No Frills (grocery store)
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| Supermarket | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1978 |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
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Number of locations
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247 (2016) |
| Products | Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, gasoline (select locations), general grocery, general merchandise, liquor (select locations), meat & poultry, pharmacy, produce, seafood, snacks |
| Parent | Loblaw Companies |
| Website | http://www.nofrills.ca/ |
No Frills (corporately styled nofrills) is a Canadian chain of deep discount supermarkets, owned by Loblaw Companies Limited, a subsidiary of George Weston Limited. There are over 200 franchise stores located in nine Canadian provinces – Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.
The first No Frills store – a converted Loblaws outlet previously slated for closure – was launched in East York, Toronto, on July 5, 1978. While it offered a very limited range of goods and only the most basic customer service, the store promoted discount prices. The opening of the prototype outlet coincided with a period of rising inflation rates and consumer complaints regarding the high price of food. Similar limited variety supermarkets had been in operation in Europe for a number of years and in some countries had captured significant market share.
Months earlier, Loblaw had successfully launched a line of generic products called "No Name" that consisted of 16 unbranded items in very basic yellow and black packaging. The new line was promoted as offering savings of between 10 and 40 percent over comparable national brands. As No Name sales exceeded the company’s own projections, Loblaws Supermarkets president Dave Nichol predicted the day when “limited line stores” would offer a complete assortment of No Name groceries While the first No Frills (originally branded no frills) featured the new generic product line, most items were still national brands. Though the European model typically offered dry goods, Loblaw promoted “fresh produce at the lowest possible price” as a way of attracting customers.
In order to reduce costs as much as possible, No Frills customers had to forego some of the conveniences that North American supermarket shoppers had come to expect. Customers were required to pack their own groceries as well as bring their own shopping bags or pay three cents for each. Whereas shopping carts are unlocked at Loblaws stores, No Frills locations require the deposit of a coin for unlocking, reducing the number of stray carts in parking lots and the amount of labour required to retrieve them. The prototype store had only four checkout counters and operated on a “low labour” principle of minimal staffing. Product displays were purely functional with items left in their cardboard boxes with the front cut away. Produce, normally washed and stacked, was left unwashed in its shipping carton. The original store did not offer fresh meat since refrigeration units had been removed in order to cut costs and instead of the 8,000 items normally carried by the average supermarket, only 500 were available, usually represented by one brand and in only one size. Instead of each item individually marked, prices were displayed overhead and customers provided with a price list. Cashiers, who underwent three weeks of training, were required to memorize all prices throughout the store. Meanwhile, Loblaws president Dave Nichol promoted the minimalism of the new operations as a way to save money in a difficult economy. “We took all the frills out. We think Canadians are ready for a little belt tightening.”
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Wikipedia