Goodbye Canada Safeway

Re: Goodbye Canada Safeway

Postby Eldon-Mr.CFAY » Thu Jun 13, 2013 6:57 pm

Hi Everyone, I take a strong interest in retail stores, have for many years regardless of whether I shop there or not, I like analyzing retail stores and what is going on with them. I got the habit from social studies in elementary school when we had to do some projects for stores in different geographical areas. Took an interest to that concept and later on it got me listening to the radio and dxing to find out what stores or department stores were in different areas from radio station ads. so it actually sparked my radio interest.

You know Save-On probably still has a larger book department in some stores than most supermarkets but the reason why we bought books and magazines there were the regular discount prices on them. Check Chapters out and there are no Daily discounts ever there, high regular prices except for their sale stock. Personally I do not like the way Chapters has cut back on a lot of non-fiction radio and electronic books in recent years. A case in point would be the World Radio TV Handbook which is published each year. Only a few of the big city Chapters in Canada carry it, in the past you could get it at practically any Chapters. Also when Save-On Foods had their daily bookstore discount you could save over 10 per cent on the price, it always has been a fairly expensive book. RadioFan used to get books at Save-On Foods too as I recall when they had a better selection. The North Vancouver Store and Coquitlam as well as Metro-Town still do have the larger book and magazine sections!!!!

I just got a message from a friend of ours in Calgary and she is not happy at all with the Sobeys merger, like a lot of big corporate purchases there will probably be downsizing or transfer of employees from existing Canada Safeway Headquarters in Calgary!!!! She says they are all waiting to see what happens but fears the worst in the next couple years like possibly loosing her job there or been given the option to transfer to Nova Scotia which she will absolutely not do! She might move to California to work for Safeway USA hqs. there. She really likes California a lot even though she grew up in Canada. Apparently she has really liked working for Safeway Canada for many years but is not sure about Sobeys at all!!!

Take care everyone and don't go looking for radios in the butcher shop, they don't have them there!!!!

73s Eldon
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Re: Goodbye Canada Safeway

Postby Rocky » Thu Jun 13, 2013 7:06 pm

Right Eldon, no radios but your choice of a new Jetta!!!!
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Re: Goodbye Canada Safeway

Postby former tv guy » Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:08 pm

Eldon - on the interwebs they have this place called Amazon... you can put a .ca or .com after it and search for the WRTV handbook. Youll find it alot cheaper than in stores.
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Re: Goodbye Canada Safeway

Postby Eldon-Mr.CFAY » Fri Jun 14, 2013 12:08 am

Greetings, Never buy online at all. That includes Amazon, I prefer shopping in person! Not my thing at all! Gee Rocky you must be some lucky shopper to find a Jetta at a butcher shop! I don't particularly like Jettas but good for you, thats unique!!!! I have sold online but do not buy online at all with EBAY possibly been the only exception!!!

73s, All the Best from Eldon
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Re: Goodbye Canada Safeway

Postby former tv guy » Fri Jun 14, 2013 9:43 am

So you don't know if you've bought online?

Sounds a bit like a hypocrite - you take advantage of other people's willingness to buy from you, but won't do the same thing you encourage them to do.
Actually, sounds more like a consultant.
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Re: Goodbye Canada Safeway

Postby isthisthingon » Fri Jun 14, 2013 10:37 am

Eldon-Mr.CFAY wrote:Greetings, Never buy online at all. That includes Amazon, I prefer shopping in person! Not my thing at all! Gee Rocky you must be some lucky shopper to find a Jetta at a butcher shop! I don't particularly like Jettas but good for you, thats unique!!!! I have sold online but do not buy online at all with EBAY possibly been the only exception!!!

73s, All the Best from Eldon


The butcher shop Jetta refers to a series of Volkswagen TV spots that's been running for a couple of months.
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Re: Goodbye Canada Safeway

Postby Eldon-Mr.CFAY » Fri Jun 14, 2013 11:52 am

Hi Everyone, Obviously you don't read postings very well former tv guy! What i said is i Don't like buying online period except perhaps for EBAY which is the exception to the rule! I never buy off AMAZON or any online things because I believe very strongly in supporting local small business bookstores etc. whenever I can! I don't do financial transactions online period!!!! What I have done is sold online via our website etc. and encourage everyone that buys off me to send it via the mail, Canada post, I don't do any financial transactions online because I don't trust it period!!!! I*ve heard too many stories about people getting ripped off big time online so I encourage my customers to look online but send payment the old fashioned way by mail! Thats what I strongly believe in period!

