Safeway Sells Canadian Operations to Sobey's

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Co-op is not only higher quality but they actually have what you're looking for. If I go shopping I'm usually picking up specific ingredients for 2-3 meals I want to cook, plus an assortment of other stuff. If I go to Safeway, without fail, I can be sure they will simply not have at least a couple of the things I want. However, they'll stock five different varieties of something else that's of no use to me.

For example, I was making chicken tagine last week. It requires pitted green olives. Not too tall an order, right? Well, Safeway in Kensington had 3 different types of green olives with pits in and five varieties of green olives stuffed with garlic or pimentos. None without. I ended up just buying the ones with pimentos and taking out the pimentos, which is annoying.

This happens all the time. They'll have 8 different types of flour but no corn meal, or three varieties of unsweetened baking chocolate but no semi-sweet, or 15 different types of mixed greens but no arugula, or a shelf full of curly parsley but no flat leaf. Just an exercise in frustration shopping there.

[Flabbibulin]

The quality of the Safeways and Co op is obviously different depending on the location. I am not sure using the kensington safeways as a standard is a good idea. The Westhills and Aspen locations are considerably better. The westhills one is massive, possibly the biggest safeways in the city, and I never have too many complaints about what is available or quality. The Richmond Rd Co op on the other hand is awful, while the Wentworth/Aspen one is awesome. I am sort of in the middle between all these locations, but typically default to westhills safeways.

[HotHotHeat]

Originally Posted by Flabbibulin

The quality of the Safeways and Co op is obviously different depending on the location. I am not sure using the kensington safeways as a standard is a good idea. The Westhills and Aspen locations are considerably better. The westhills one is massive, possibly the biggest safeways in the city, and I never have too many complaints about what is available or quality. The Richmond Rd Co op on the other hand is awful, while the Wentworth/Aspen one is awesome. I am sort of in the middle between all these locations, but typically default to westhills safeways.

It definitely varies by location, fair point.

Overall, I would argue Safeway has set themselves up with the best locations of any chain in the city. Kensington, Montgomery, Mardaloop, Beltline, all could be converted to cater more to take away and higher end customers, yet they are among the most rundown. I don't think Kensington Safeway has been renovated since the late 90's. I'm hoping Sobey's shuts all their Safeway locations and sells the properties, no shortage of other brands that could make a go of it in those spots.

And just a reminder; Sobey's vowed to lower prices four months ago, yet everything I regularly buy is more expensive now than a year ago.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...ices-1.3428429

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Really its the only choice if that's what one cares about. Sad state of affairs. Lack of competition in the space based on quality product is ultimately bad for customers.

IMO it's more due to the majority of people simply caring about price over quality hence the popularity of Superstore. If you are on a tight budget I can understand but I personally can't stand the Superstore experience.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

IMO it's more due to the majority of people simply caring about price over quality hence the popularity of Superstore. If you are on a tight budget I can understand but I personally can't stand the Superstore experience.

I used to hate Superstore but since moving to Airdrie it's grown on me. Not as bad as the ones in Shawnessy or 130th I used to go too in Calgary.

That said, there's going to be a new co-op accross from my place built in the next few years, I'll definitely be going there

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

Overall, I would argue Safeway has set themselves up with the best locations of any chain in the city. Kensington, Montgomery, Mardaloop, Beltline, all could be converted to cater more to take away and higher end customers

Montgomery... higher end customers. You're a funny guy.

[Fire of the Phoenix]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

I'm hoping Sobey's shuts all their Safeway locations and sells the properties, no shortage of other brands that could make a go of it in those spots.

You're basically hoping that a whole bunch of working class people get ####ed over because Sobeys bit off more than they could chew.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Really its the only choice if that's what one cares about. Sad state of affairs. Lack of competition in the space based on quality product is ultimately bad for customers.

Safeway/Sobeys, Superstore, Co-op and Walmart. Honestly, four major brand options is high competition in Canada. If the quality of the produce is so bad, it is probably more because people tolerate it by buying low quality stuff.

Also, F Superstore. I will never shop there voluntarily, for any reason.

[taco.vidal]

Save on Foods also has four locations in Calgary.
https://www.saveonfoods.com

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Safeway/Sobeys, Superstore, Co-op and Walmart. Honestly, four major brand options is high competition in Canada. If the quality of the produce is so bad, it is probably more because people tolerate it by buying low quality stuff.

Also, F Superstore. I will never shop there voluntarily, for any reason.

[Resolute 14]

Yup. I could add Costco too. And, in the summer, farmers markets.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Here's another gripe about Sobeys - the pricing on baby formula.

Store generally have two approaches:

1) Price it low to drive traffic to the store. Superstore does this and prices is about ~$28 a can of Nestle.

2) Try and stick it to desperate parents: and charge them way more: ~$38 a can.

You can guess what New Safeway does.

Old Safeway used to charge $30 or so for a can, with the odd coupon or Air Miles giveaway to make it competetive with Superstore. Now? Sobeys charges $38 with some BS "new lower prices" yellow sign to bring it down to $35.xx. Roughly bringing it on par with that king of deals: Shoppers Drug Mart.

One less thing I get from Safeway - and another reason to shop Costco/Co-op

[tete]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

Here's another gripe about Sobeys - the pricing on baby formula.

Store generally have two approaches:

1) Price it low to drive traffic to the store. Superstore does this and prices is about ~$28 a can of Nestle.

2) Try and stick it to desperate parents: and charge them way more: ~$38 a can.

You can guess what New Safeway does.

