Loblaw has announced plans to pilot a new ‘no name’ grocery store concept, which it says will offer “up to 20%” savings on food and household items. How will this be achieved? It will have stores that have lower operating costs and only carry a select line of products.
“Our goal is simple – providing food and essential household items across a limited range of national brands and no name brand products at our lowest possible price,” said Per Bank, President and CEO, Loblaw, in a statement on Thursday.
“Since food inflation took off globally, we have been laser-focused on doing what we can to keep prices lower for customers, including opening more discount food locations in more parts of the country. This new test concept allows us to pass on lower prices to our customers – it’s a completely different and simplified shopping experience,” said Bank.
The ‘no name’ stores, named after the line of brand-free white label items made for Loblaw companies, will reduce costs by implementing shorter operating hours (10am-7pm), carrying fewer products, limiting marketing efforts, and avoiding refrigeration (that means no dairy or fresh meat). Fewer deliveries to this store means lower logistics expenses as well, said Loblaw.
Loblaw says the stores will offer a curated selection of 1,300 top-selling pantry staples and household goods. There will be a limited selection of frozen foods, along with pantry staples and shelf-stable bakery and produce, such as apples, bananas, peppers and carrots.
Response online echoed this Loblaw move echoed the telecom playbook. “The grocery oligopoly is doing the telco playbook to a tee. This is basically Loblaw’s Chatr,” said Peter Nowak.
Essentially, this is the equivalent of a self-serve, basic, prepaid wireless brand, but a grocery store with limited hours and selection of only white-label brands. Welcome to Canada, folks.
Loblaw already has a No Name Mobile wireless service that runs on the Bell 4G LTE network, available at No Frills.
The pilot will launch in September 2024 in Windsor, St. Catharines, and Brockville.
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