Why don't you take your dumb ass comments and put them where the sun don't shine!

73s all the best from Eldon
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Re: Goodbye Canada Safeway

Postby former tv guy » Fri Jun 14, 2013 12:17 pm

Eldon-Mr.CFAY wrote:Why don't you take your dumb ass comments and put them where the sun don't shine!



Wow... how old are you? 80?
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Re: Goodbye Canada Safeway

Postby jon » Sat Jun 15, 2013 6:07 am

Lamphier: Safeway sale puts Overwaitea atop the grocery list
By Gary Lamphier, Edmonton Journal
June 14, 2013

EDMONTON - With Canada Safeway about to be gobbled up, could Jim Pattison’s Overwaitea Food Group be the next food industry acquisition target on the menu?

That’s what some analysts are suggesting in the wake of the blockbuster $5.8-billion deal for Safeway’s 213 Canadian stores, unveiled Wednesday by Sobeys Inc. (TSX:EMP.A), the industry’s No. 2 player.

With more than 125 stores operating under half a dozen retail banners, analysts say Overwaitea would be a juicy morsel for Montreal-based Metro Inc. (TSX:MRU) — which has annual sales of $12 billion but little presence in Western Canada — or even Toronto’s Loblaw Cos. (TSX:L), the industry’s top operator with annual sales of $32 billion.

In an industry now dominated by Canadian giants like Loblaw and Sobeys, as well as U.S.-based behemoths like Walmart (NYSE:WMT), Target(NYSE:TGT) and Costco (NASDAQ:COST), Overwaitea is the only large independent player left in Western Canada, where it operates under its own brand name as well as such well-known formats as Save-On-Foods, PriceSmart Foods, Buy-Low Foods, Cooper’s Foods and Urban Fare.

Boasting annual sales of about $3.5 billion, according to Supermarket News, a U.S.-based trade publication, the Overwaitea group generates close to half of Jim Pattison Group’s total annual revenues of $7.5 billion.

Although the publication ranks Overwaitea among the top 50 retail and wholesale firms in North America, it is dwarfed by giants like Wal-Mart Stores with sales of $274.5 billion, Safeway, Loblaw and Sobeys, all of which rank in the top 10.

But since the Vancouver-based company is private, and its 84-year-old owner — Canada’s third-richest tycoon according to Forbes magazine, with a personal fortune of $5.5 billion — isn’t talking publicly about whether he is willing to sell, it’s anyone’s guess what the future holds for Overwaitea.

Neither Pattison nor Darrel Jones, Overwaitea’s president, returned the Journal’s telephone calls, and Michael Korenberg, Jim Pattison Group’s deputy chairman and managing director, declined comment when reached.

Still, the Pattison Group’s characteristic silence hasn’t stopped the growing buzz on Bay Street, where analysts are convinced that potential buyers will soon be knocking on the savvy, deal-driven billionaire’s door, if they haven’t done so already.

“Since Safeway is a major part of the UGI (United Grocers Inc.) buying group along with Overwaitea and Metro, this deal effectively increases the purchasing costs for the remaining members,” observes CIBC retail analyst Perry Caicco, in a report issued shortly after Sobeys unveiled its long-sought deal for Canada Safeway.

“It is not impossible that a few minutes after the (Sobeys) announcement, Overwaitea got on the phone and started a bidding process for their assets,” he adds. “We would remind observers that when Sobeys bought Oshawa Group in November of 1997, Loblaw bought Provigo seven days later.”

Several other analysts also expect offers for Overwaitea to emerge soon, whether the bids are actively solicited by Pattison or not.

