ingredients For Life”

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

This Safeway/Sobeys merger has been a failure so far. Stores are losing traffic as former Safeway customers now go to Walmart, Costco, or any Loblaws format (No Frills, Superstore, etc.).
Why? Sobeys has let pricing go up, and has let the former Safeways diminish. Safeway's well-known, high quality store brands have been replaced with the unfamiliar Compliments brand, which has totally outdated packaging. This merger has gone over almost as bad as the 1999 Lucky/Albertsons "marriage".
The truth is, the Canadian division was a cash cow for Old Safeway.
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Re: Canada Safeway Brings Back “Ingredients For Life”

Post by pseudo3d »

Bagels wrote: April 3rd, 2020, 4:52 pm
pseudo3d wrote: April 3rd, 2020, 4:37 pmSafeway Canada was sold off in mid-2013, before private equities were officially reported to be sniffing at it. It was one of the casualties Safeway suffered as a result of the ill-fated 1990s-era acquisitions and Lifestyle branding, before Dominick's but after Genuardi's. The Casa Ley interest was offered up as a sacrificial lamb to appease shareholders; besides, Safeway hadn't done anything with it in decades.
KKR/Safeway definitely sold off the Canadian division to position the company for an acquisition:
https://chainstoreage.com/news/safeway- ... anada-exit

KKR was known to have shopped Safeway around, since at least the late 2000s. Kroger was frequently mentioned as having the most interest, but couldn't find a suitable party to purchase divisions (e.g. Vons) it needed to divest to gain government approval.
Pretty sure that article is inaccurate, as KKR decreased its holdings in Safeway in the late 1990s (a 2004 article mentions KKR had since divested its shares in Safeway, with only Burd still in place as their legacy).
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Re: Canada Safeway Brings Back “Ingredients For Life”

Post by Bagels »

pseudo3d wrote: April 3rd, 2020, 6:11 pm Pretty sure that article is inaccurate, as KKR decreased its holdings in Safeway in the late 1990s (a 2004 article mentions KKR had since divested its shares in Safeway, with only Burd still in place as their legacy).
I thought KKR was still the majority shareholder, but I could be wrong. Regardless, Safeway's decision to sell its Canadian division was definitely a prerequisite toward selling the company:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-safe ... KE20131023

Credible industry publications claimed Kroger was pursing Safeway circa late 2000/early 2010s, but needed - and couldn't find - a suitable merger partner due to heavy overlap.
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Re: Canada Safeway Brings Back “Ingredients For Life”

Post by storewanderer »

At this point Sobeys has closed so many locations, Canada Safeway is only a shadow of its former self. I assume of the locations still open those are still "lifestyle" stores (I did go into a mid 90's interior store in North Vancouver last summer but suspect most of those left closed by now). Given this Sobeys seems to be a completely clueless and inept outfit, getting absolutely slaughtered by Loblaws in BC, and hurt even by Wal Mart in Canada which isn't all that strong, it would appear they are just bringing the old slogan back to save money. Why throw good money after bad on new slogans and new marketing?

They had the ingredients for life on the plastic bags up until last year when they changed to no slogan bags or maybe the bags say Proudly Canadian. They should be embarrassed with what they have done to Canada Safeway. Run stores into the ground, break the union and convert stores to franchise "FreshCo" stores with no service departments and limited hours/mix, few to no new stores. Definitely nothing to be "proud" of.
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Re: Canada Safeway Brings Back “Ingredients For Life”

Post by storewanderer »

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
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