They've renamed a bunch of supermarkets (Dominion, A&P, The Barn, and maybe others) to Metro. This name change doesn't work for anyone. We're all just obstinately continuing to call it Dominion, and when we do have to say Metro we have to clarify - "Metro, you know, the grocery store that used to be Dominion".
At first I was saying this is because Metro is already used for several other things. It's a free subway newspaper. It's the subway in Montreal and Paris. It's a now-defunct-but-still-remembered level of government. In some newspapers it is or was the name of the local news section. And I do think this is part of the reason why the new name doesn't work.
But the rest of the reason why it doesn't work is because Metro doesn't sound more like a supermarket than the previous names do. It doesn't necessarily sound less like a supermarket (Dominion and A&P don't especially sound like a supermarket) but we're used to our supermarkets having those names. There have been supermarkets called Dominion and A&P and The Barn since I was a kid. But we aren't used to our supermarkets being called Metro, so it has no particular supermarket associations for us. So now our supermarket sounds no more supermarkety objectively, and less supermarkety subjectively. It's not a useful change.
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We're all just obstinately continuing to call it Dominion, and when we do have to say Metro we have to clarify - "Metro, you know, the grocery store that used to be Dominion".
We still call ours Dominion too. I guess they wanted them all to have the same name, but I agree, this just doesn't work.
IMHO, I think metro might suffer because of its font styling.
For years, Dominion appeared to be unshakeable - considerably unlike Loblaws' fortunes - regardless of the economy or down market chains, including Food Basics. Some of that inherent regional popularity could have been owing to its staid WASPy, Upper Canada ex-brit image of "proper looking" lettering.
I recall that in recent years its cashiers would all be wearing clean white shirts as well.
Small case & rounded metro, a brand more recognized in Quebec, projects a looser and more causal/ less uptight image. The 'freshness guaranteed' marketing is also gone; I noticed a couple of house brand chip bags at eight months past expiry date a few weeks ago.
I don't know if the branding even matters to the end user, at least in the city. I go to Dominion by default because it's the closest one. I go to the Loblaw's near work for the few things they don't have at Dominion, but if the Loblaw's wasn't right there I wouldn't bother.
Although I'm not sure if the Dominion brand was actually unshakeable, because when I was a kid it was completely eliminated from the further reaches of 905 (replaced with A&P and maybe another one that I forget). I was so surprised when I moved to TO and saw they still had Dominion, it looked so retro to me.
Yes, the Dominion name only survived in Toronto, where most everywhere else was rebranded to A&P in the early 90s. Consolidating under the Quebec-only "Metro" name was a poor choice - I suspect that the Dominion name, although long gone from some areas, still had great brand equity in Ontario. Why reinvent the wheel in your biggest market?
"Yes, the Dominion name only survived in Toronto, where most everywhere else was rebranded to A&P in the early 90s."
Mississauga, too. No A&Ps, only Dominions.
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