“I’m sure there will be a lot of people talking to him, for sure,” says Maureen Atkinson, a senior partner with Toronto-based J.C. Williams Group, an international retail and marketing consulting firm. “I’m not sure he’s going to want to let it (Overwaitea) go. But having said that, it would certainly be the time for him to maximize whatever he would get for it.”

That view is echoed by other observers, who say Pattison is now in an ideal position to command top dollar for his grocery assets.

“Jimmy Pattison is nothing if not a shrewd operator. The value he can extract, or the premium price he can charge on Overwaitea, just went up,” says a Toronto-based analyst at another major investment dealer.

“He’s now the last man standing with a ‘needle moving’ (i.e., large) piece of grocery real estate. But Jimmy being Jimmy, you’d probably have to pry it out of his cold dead hands. He does seem to believe he can either buy living forever, or he will just live forever because he’s Jimmy. I mean, he hasn’t sold a bloody thing in years.”

Regardless of what happens, the lucrative, fast-growing Alberta market is likely to be a key battleground in Canada’s intensifying grocery store wars.

Once the Canada Safeway deal is completed, Sobeys will become the biggest player in the province. Sobeys currently operates 19 outlets in the capital region alone — one more than Save-On-Foods, and one less than both Canada Safeway and Loblaw.

Although Sobeys may be forced by regulators to sell some Canada Safeway locations, analysts say such asset sales are likely to be few in number.
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Re: Goodbye Canada Safeway

Postby Eldon-Mr.CFAY » Sat Jun 15, 2013 12:14 pm

Greetings,
This is exactly what Ann and I have been thinking for quite a few years now! Rumors a few years ago that Pattison was asking too high a price! Anyway apparently he was looking at some USA supermarket chain like Albertsons to buy it. I would like to see Fred Myer Stores from the States come to Canada. They are great. I know RadioFan also likes them too. Good selection. I think the writing is on the wall for Overwaitea and Save-On Foods, I think Pattison will sell but is probably trying to get the best price for it! Many thanks for
posting this Jon, interesting article!!!

All the best, safety first, 73s Eldon
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Re: Goodbye Canada Safeway

Postby radiofan » Sat Jun 15, 2013 12:50 pm

Other than in Edmonton, Pattison really doesn't have much of a stronghold in Alberta. The South Calgary store was a dismal failure. Calgary Co-Op is probably the biggest player in the Calgary market.

When I lived in Calgary in the 1980's, there was a Safeway right across the street from where I lived. I seldom shopped there, opting to shop at Co-Op instead. FGriendlier staff, better prices and of
course, the yearly rebate!

Beisdes already being a force in Calgary and Edmonton, Sobey's can be found in just about every small town in Alberta.

Much like Sobey's Alberta coverage, Pattison has a presence in most small towns with Save On stores that were once Overwaitea's.

I found it somewhat humorous recently when Pattison closed it's Save On Foods store in Metrotown because there was too much competition from non-union grocery stores in the area. Guess who owned
the "competing" non usion stores? Pattison of course. Many Save On stores have recently been converted to Pattison's non-union Price Smart stores. Not only are they non-union, they are almost void of
any live stff. The big feature is the self serve check outs. Oh, and if you compare, Price Smart usually has the highest prices of any Pattison store.

I believe the Pattison group does own Associated Grocers which supplies most independent and corner stores in Alberta.
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Re: Goodbye Canada Safeway

Postby Eldon-Mr.CFAY » Sat Jun 15, 2013 12:56 pm

Greetings, Thanks very much RadioFan for mentioning all this. I had no idea that the large Save-On Foods at Metro-Town in central Burnaby had closed, must be in the past year. I agree with you completely about Price Mart, yeah trying to find someone in some of those stores is hard to do. Yeah Save-On sure blew it when they tried to enter Calgary, I remember that, what a failure!

Anyway interesting to read your comments about this, thanks for posting Ted.

73s All the Best, from Eldon
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Re: Goodbye Canada Safeway

Postby xwdcatvb » Sat Jun 15, 2013 5:11 pm

radiofan wrote:Other than in Edmonton, Pattison really doesn't have much of a stronghold in Alberta. The South Calgary store was a dismal failure. Calgary Co-Op is probably the biggest player in the Calgary market.

