malarkey - not really a post

Yes, I know I've been out of touch for awhile. I'll explain at some point, but let's just say I've been playing curve ball with life for a bit and channeling my creativity into another favoured activity - sewing clothes.

BUT, I read this the other day and I say HOOEY. 

First off Canadians have not been slow to adopt online grocery shopping, Canadians had almost no options when it came to online grocery shopping.

Second off, other than Grocery Gateway, which I tried to use once, but because, as we all know, I'm so well trained by Loblaws, I wasn't as familiar with whoever Grocery Gateway was at the time, I didn't find products I knew and just gave up, when online grocery shopping finally started to hit, you had to pick up your groceries. In my area the only Loblaws store participating in the pilot isn't really accessible by TTC - so clearly transit users weren't a target market. The other player is Walmart. No thanks.

As a non car owner, I'd really enjoy the option to have delivery.  Truthfully I'd probably do a large shop every month or so and fill in the rest. The idea suggested here, in this seemingly Walmart sponsored editorial, that people don't want to wait for delivery, I challenge too. I've used grocery delivery before (I had to go to the store to shop and then wait), and because it was cheaper than taking a cab home (!), I didn't find it that cumbersome.

Here's an idea marketers. Consider the suburbs a completely different market. I think you'll see dense urban centres consume in a much different way.

Yes, I should probably work for Loblaws, but I don't want to commute the suburbs.

your algorithm thinks i'm fat

If you're a Loblaw’s fan you've probably been participating in the new points program aimed at getting Loblaw’s and affiliates a massive amount of information about how you shop and eat.  And if you marry that with a PC MasterCard about how you do just about everything consumable. 

However that's not quite how they positioned it. Something about targeted offers, bonus points and meal and recipe suggestions all FOR YOU. The pay off though, points for free food make it worthwhile. Let's face it everything you do is being tracked anyway so why not get a perk or two.

I'm loyal to Loblaw’s for a lot of reasons - which we've discussed here before.  Among which is proximity to my home and a wide selection of mostly ready to eat things that I can eat without feeling like everything I ingest is takeout.  PC Blue has been a godsend in that at least one thing isn't totally horrible. (Read that fine print. That list is an 'or' list as in whole grain or low fat or low salt)

I know expecting a computer model to interpret complex human decision making processes is, in a word, inane. But I think your algorithm just told me I'm fat.

For the longest time I got recipes(!) - first poor assumption - for things I don't eat or do eat but never at home.  I like barbecued chicken but I don't own a barbecue and for some reason someone always leaves me a bottle of barbecue sauce which since I rarely use eventually gets tossed.

I got that recipe 4 times.

The soup recipe came in a heat wave in July.  I think I can safely say no one wanted soup.

The single steak I bought over the summer when a friend and I rented a cottage and I paid for groceries has resulted in many offers for beef and pork despite having never again purchasing any other red meat.  So the chicken bacon salad suggestion ain't gonna do it either. 

Finally, one day, perhaps after I bought all the ingredients for Turkey Bean chili did I get a winner.

So what can I surmise?  Well at a first blush. Loblaw’s your system needs some tuning.  And some work. Why can't I easily opt out of offers every week so the system can more quickly 'learn' my habits?  That is when I can even get to the site which 75% of the time is off line minutes after you send your weekly e-blast.

And finally why does someone with no cat keep getting offers for cat food?

memories of Dave Nichol

Dave Nichol passed away over the weekend.  For those who are newer Dave Nichol is the reason you all know Galen Weston.  The so called 'pitchman', but really a bit of a pioneering marketer who brought us what we all know as a store brand before there really was one.  First with No Name and then with President's Choice - which continues to be the mainstay of my day to day sustenance. 

There was always a well worn Insiders Report in my childhood bathroom and I still take a good look at what I might try next when they arrive.     

and there's that

What a difference a week, or probably a little longer in reality, makes.

According to the man himself the entire gentleman's deal went down in a van on a country road, which hopefully isn't as untoward as it sounds when you write it down.  The deal gets voted in or out in September but the deal for Loblaw to purchase Shopper's Drug Mart gives them not only an entirely new-ish market segment but also unprecedented urban locations.

So while the webesphere goes on about how 'expensive' these retailers are - not understanding that there is a fairly large group who are not willing to take transit out into the wilds of the 'burbs, walk across a massive parking lot to save 29 cents on a can of tuna - 'we' are wondering how exactly this will look.  However I admit that on those Friday nights when I don't want to cook and I'm standing in the freezer aisle of my local SDM I'm a little stoked that there might be some Blue Menu options.

or in that direction

Not that I fancy Galen Weston actually reads my blog.  But just a few days after my last post, Loblaws company announces their new format for small urban stores, 'The Box by No Frills'.  Essentially a small, 10,000 sq. ft. version of No Frills - your average No Frills is 25,000 sq. ft.  The tests run in Calgary to see how the market responds.  To be a tad elitist, what plays in Calgary may not translate here, but I'm just one voice.

dear galen weston,

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.

what does a girl have to do? the pack-my-bag pet peeve

Everyone who knows me knows this drives me batty. There is an unusually large amount of data on a particular social media outlet dedicated to this particular pet peeve.

Here’s how it is:

     “Dear Every Retailer,

     Please do not construe my willingness to carry a reusable bag as my
     acquiescence to pack my own goods.

     Yours truly,

     Me.

     P.S. As an added bonus, could my stuffs please come home undamaged and
     still consumable.”

First it was Loblaws with their ‘we're-going-to-save-the-world-from-itself-by-charging-for-bags-keeping-all-the-cash-and-hiring-only-surly-cashiers-who-will-try-and-wait-out-a-customer.’ I might be projecting on some of that.

Yes I have a particular opinion about this service feature. Even more so when my goods are partly packed and then pushed off to the side like smelly old socks. No word of a lie, this has happened on several occasions, as well as a cashier, reaching around my goods to get a bag for the next customer. If I were a cartoon, you would see steam coming out my ears and possibly every character available above the numbers on a keyboard coming out my eyes.

And yet, I have always discussed this only with the store manager, or directly with the head office of that store. In response I get a very carefully worded reply about the situation and how it was not their intent for me to have a bad experience and thank you for bringing it to their attention. Which of always reminds me of those apps that let you type ‘thx buttwad’ and instead out comes a lovely, polite, wordy autotext that reads along the lines of ‘thank you for your time and attention, kind sir plus many more words’.

I know, I know. The unions don’t have to hold on the industry like they used to and the average cashier no longer makes more than a full time, Harvard educated, middle manager, and so they have no vested interest in making my shopping experience a happy one. But I don’t care.

And I have a solution. Well two. One is practical. The other one isn’t but it sure would prove a point.

Practical, actually achievable solution number 1 – where you have the wire bag holder that used to hold 2 sets of plastic bags before you decided to make life tough on all of us, take one of those and reconfigure it to hold the various reusable bags instead. This way your cashiers can set up the bags and ‘drop’ the goods into them the way they did with plastic. Easy, mostly cheap and there’s already room to do this.

And while we’re at it can someone design a lightweight, small reusable bag that fits easily in my purse, because I don’t have a car to carry around all my reusable bags in. And I like to shop on the way home from work.

Completely impractical solution number 2 – make your cashiers do their own shopping, pack their own bags, carry them home on the transit and see how well everything fares. Once they get thrill of cookies crushed by a jar of pickles and triangular bread, their packing skills will, well, prowess.

And finally can someone start an online shopping/delivery option using a supplier I want?! I’m looking at you Loblaws. We’ll come back to this particular retailer and our long term somewhat tumultuous, emotionally laden relationship that I’m not ready to give up on and really, really want to work.

And while you may think I’m being a little over the top just wait. Come January we’re all in this boat due to the grandstanding of our favourite city council against our ‘favourite’ news leading mayor.

Since I wrote this the city council backed off of this particular decision allowing us all to consume plastic yet again. Yes, it's nice to be all eco-earthy, but let's face it, it's just not reasonable to offer nothing to your customers. The LCBO did it and we're all politely trying to lug our glass bottled purchases home and although I have no real statistics on this, I'd wager breakage, in and around, the front of the store is up... way up.