Loblaw to buy Shoppers Drug Mart for $12.4B

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by Reaper

WTF is RCS?

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Reaper

WTF is RCS?

Real Canadian Superstore. Usually I see it as RCSS

[Senator Clay Davis]

You can now look forward to No Name and PC taking over for Life Brand if nothing else. Otherwise I don't think we'll see much change.

[CaptainYooh]

We did a study on SDM and Big Rock brewery last summer and concluded that both companies were undervalued at that time. Perhaps, I should by some Big Rock shares now and get rich quick...

[TurnedTheCorner]

SDM had just acquired someone, Paragon or something? Oh well.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

Ah, I guess I just don't see Loblaws as only being Real Canadian Superstore as that is only one of their store brandings. Real Canadian Superstore is simply the brand used to get westerners to trust an eastern based company.

http://www.loblaw.ca/English/Utiliti...s/default.aspx

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

You can now look forward to No Name and PC taking over for Life Brand if nothing else. Otherwise I don't think we'll see much change.

Corporate cultures are very different though. SDM was a convenience + customer service oriented culture (hence, the price premiums). RCS is based on the lowest price oriented culture. I don't believe it will be just the product lines changing.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

Corporate cultures are very different though. SDM was a convenience + customer service oriented culture (hence, the price premiums). RCS is based on the lowest price oriented culture. I don't believe it will be just the product lines changing.

SDM: Convenience>Product Mix (new products)>Service>Price

RCSS: Price

[MRCboicgy]

Originally Posted by Reaper

Ah, I guess I just don't see Loblaws as only being Real Canadian Superstore as that is only one of their store brandings. Real Canadian Superstore is simply the brand used to get westerners to trust an eastern based company.

http://www.loblaw.ca/English/Utiliti...s/default.aspx

On a separate note, I did not know that T&T was owned by Loblaws

[GoinAllTheWay]

nm

[corporatejay]

Seems like Canadian Tire, Marks and Sport Chek have all managed to continue uninterrupted. I suspect the same will be here from an end user perspective.

[GP_Matt]

I would imagine that some store brands will cross between the stores.
And maybe Shoppers Optimum will be offered at Superstore.

Another change that might upset customers is the switch in banking partners for SDM. Shoppers partnered with MBNA a few years ago and offered a branded card. They have since switched to RBC this year and anyone who had the old branded card was automatically moved to an SDM branded RBC card. I can't imagine those customers will be thrilled about changing everything a third time as they switch to PC financial.

[PsYcNeT]

Read all about it on Bob Loblaw's Law Blog.

[MRCboicgy]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

I would imagine that some store brands will cross between the stores.
And maybe Shoppers Optimum will be offered at Superstore.

Another change that might upset customers is the switch in banking partners for SDM. Shoppers partnered with MBNA a few years ago and offered a branded card. They have since switched to RBC this year and anyone who had the old branded card was automatically moved to an SDM branded RBC card. I can't imagine those customers will be thrilled about changing everything a third time as they switch to PC financial.

PC Points and ATM macines

[Devils'Advocate]

Originally Posted by MRCboicgy

On a separate note, I did not know that T&T was owned by Loblaws

I think they must have been recently purchased because while you can use Loblaws gift cards at Independent Grocers and Superstore and just about any other store that carries PC products, you can't use them at T&T. I asked why and was told that their systems were not tied together yet but that they were working on it.

[albertGQ]

^^^

I think it's been at least five years??

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

^^^

I think it's been at least five years??

I think it was around 2006 when the president of Taiwan and his wife was convicted of embezzlement or something like that and it was the wife who owned T&T. What's stupid about T&T is that its more expensive than Superstore, which makes no sense.

[STeeLy]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

^^^

I think it's been at least five years??

I was thinking, no way it's been 5 years, I remember the news pretty well, I was thinking 2 years, max.

But you weren't far off, the buy out happened in 2009, and at a MUCH less amount compared to this Shopper's Drug Mart deal.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by Ducay

All that's left is for Loblaws to buyout Pattison's Save-On-Foods and the entire market is either Sobeys or Loblaw

Don't forget about Target and Walmart. I wonder if Target will move more towards the SuperTarget model in Canada.

I also think that there will be new entrants into the market. As a part of this consolidation, there will be grocery retail space available.

[AMG_G]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

I think it was around 2006 when the president of Taiwan and his wife was convicted of embezzlement or something like that and it was the wife who owned T&T. What's stupid about T&T is that its more expensive than Superstore, which makes no sense.

I don't think Cindy Lee is the wife of the former Taiwan President

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Shu-chen