It appears that a Loblaw pilot project hasn’t gone as well as the company had hoped.
Last year, Loblaw announced that it was testing out “a new concept, value-based No Name store in three Ontario markets.”
“The No Name store will help customers save up to 20 per cent on everyday grocery and household essentials, by lowering operating costs and carrying only a targeted assortment of products,” the company said at the time.
Loblaw president and CEO Per Bank said that the stores would have food and essential household items from a limited range of national brands, as well as No Name brand products, at the “lowest possible price.”
The stores cut operating costs through a variety of ways including shorter operating hours, limited marketing, no flyers, no refrigerated products, reused fixtures, and fewer weekly deliveries. They’d offer a small range of frozen items, however, and some “shelf-stable” bakery and produce, the company said at the time.
“These No Name stores will have a limited selection of 1,300 products, but these are many of our top-selling pantry staples and household goods throughout the province, so we know they’re what customers buy most and what will bring them the biggest savings,” Melanie Singh, the president of Loblaw’s hard discount division, said when announcing the new stores.
“This is a test and learn project, and we’re planning to listen and adjust quickly.”
Singh did caution that the pilot was “unchartered territory” and “success isn’t guaranteed.”
The three stores opened in September last year in Windsor, St. Catharines, and Brockville.
Now, around one year later, it appears that just one is remaining open.
The St. Catharines No Name store shut down in July, Loblaw said.
The Windsor location will also be shutting down soon.
“We’ve made the difficult decision to close our No Name store in Windsor as it hasn’t built the customer base needed to remain sustainable long-term,” Loblaw told INsauga.com.
“The store’s final day of operation will be Oct. 25, as we prepare for the nearby No Frills opening on Oct. 30,” the company added.
The Brockville No Name store remains open as part of the pilot.
And Loblaw said they have learned from the project.
“We are actively applying learnings from this pilot to further reduce operating costs to deliver even greater value for our customers,” the company said.
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