Why am I so faithful to your corporation? When challenged to write you directly as a
tactic for seeking employment I can't help but reflect on my years of loyalty
to the Loblaws corporation and wonder why.
I 'sit' on your consumer panel and clearly as a
single working adult urban woman with no kids you're not listening. Your panel consists of asking me to
participate in surveys that appear to be written only for a single desired
outcome and not to gauge actual consumer interest. We have never met. No one has ever responded to my suggestions,
which to be bold, I think are pretty useful. No one has asked what I'd like in a
supermarket.
Then again I keep frequenting your establishments. So I am, in part, to blame for our continued
dalliance.
Part is learned behaviour. Part is convenience. Part is liking your points program and PC
line. So in some ways you, as Loblaws,
have done well in capturing an audience. But after several decades we appear to be
having relationship growth pains.
Urban locations are key to your success of keeping
me as a consumer. But they are also the cause
of the strife. In the smallish town I
grew up in yours was the only downtown location. So my ‘car-free’ family shopped there. I continued the tradition when I moved to
Toronto because by then it was rote.
However of late you miss opportunities to innovate
those urban spots, instead pouring money into suburban stores and frankly I'm
starting to feel dismissed.
Massive expansions and super stores aren't feasible
in tight urban spaces I realize. But
instead of studying the habits of your small urban stores you tried to whack as
much as you could in one store narrowing the aisles to almost impassible. And perhaps I'm in the minority but does a
small store really need almost half of the available freezer space for frozen
pizza and ice cream? Seems that space
could be used more advantageously.
PC brand is good and often of quality but
your stores lack of a decent selection of ready made fresh food ala Fresh Co
and Sobey’s. If I see another rotisserie
chicken with a side of wedge fries, I’ll, well, I just don’t buy them. What about pasta dishes, baked chicken and
fish, bean chili or, whatever else might be easily packaged, to take home and
eaten that night?
Urban locations have slowly started to
pop up, but why is it so much more expensive at these locations? Yes I’m paying for convenience but to the
tune of almost a $1 per product?
What happened to your almost secret delivery
service? It wasn’t convenient, you had
to shop before 5 on a weekday or on Saturday, the day I loathe to be at the
grocery store, but at least I could pay to have everything brought to my door
and for less than the cost of a cab. I assume
it wasn’t popular because nobody knew about it.
Which leads to my biggest question; why no online shopping? If you’re not going to set up in easy access
locations or offer delivery that’s available after a long workday, then online
might be the answer. You know everything
I buy from my points program. Analyze
these purchases and start to assess what you might offer.
You have prime real estate in many
cases, probably purchased lucratively in the 70’s and 80’s but they need a
reboot. Broadview for example, and while
it would kill me for you to close it to do construction, it set back 40 feet
from the side walk for no discernible reason, and that’s without considering the
parking lot next door, or building up.
In the end Galen, you, as a
corporation, know who I am, as I’ve let you by participating in your points
program. You have a long term fully
realized idea of my purchases via my PC credit card – all that data at your
disposal to consider and shape a customer profile. I’ve been loyal and I’ve been paying
attention to you, and yet I feel like you haven’t been listening to me.
