Industry Retail Founded 1995 | Number of locations 115+ Motto Always More for Less | |
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Products Food, General merchandise (non-food) Parent organizations Metro Inc., The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, A&P Canada | ||
Food Basics is a Canadian supermarket chain owned by Metro Inc. The company operates over 115 stores throughout Ontario.
Contents
- Food basics haul
- Labour relations
- Controversy
- Ontario
- Private label brands
- Previous private label brands
- References
Food Basics was created by A&P Canada to compete with the successful No Frills warehouse-style supermarket operated by Loblaw Companies. It became part of the Metro group when A&P Canada was sold to Metro in 2005.
Food Basics lowers its prices in a number of ways: low maintenance (no free plastic bags, just free cardboard boxes), store decor is kept to a minimum and fewer staff are employed, mostly in part-time positions. The chain operates by pushing higher volumes on a limited selection of products than Metro stores allowing it to compete price-wise with other grocery stores. There are 117 locations in Ontario. 36 were franchise stores until Metro Inc. purchased all stores back by the end of 2008.
Some Food Basics feature a pharmacy, and are known as Food & Drug Basics.
Some locations are former Super Fresh or A&P supermarkets, dating from when both chains were operated by A&P, or formerly bore banners such as A&P-owned Dominion (supermarket) or Métro-owned Super C.
In the past, the owners' names appeared on the banner (e.g., 'John/Jane's Food Basics'); however, all stores are now simply called 'Food Basics'. Concurrent with this change is a different slogan, which was changed from "Best Prices Everyday!!!" to "Always more for less!"
In Fall 2006, Metro Inc. began to renovate Food Basics stores. The design and format of these new stores closely resemble Metro's Super C banner in Quebec. New store signs feature broken lettering and a larger emphasis on yellow, green and beige colours. In Spring 2007, Metro Inc. initiated their new BDMS inventory system into all of its warehouses.
Food basics haul
Labour relations
Food Basics is represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers union. Food Basics mostly offers part-time positions, and each store has few full-time positions. In 2015, Overnight positions were discontinued by most stores because of budget reasons.
Controversy
Food Basics eliminated giving out free cardboard boxes at the front end, in which customers relied heavily on for their needs. Boxes are still set aside for customers upon request, but most are diverted to the compression unit in which the company receives a refund for recycled cardboard. Food Basics charges $0.05 per plastic bag, but this has resulted in customers bringing in their own re-usable shopping bags. Since 2009, Food Basics stores started using coin-operated shopping carts, which requires a deposit of $0.25 at some stores in an attempt to reduce shopping cart removal. Some stores were forced to discontinue coin-operated shopping carts because of negative feedback from customers.
Ontario
127 locations:
Private label brands
Food Basics carries many products from Metro's private label brands: