Safeway Sells Canadian Operations to Sobey's

[worth]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

You guys just go at all the wrong times. 1030pm is the key

Past my bedtime.

[atb]

I'm assuming a big part of the cost was related to the goodwill associated with the Safeway brand (and the Canadian rights to the brand name). Based on that it would be silly to rename all the stores. Sobeys also runs a few other stores as separate brands, including IGA.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

Has anyone ever won that? Man, that $1M provision booked to their balance sheet must have sat there since the dawn of time.

IIRC Iginla once had four and opponent's goalie was pulled, he was asked about later and said that had he known about the promotion we might've tried a bit harder to get the empty-netter. That's the closest anyone's come.

[Daradon]

I'm surprised there is so little love for Sobeys. It's quickly becoming my favorite grocery store. The prices are a tiny bit higher I think, but the quality for a lot of things seens to be higher. I also really like a lot of their house brands. Their Sensations barbeque sauces are ridiculously good.

Plus it's nice not to have to navigate a warehouse just to pick up a few things.

[Minnie]

They're closest to us, so we shop there most. Our little Sobey's is pretty good (though I still prefer the Freson IGA). Our Co-op is ok. We had an Extra Foods that was absolutely horrible, that turned into a No Frills and actually got a little better.

Our Sobey's produce and meat are pretty decent. Co-op used to be horrible and Extra Foods was horrendous. You'd reach out to pick up a nectarine, for example, and come away with half of it in your hand because all they did was turn it over so the good side was showing, instead of throwing away the rotten stuff. Once it turned into No Frills, there was a vast improvement on that front, but it can still be pretty cruddy.

We stop at the Safeway in Chestermere sometimes - that one is pretty nice. We go to Superstore once in a blue moon but they're getting pretty nasty.

[photon]

Yeah the Safeway here in Chestermere is nice IMO, I prefer it to the Sobey's on 52nd and 17th Ave SE, so this kind of sucks, though I guess we'll see if anything actually changes.

Plus the Wal-Mart is going in at 17th Ave SE and the ring road, and I'm sure that'll be a Supercenter, and I didn't mind those the times I've shopped in them (no idea on meat quality, the produce seemed ok).

[LChoy]

Maybe it's Ontario thing, but I shop Sobey's here because it's the only place I can get Aeroplan points.
Will miss seeing Safeway when I'm back in Calgary though, although I'm use to going to Sobeys in Strathcona near my parents place.

[Ducay]

Apparently people's opinion on the brands really depends which location they're near.

In Strathcona, the Sobeys is garbage (bakery is good, produce and meat are 3rd world). While Safeway (Aspen, Westhills), I find are great, better priced, and produce/meat is always 100x better. Coop falls somewhere in between, but due to distance and high prices, I don't really go there.

Superstore is great for getting the NE experience anywhere in the city.

[Regular_John]

Man is this gonna materialize like another Future Shop/Best Buy thing? "Competitors" with essentially the same prices/inventory & the illusion of choice?

[Minnie]

If they really change things up with Safeway, this could solve our insurance issue, which is an advantage for us. Insurance may stop insisting we need to go to the Chestermere Safeway pharmacy to pick up the kids' meds, and just let us stay where we are, depending on what Sobey's decides to do about the pharmacy end of things.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Minnie

If they really change things up with Safeway, this could solve our insurance issue, which is an advantage for us. Insurance may stop insisting we need to go to the Chestermere Safeway pharmacy to pick up the kids' meds, and just let us stay where we are, depending on what Sobey's decides to do about the pharmacy end of things.

They likely keep that part as the contract will transfer ownership. Unless they dump pharmacy, but I find that unlikely

[saskflames69]

Safeway beats Sobeys in every aspect except deli. But Co-op blows them all away. Extra Foods is probably the worst.

[KelVarnsen]

The most sketchy meat department I have ever shopped at is the Safeway in Thompson, MB. It felt like you were taking your a chance with you life.

[Minnie]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

They likely keep that part as the contract will transfer ownership. Unless they dump pharmacy, but I find that unlikely

Well damn. Sort of. I like Safeway as a whole, just it would kill a couple birds with one stone if they did dump it.

Mind you, we just keep ordering from the usual place so far, and they've kept paying. So we'll see how that all turns out.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out, with the buyout. I hope it doesn't turn into some major clusterfackityfack.

[Mass_nerder]

Being in Halifax and only having Superstore or Sobeys, this isn't going to effect me, but I'm sorry to whoever is going to have to go from Safeway to Sobeys.
By far the worst grocery chain.
Want a tomato? Hope you like buying 10 in a package!
Want a green pepper? Hope you also like red and yellow, because they only sell them in packages of 3.
Everything is pre-packaged nonsense.

[puckluck2]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

Costco > Co-Op > all the rest

Co-op? Yeah if you're 70+ and like paying higher prices. Meat is pretty much the only thing I'll get from co-op.

[Deegee]

Safeway has all union employees don't they? Now they are selling out. Wonder why...

[DownInFlames]

Originally Posted by Deegee

Safeway has all union employees don't they? Now they are selling out. Wonder why...

Sobey's workers belong to the same union. So keep wondering.

[Super-Rye]

Originally Posted by puckluck2

Co-op? Yeah if you're 70+ and like paying higher prices. Meat is pretty much the only thing I'll get from co-op.

?

Co-op is cheaper than Sobeys and usually very comparable to Safeway. When you factor in the money you get for being a co-op member (i think it's 2.5 or 3.5%) Co-Op is actually cheaper.

Having worked at Sobey's I can attest to the fact that they treat their employees terribly. It'll be interesting to see how they handle the union they just picked up. Last time they did this they tried to or atleast were planning on firing everyone.

Sobey's workers belong to the same union. So keep wondering.

The only Sobeys store that is unionized is Forest Lawn.

[Devils'Advocate]

Sobeys was actually my first computer job (worked on their inventory systems).

Here in Ottawa, they tend to be the highest priced store of all. However, remember that Sobeys isn't just Sobeys. They could choose to make the Safeways into one of their other stores. Foodland, FreshCo, Price Choppers... all of which sell the same Our Compliments stuff and the regular brand stuff, but at a cheaper price.

Or it could be a means of breaking into the BC marketplace where Sobeys only has 3 stores.