And recently, my No Frills has added organic meats...at cheaper prices than Rowe Farms across the street. Cut out processed foods, sugar, a ton of red meat and dairy from your diet and with NF's and a few gourmet specialty shops you can live very cheaply indeed.:D

Sobey's and Metro will be forced to merge, or die in the coming food inflationary environment!
 
I was surprised by how big it is. I was expecting something smaller and with much less variety. It was crowded when I was in there on Friday but of course, it was opening day.
 
I was also surprised by how large it was and the selection for a store like No Frills.

Only major downside - they don't accept credit cards (apart from the President's Choice MasterCard). Otherwise it was great.
 
I seen that their deli wall is small for the size of the store and ran out of space to add HMR products. If that sushi is flying off the shelf, they will adapt to getting more HMR (home made ready)....fast.

For all the employees there, some arent permanent, most of them are the referb crew that set up the store and lined the product into the shelves. They will be there for a little bit to help the full time staff train the new part timers and provide better service...I used to be one of those guys.

All the product lines are far from permanent. The referm crew just selected certain skus for the length of the shelves. If you shop at that store, my suggestion would be to give feedback....right to the managers. When the time comes to change and get rid of products not working for them, they will get what you want. This might take weeks though
 
Shopped there today.
Very suprized at the size of the store. It's huge.
Nice layout.
Produce very fresh.
Great all around selections of goods.
a good selection of presidents choice products, but some of the ones i like are not there.
prices better on most products but not all of them.
Now no frills is now my closest grocery store and from what i seen today, I will shop their alot but not exclusivly.
I as alway will read flyers

as for Sobeys,I rarely went their despite it "was" my closest grocery store.
Always been to expensive and only one ot two cheakouts open.
Maybe if they convert to their "freshco" I will give them a second look.
 
chriskayTO said:
I was also surprised by how large it was and the selection for a store like No Frills.

Only major downside - they don't accept credit cards (apart from the President's Choice MasterCard). Otherwise it was great.
Click to expand...

I've been there twice, and I have used my Sobeys Mastercard using Paypass.
 
I took a good look around today. I'm really surprised there doesn't seem to be a deli (I asked a cashier, and she said no, but they accept debit ...). Or a butcher, or a fish counter. Though it does have a pharmacy (with an only $8 dispensing fee!).

On one hand, it's good to have somewhere that carries the President's Choice line without having to walk under the railway tracks, the Gardiner, and across Lakeshore. On the other - I'm not quite sure they've targeted the store well, as I'd have though the lack of deli, etc., will drive a lot of people to Sobeys.

I also asked the cashier about Visa (after I asked her about the deli ... she said that they can't have Visa because Presidential Choice Financial doesn't support it ... when I said that Valuemart and Loblaws both have President's Choice Financial and have VISA she looked at me like I was from Mars ... though perhaps I shouldn't take a cashier too seriously who thinks that a deli is a credit card.


I think Sobey's will survive just fine ...
 
nfitz said:
I'm really surprised there doesn't seem to be a deli (I asked a cashier, and she said no, but they accept debit ...). Or a butcher, or a fish counter.
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No Frills is Loblaws without the deli, fish, and butcher. Also without a bakery. So... it shouldn't surprise you that a No Frills has no frills. I'm assuming you've never been in a No Frills before. We use the No Frills on Carlaw for our basic shopping -- much cheaper than Loblaw's for that kind of stuff, and we get a fair amount of 'ethnic' produce and products because of east Chinatown. (e.g. bok choy, the jumbo sized basmati rice bags, etc.) And the cheese counter is limited, but limited to the good stuff (Societé Roquefort, Quebec triple creme brie, decent chevre, etc.)

For fresh fish, Bill's Lobster is our staple, and for ready-made (if needed) we hit Sun Valley. The combination works. For someone in your 'hood, I'd assume St. Lawrence market can fill the gaps in No Frills' lineup.
 
I was there on Saturday, and was somewhat underwhelmed. It was nice to shop for groceries on a Saturday afternoon and not have to fight the crowds, but there are better and bigger No Frills. I found the prices to be not much different from Loblaws (on many of the items I was purchasing, anyways), and higher than the Freshco in Regent Park. I agree with the comments about having readily available President's Choice products, and also found the selection limited. My No Frills shopping is usually done at the location at Dundas and Landsdowne, which is significantly larger than this new location. It's a bit of a drive over there, but if I'm doing a large enough shop to require a car ...

I think this No Frills and the existing Sobeys will both do well ... they serve different markets, there's a lot available at Sobeys that is unavailable at No Frills, and it's surprising how busy Sobeys is at 10pm or midnight (or later).
 
Riverdale Rink Rat said:
No Frills is Loblaws without the deli, fish, and butcher. Also without a bakery. So... it shouldn't surprise you that a No Frills has no frills. I'm assuming you've never been in a No Frills before. We use the No Frills on Carlaw for our basic shopping -- much cheaper than Loblaw's for that kind of stuff, and we get a fair amount of 'ethnic' produce and products because of east Chinatown. (e.g. bok choy, the jumbo sized basmati rice bags, etc.) And the cheese counter is limited, but limited to the good stuff (Societé Roquefort, Quebec triple creme brie, decent chevre, etc.)

For fresh fish, Bill's Lobster is our staple, and for ready-made (if needed) we hit Sun Valley. The combination works. For someone in your 'hood, I'd assume St. Lawrence market can fill the gaps in No Frills' lineup.
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No Frills are all different. Some have deli, fish and butcher counters. Some have even more and are really just a small step below a Loblaws.
 
Riverdale Rink Rat said:
No Frills is Loblaws without the deli, fish, and butcher. Also without a bakery. So... it shouldn't surprise you that a No Frills has no frills. I'm assuming you've never been in a No Frills before.
Click to expand...
I've been to many No Frills before ... but this one is huge. It's bigger than any I've been in before; and bigger than most Valuemart's I've been in that do have these features. I'm surprised they didn't go with their Valuemart brand rather than their No Frills brand.

Was in again this evening ... starting to look more like the No Frills I'm more familiar with - poorly stocked. (you might say that it's early on, and are having teething pains ... the one on Coxwell has been having teething pains keeping products on the shelves for years - I've mostly stopped shopping there.)

Another bizarre cashier incident ... the amount came to something like 31.32. So I gave them $41.31 (must have been a penny short). Instead of saying anything she types it into the till and starts counting out $9.99 change (as if I need that much coin!). I said, oops ... here's another penny - and she said that now she didn't no how much change to give. I lead her through the math slowly ... ($9.99 + $0.01 = $10) ... and she was still hesitant before handing me a $10 bill ...

That's 2 for 2. Is the labour market really that strong that this is the best they can find?
 
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nfitz said:
Was in again this evening ... starting to look more like the No Frills I'm more familiar with - poorly stocked. (you might say that it's early on, and are having teething pains ... the one on Coxwell has been having teething pains keeping products on the shelves for years - I've mostly stopped shopping there.)
Click to expand...

If you're talking about Coxwell & Gerrard, that's about as bottom-of-the-barrel as No Frills get--i.e. the 70s-style dead-repurposed Loblaws...
 
There are indeed larger no frills with butchers and bakeries, but they are third party vendors. Having the. As part of the franchise will cause the prices to increase. I guess with that location its only pharmacy. It didnt have the width dimension for those others.
 
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