I found it somewhat humorous recently when Pattison closed it's Save On Foods store in Metrotown because there was too much competition from non-union grocery stores in the area. Guess who owned
the "competing" non union stores? Pattison of course. Many Save On stores have recently been converted to Pattison's non-union Price Smart stores. feature is the self serve check outs. Oh, and if you compare, Price Smart usually has the highest prices of any Pattison store..


Um, any promotional blurbs I've seen from Beedie/Anthem Properties about the current redevelopment of Station Square indicate that Save-On Foods will be returning, albeit with a store of just half the previous size.

Nothing is being exactly said "where" In the site... locals are wondering whether that means in the space vacated by Future Shop in the structure which is being revamped at the southern portion.
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Re: Goodbye Canada Safeway

Postby jon » Tue Jun 18, 2013 8:29 am

Simons: Sobeys’ purchase of Safeway comes with grocery baggage
Restrictive covenants damaged relationship with Edmontonians
By Paula Simons, Edmonton Journal June 17, 2013

EDMONTON - When I was a kid in Edmonton, Safeway was a towering giant in the world of groceries.

The U.S.-based grocery chain had a near-stranglehold on the local retail food sector.

By 1973, there were 35 Safeway stores in Edmonton — significantly more than today.

IGA, the next-largest competitor, had just 15 stores. In the days before every family had two cars there were Safeways every 10 or 15 blocks.

In 1968, a Royal Commission on Consumer Problems and Inflation recommended a probe into prairie grocery retailing. Then, in 1972, Safeway was charged under the Combines Investigation Act with being party to a monopoly in both Edmonton and Calgary.

The Crown assembled a case involving 800 witnesses and 10,000 documents. But the matter never went to trial. Instead, in 1973, Safeway agreed to a court order that severely restricted its ability to open new stores and to engage in predatory pricing.

Safeway also had to acknowledge that it has negotiated clauses in leases which included extraordinary caveats on land titles of stores, which forbade competitors from opening up grocery stores nearby — even if Safeway closed and sold a store.

The deal should have been good news for Edmonton consumers, since it paved the way for more competition. In practice, the court order meant Safeway closed many of its smaller stores in older neighbourhoods, to open larger new ones in the suburbs.

Yet those restrictive caveats stayed in place, decade after. Neighbourhoods were left without grocery stores, stuck with huge empty buildings that sucked the life out of communities, and soured Safeway’s relationship with Edmontonians. Neighbours like those in Lendrum, Highlands, and Belvedere are still haunted by the caveat’s powers.

Now, 40 years later, Edmonton’s complex love-hate relationship with Safeway is coming to a bumpy end.

Last week, Safeway Canada announced that it was selling all its Canadian stores to Sobeys for $5.8 billion. The deal allows Safeway’s American parent company, which has a long-term debt of $5.3 billion US, to pay down its debt and shore up its defences against Walmart.

It’s a coup for Sobeys in its own battles against Loblaws and Walmart in Canada. Right now, Loblaws, which also owns The Real Canadian Superstore and the T&T Asian supermarkets, has annual revenues of about $32 billion, roughly double Sobeys’ annual revenues of $16.2 billion. Capturing Safeway’s revenues could bring Sobeys closer to $24 billion a year and add real estate worth $1.8 billion to Sobeys’ portfolio.

Given the robust competition in Edmonton’s grocery market these days — not just from Superstore, but from the likes of Save-On, Walmart, Costco, and smaller outfits such as Planet Organic and the Italian Centre — Sobeys won’t have anything like the near-monopoly Safeway enjoyed in the 1970s.

But those old Safeway caveats remain, ugly, blighting legacies of a very different time.

Indeed, if Sobeys consolidates and closes some existing Safeways, matters could even get worse.

Does Sobeys inherit the caveats, or do they expire with this sale? If Sobeys does retain the caveats, will it insist that they be enforced? Or is the company prepared, in the name of happy community relations, to the jettison the restrictive covenants that Safeway was able to demand back in the days when it ruled the Edmonton grocery market?

Sobeys simply isn’t saying.

“The deal hasn’t closed and we’re not prepared to discuss details of the transaction beyond what we’ve publicly disclosed,” Andrew Walker, Sobeys vice-president of communications and corporate affairs told me via email, late Monday. “It is early days and, in any event, the transaction still requires competition bureau approval before it can close.”

But at City Hall, councillors who’ve spent years battling the destructive Safeway caveats are striving for optimism.

“When Safeway let the land sit vacant for years, they created eyesores in communities,” says Kim Krushell. “That got a lot of people’s backs up. It would be wonderful if Sobeys actually looked at this and removed those caveats.”

“Who knows? You gotta hope,” says Ben Henderson. “When you take away a grocery store, you sterilize an area.”

After all those decades that Safeway so completely dominated Edmonton’s grocery market, it’s hard to believe that big red S may soon disappear from our landscape, that those familiar Lucerne products, that crusty French bread, might disappear from our kitchen tables.

Most Edmontonians, I expect, will say goodbye with complicated emotions.

Is it too much to hope Sobeys will begin its deeper relationship with Edmonton by cleaning up the mess that Safeway left behind?

ref. - http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/edm ... story.html
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Re: Goodbye Canada Safeway

Postby albertaboy4life » Tue Jun 18, 2013 7:27 pm

Meanwhile down the road in Calgary . . .

Save-On smells opportunity as it moves into Calgary

By Amanda Stephenson, Calgary Herald

June 18, 2013


With Save-On Foods set to make its entry into the Calgary market later this year, its billionaire owner says the blockbuster purchase of Safeway Canada by Sobeys Inc. could open other opportunities for his B.C.-based chain.

Canadian business giant Jim Pattison — owner of the Overwaitea Food Group, which owns Save-On and a number of other grocery brands — said in an interview he would be interested in acquiring former Safeway locations if Sobeys is forced to divest itself of stores to get regulatory approval for the $5.8-billion deal announced last week. Several analysts have suggested the federal Competition Bureau could require Sobeys to rid itself of up to 20 Safeway stores, and many of the divestitures are expected to happen in Alberta where Sobeys’ concentration is heaviest.

“We certainly would,” said Pattison, adding Save-On wants to keep expanding its presence in Alberta. The company already has 26 locations in the province — the majority of which are in Edmonton and the surrounding area — and will open its first three Calgary locations in Seton, Walden and Panorama Hills in late summer and early fall.

Pattison declined to comment on speculation his chain may be the next target for acquisition in Canada’s increasingly competitive grocery industry. Some analysts have suggested a major player like Montreal-based Metro Inc. or Toronto’s Loblaw Companies might make a bid for Overwaitea, the only large independent player left in Western Canada, to beef up their own presence in the market.

“We never discuss our business; we’re a private company,” Pattison said. “But we’ve had Overwaitea for many years, and we’re very happy with the company.”

While Pattison won’t say if he would consider selling, Bobby Hagedorn, a retail analyst with Edward Jones, said the value of the Safeway-Sobeys deal indicates he would probably get a good price.

“It would definitely be a good time,” Hagedorn said. “The grocery market in Canada is pretty tough right now — you’re not seeing a lot of growth. So a lot of times, that’s when companies look to make deals like this to grow their market share.”

Kevin Grier, senior market analyst with the George Morris Centre in Guelph, Ont., said Canadian chains are feeling the pinch from WalMart’s rapid expansion into the grocery business. That, combined with the fact that Target Canada is expected to expand its grocery offerings, is the reason companies might be feeling pressure to expand.

“That’s the frame for this whole thing, the competition from Walmart and Target,” Grier said. “I think the grocery market, particularly in the West, is going to become more competitive in the next year or so.”

A spokeswoman for Calgary Co-op said it’s too early to say whether the local retailer would make an offer for any Safeway locations that might come up for sale. However, she said Calgary Co-op will be paying close attention to the Competition Bureau process, which is expected to take several months.

“We’re just waiting for more detail to see if there are any opportunities,” said Karen Allan. “We’re definitely monitoring all the information we can receive on it.”

There are currently 223 Safeway stores in Canada, 32 of which are in Calgary.

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