Yet another rant at Morrisons

Since this thread shouldn't be here, I've deliberately refrained from posting in it, but yeah, I've noticed it to - the metropol thread has 400 views and 19 replies spanning two pages. Whilst the TV Forum thread has 1890 views, 59 replies and is now into it's 5th page.

It's also been going for nearly 36 hours without any moderator intervention.

So in that case, I might as well join in.


This is an interesting point. Until last year, the main Tescos in Plymouth, the one at Lee Mill, truly was the Tescos that time forgot. Still had 1970's red and brown signeage outside, still had 1980's red and beige panelling inside. When they eventually got around to sorting it out, the old store was considered too old to even bother refitting - so instead they built a brand new store on the car park, then knocked down the old one and that became the car park.

The result was a brand new 'Tesco Extra' format store, looking ultra bright and modern. Tescos had truly moved on.

The Safeway store in question now was the result of a similar operation - it was built new less than 4 years ago. It received the most up to date, fresh and modern branding which Safeway could offer. It looked good. Yet the gradaual Morrisonsinising which is now in progress is making it look like that old 1970's Tesco store at Lee Mill - the one which the UK's most succesful supermarket chain decided looked so crap that it had to be pulled down and replaced totally!

There is something very wrong with that. The upper reaches of Morrisons have surely got to realise that they are turning good looking modern stores into something reminscant of 1970's Tesco - will they ever sort it out?

What I find most ironic is that the crapness of Morrisons rebranding of Safeway stores was best highlighted in Morrisons' own picture from their own website on a page designed to praise up what they are doing; that picture has now dissapeared! Even their own web designers know that replacing modern refits with some pap which is at least 20 years old is a bad move on their part!

As far as packaging goes, Morrisons does seem to be in the process of updating its own-brand products. A lot of really naff 70s style labels have recently been replaced with more up-to-date designs - many of them reminiscent of Marks & Sparks' own label goods.

They also seem to be keeping a lot of the nice-looking former Safeway brands such as The Best, Eat Smart, Glencairn Spring Water and Cyclon washing powder, so it seems perhaps there's someone with some idea of style working for them. Maybe once they've finished on the products, they could move jobs to store design.

Talking about the modern-ness of Tesco's: here are a few pics of the store I work at:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jason.betts/2.jpg

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jason.betts/3.jpg

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jason.betts/4.jpg

Although since the pictures were taken, the 'Every Little Helps' plastered across the front has had to be peeled off - because the local ASDA complained the letters were 'too big'. (You might be able to see the lime green sign of the ASDA in the bottom pic - look towards the horizon!)

The store is also on stilts, with the car park underneath the building.

Cool, eh?

Has Mr Morrison made any comment about the absolute crap branding Morrisons have?


Our Tesco Extra is very similar looking to that (with no 'Every Little Helps slogan on it). Very nice looking inside and out. Their security system is a bit OTT though. Almost everytime my Mum goes to Tesco, the stupid alarm system goes off.

A dread to think what would have happened had a store like that opened where I live.

In my town we had an old fairly small Tescos with no room to expand so they only stocked the core food range and didn't have a cafe, toilets etc. The car park was always full etc.

Tescos built a new superstore with all those extras nearby and since then people in the local paper haven't shut up about it taking trade away from other small shops, causing traffic congestion, even blaming Tescos for the fact that nobody had bought the old store yet and it was becoming to look an eyesore!

They obviously can't win!

I have to admit I quite liked the old 1980s stly of Tesco stores, though I'm not sure why. I just think the old style looked better than the 1996 refit. Though the Mansfield town centre Tesco still had several 1970s/80s signs around until last year, though they were removed apart from a "public telephone" sign and a "no goods must be removed without being paid for" sign over one of the doors. I'm not sure how many Tesco stores are still around with the old branding though, the last time I saw any were in 2001- both of the stores in Scarborough, and the one in Worksop. Though by 2002, the smaller one in Scarborough had closed, and the other one had been refitted (though at that time still had the 1980s exterior signage) and I haven't been back to Worksop since 2001.

In the bigger Mansfield store, there used to be 2 sections, one was the supermarket, the other sold stuff like clothes, msuic, videos, homeware etc.... The 1996 refit extended the store (they knocked down the Garden Centre) and moved everything into the main store and the old section became a store room. The doors and windows are blocked off, but when the staff go in there and open the panelling, the 1980s entrance & exit signs are still there, as is some of the old decoration & signs (though some of the walls have been stripped and you can see the breeze blocks). The checkouts were still there until around 2000 as well.

I doubt it.

Has anyone seen the images of the "new" stores on the brochure available on their site?

http://tvforum.ath.cx:8080/tvftemp/morrisons.jpg

That hideous yellow and black sign just sticks out like a sore thumb IMO on those nice new glass shopfronts. It just looks so passé.

The pictures further up actually look more like the front of Stanstead Airport than a Tesco's Supermarket!

That sounds odd. Is there a maximum permitted size of lettering?

The massive glass box Tesco Extra stores are fairly common designs - I've seen identikit ones in Glasgow (St Rollox) and Edinburgh (Corstorphine) - although the Inverness store was a bit of a different design.


I think the shiny new Morrisons stores pictured above are actually rebranded Safeway stores - the green columns are a bit of a giveaway, but the glass atriums with towers (and clocks) seemed to be a popular late 90s Safeways thing.

Morrisons Miles (Reason 86, if anyone's counting) is a bit of a rip-off, though. You need to spend roughly £300 on fuel to get a fiver off your shopping. Compare with Tesco, where spending £500 on anything * (not just fuel) will get you a fiver shopping voucher.

In the nasty yellow place's defence though, their dry cleaners can wash my suit over the weekend for far less than the wee place down the road, and far quicker too.

*exclusions probably apply, etc

as with all of the supermarkets - apart from the big 3, where you live will dictate whether or not you see the other chains. we don't have a waitrose, morrisons, safeway or somerfield around here.

added to the fact that "co-op"s are in fact separate limited companies around the country. so whilst midlands co-op, west midlands co-operative, heart of england co-op have a fair few superstores, convenience stores, funeral parlours, travel agents, dairies around here, if you live in an area where the local co-operative society isn’t as strong, then its likely you wont come into contact with it.

Are they not co-operative societies, rather than limited companies?

Anyhow, there's a list of co-ops in the UK at http://www.cooponline.coop/
The Co-operative Group own, amongst other things, Alldays, and The Cooperative Bank (and Smile.co.uk, which is handy if you're after an ethical online bank)