Old Safeway used to charge $30 or so for a can, with the odd coupon or Air Miles giveaway to make it competetive with Superstore. Now? Sobeys charges $38 with some BS "new lower prices" yellow sign to bring it down to $35.xx. Roughly bringing it on par with that king of deals: Shoppers Drug Mart.

One less thing I get from Safeway - and another reason to shop Costco/Co-op

Odd question, but have you tried the Kirkland formula? It's great - super cheap, like half the price of the rest and doesn't leave that gritty residue that most other formula does. If the babe is okay with Similac they'd be fine with Kirkland. (If your baby needs a specific one, just ignore this, but lots don't know about the Kirkland formula)

Back on topic - we used to be pretty avid Safeway shoppers and still shop there a bit, but we've started doing more shopping at Co-op - yes, it's expensive, but I prefer their meat and vegetables much more. I find the veggie and meat quality at Safeway has really gone downhill over the last while.

[GGG]

I would suspect the Safeway decline in produce quality is a supply chain problem due to the merger. Getting the right quantity at the right time is a challenge and if you arbitrarily switch systems with little training things go down hill quickly.

Target Canada essentially was ruined by it so I suspect that the quality of produce and lack of items is a supply chain problem.

As for superstore, since they opened all there tills on weekend its not the terrible experience it used to be. There produce is fine if you go before lunch.

[DurrDurr]

I can't even count on both hands the number of times I've picked up items from Safeway that have already been expired, some by as long as two weeks, and many of those dairy products. Is it pure negligence on their part, not cruising for expired foods as often or are they so cheap they're actually trying to sell us moldy cheese?

[Zarley]

This article hits the nail on the head. Shopping at a Safeway in the U.S. is a far superior experience compared to the bastardized Sobeys version we have in Canada now. My club card number still works down there as well.

How Sobeys screwed up Safeway in a messy takeover that left empty shelves, massive losses, and drove customers away

...“Empire keeps blaming price competition and oil woes for the disastrous losses of Safeway in Western Canada, but the reality is the Safeway stores are poorly managed by Sobeys,” said one consumer who spoke with the Financial Post and sent recent photos of empty shelves taken at an Edmonton Safeway store.

“Sobeys’ system is to only stock product three deep, whereas Safeway had much deeper inventory and would pay staff to keep shelves replenished. Long-time Safeway shoppers like me have been forced to move to Save-On or Superstore. We didn’t want to leave, but did so because of all the changes made to Safeway.”...

...But it didn’t take long for the first consumer grumblings to begin after the Safeway deal closed in November 2013. By April, Sobeys had eliminated a Safeway loyalty program that many customers liked as part of its efforts to integrate the two companies systems — a task that included everything from sourcing and technology to employee and customer relations management.

Consumers also began to complain about out-of-stock goods, especially when Sobeys switched Safeway’s produce supply, which had been controlled by its U.S. parent.

Meanwhile, bringing in Sobeys’ SAP back-office software led to technical hurdles and frustrated employees. Employee sentiment further declined after Sobeys centralized its Western Canadian head office functions to a building in Calgary from regional offices in Victoria, Edmonton and Winnipeg, and the issues continued to plague the business throughout 2015.

“There has been disruption across the whole way we operate, associated with the adoptions of new procedure (and) processes, and it had an impact on the operation as a whole which means that obviously service levels were also impacted,” Poulin said during the retailer’s second-quarter conference call last December.

“People have been distracted from customer-facing activities towards more internal-facing activities as they adopted new processes, and we’re not going to say everything went smooth on everything.”

Sobeys also assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that Western Canadians were indifferent to Safeway’s in-store brands, or at least neutral enough not to mind a phased-in switch to Sobeys’ house brand, Compliments, a situation that was exacerbated by corresponding out-of-stock packaged goods throughout the change.

“The customer base at Safeway was very loyal to the stores,” Charlebois said. “And Sobeys got rid of a lot of the things that those consumers really cared about.”...

National Post

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Zarley

My club card number still works down there as well.

Do you have your actual card? Or use the phone number?

I found my phone number no longer works.

[gallione11]

Originally Posted by Zarley

“Sobeys’ system is to only stock product three deep, whereas Safeway had much deeper inventory and would pay staff to keep shelves replenished. Long-time Safeway shoppers like me have been forced to move to Save-On or Superstore. We didn’t want to leave, but did so because of all the changes made to Safeway.”...]

As someone who used to work in the industry for a long time, that's just plain stupid inventory management except for only the slowest of stores. The one I mainly worked was was considered medium volume, and we still had out of stock issues even with every day ordering. (Average store count was around 300 daily). And we're talking stuffing the shelves on most high movers.

The bit about adopting new procedures and processes is definitely true as well. Albertson's parent company acquired the US Safeway a year or two ago and the switch to a lot of new "Albertson" ways sucked and hurt the stores. I don't think it's as bad as the Sobey-run Canadian ones, but still worse than you might remember.

Happy I'm out of that field now.

[Zarley]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Do you have your actual card? Or use the phone number?

I found my phone number no longer works.

Home phone number was working as of last month.

[Weitz]

I find now the Sobeys runs the show, the safeway by my place (Sunnyside) never had milk that isn't going to go bad within the next 5 or 6 days. Brutal.

[Resolute 14]

Meanwhile, bringing in Sobeys’ SAP back-office software led to technical hurdles and frustrated employees.

Found your problem.

I really should have gotten into SAP development. It's the goose that lays the golden egg. You spend millions a year updating and maintaining SAP and yet it never actually gets better.