Any Overwaitea Employees Here?

[The Hurting]

I was wondering if there are people on here who work for a Save on Foods or PriceSmart. I work for a PriceSmart that was once an SOF, and now we are being changed back to an SOF after 2 years. I only found a few days ago (through an employee's husband), and apparently it has to do with revenue. Would anybody know why?

[The Hurting]

If I had kept in touch with any of my old coworkers from my time working for Slave-On I might have been able to get an answer for you, but I left that chapter of my working life behind ages ago. I wouldn't be surprised if it does have to do with revenue - SOF was a trusted name in many areas. I know when I lived in Chilliwack that the SOF I used to shop at there changed to a PriceSmart a lot of people stopped going even though it was the same store.

Now that I think about it, I preferred working for SOF. It wasn't as crazy as PriceSmart (which I also refer to as ZooSmart for obvious reasons), and I didn't have so much stress from amount of work.

Did good old Jimmy ever make an appearance at your store? He showed up at mine yesterday, and they wanted me to put in far more than usual during the very busy work hours. As if I'm not already being pulled back and forth between different jobs, given that there's only 3 of us in my department...

[The Hurting]

I was lucky enough to miss his visits - if I heard he was coming around I suddenly had to schedule the day off for a doctor's appointment or something. I know I had noticed that they had cut staff when the SOF in the 'Wack changed to a PriceSmart, and I was very glad that I hadn't asked to transfer there because I would have been low man on the totem pole.

Maybe once your store is changed back it will stop being so crazy. Possibly wishful thinking, but it never hurts!

We're the "East Meets West" PriceSmart, so I'm wondering if we'll be an "East Meets West" SOF. When we were an SOF the first time around, we didn't have that sort of motif.

On the topic of Jimmy Pattison, every time I've talked about him to a customer, the number 1 thing they mention is how cheap he is

[Jetfire]

Well Sobeys just announced recently that they bought out SOF out west. The question people seem to be waiting on now is will they change the name or not.

I've never spent much time in Western Canada, so I don't know what the feeling is one way or another, and it could probably go either way. I suspect there will be a namechange/rebranding in the works though, just to get things consistant across the country, other than pockets of strong subbrands.

[Jetfire]

Dominion as you come east until you hit the Maritimes, then it's Superstore again (with a few Save-Easy's still lurking in small villages and such).

I heard that Superstore kept the Loblaws and Zheres names in Ontario because the local brands were so strong; the stores were redesigned to match the Superstore format but the names stayed the same.

Sobeys may do the same; rebuild the store layout to match the Sobeys layout, but keep the name more or less intact. At the very least it'll probably be a few years before SOF disappears. (We had a Price Chopper here in Freddy that *just* turned over to the Foodsaver brand; I think Sobeys finally killed the PriceChopper storename for Foodsaver)

[wolfie]

It could be like Superstore and Dominion - both owned by Loblaw's but they kept their names. It's Superstore or Great Canadian Superstore in the West, and Dominion as you come east. Heck, I think there may even be some Loblaw's stores still. Oh, and I think Extra Foods is also owned by Loblaw's, but I could be wrong.

I think where you'll see the most consistency is in the store branded food itself, like No Name in the yellow labels or Compliment brand. That sort of thing. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess.

In Ontario we used to have Dominion, which went through another name (can't recall), and was then bought out by Metro - a competitor to Loblaw's. You'll definitely see consistency in store branded food, since No Name/President's Choice are Loblaw's brands, and Compliments belongs to another chain.

[The Hurting]

Hopefully with Pattison out of it then things may end up not too bad. He really is a cheap bugger from everything I've heard about the man.

It could be like Superstore and Dominion - both owned by Loblaw's but they kept their names. It's Superstore or Great Canadian Superstore in the West, and Dominion as you come east. Heck, I think there may even be some Loblaw's stores still. Oh, and I think Extra Foods is also owned by Loblaw's, but I could be wrong.

I think where you'll see the most consistency is in the store branded food itself, like No Name in the yellow labels or Compliment brand. That sort of thing. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess.

Every customer that I've talked to always says that about him, and from the way some things are done in the store, it shows (hiring more cashiers than service clerks*, and having to VOTE on discounts than getting them automatically**)

*THERE ARE ONLY 3 OF US, WE NEED HELP!

**I work my ass off so that he can have a few extra thousands in the bank, and that's what I have to do to get whatever percent off?! Fuck that shit.

Can't wait to read about what tourism college has to offer me!

[Pimento]

Lol pattison frequently visits my town and has a huge share in my mill. He once told me "I'm rich but I still can't walk by a pay phone without looking for a quarter"

[sylvier]

Thanks for the info gang - didn't know that Sobey's has targeted one of Jimmy's ventures. I know they took over Thrifty's a few years ago and it wasn't good for the employees.