Category: Our Communities

Celebrating Saskatoon’s Newest Safeway- Lawson Heights

Posted on by Varinder Singh

After weeks of hard work, an exciting ribbon-cutting ceremony and a $1,000 presentation to Special Olympics Saskatchewan, our new Safeway store is now open as of February 2nd, 2018.

Congratulations to the Safeway Lawson Heights Team, 210 members strong!

In this 60,000-square-foot store, customers are treated to innovative departments and products, including full-service floral, seafood and meat departments, expanded bulk foods, stone oven pizza, a carving station, pet boutique and Starbucks. We also feature an expansive Health and Wellness Department, fresh bakery and produce, along with the health care professionals in the Pharmacy.

The most important feature of the new store are the valued full-service employees and the customer experience they provide to each shopper. The Lawson Heights store reflects our commitment to bring fresh food and healthy choices to our communities, with the great Safeway customer service that can be expected at all of our locations.

In this rapidly changing grocery industry, this location is an example of how we are committed to building successful stores, synchronized with changing consumer needs. We are proud of our commitment to the Safeway brand and the communities we serve.

By working together and strengthening customer loyalty, we support our livelihoods at Safeway.

Stay informed at www.SafewayTalks.ca

CFL, Blue Bombers and Safeway/Sobeys Reach out to Karen Kuldys

Posted on by Varinder Singh

You might have heard about last week’s CFL close call where Karen Kuldys almost won the Safeway/Sobeys $1,000,000 Touchdown to Win contest. Twitter lit up with #whataboutkaren tweets, and we’re happy to share the following on how we came together with our partners in the CFL in support of Karen.

 

Friday, July 14, 2017 — WINNIPEG – Canadian Football League Commissioner Randy Ambrosie spoke with Winnipeg Blue Bomber fan and Safeway and Sobeys’ Touchdown To Win contestant Karen Kuldys today and invited her and her family to attend this year’s 105th Grey Cup presented by Shaw in Ottawa as VIP guests of the League.

“We’re all fans and whatever team you root for, we would all love to see a CFL fan win a million dollars. So we all feel for Karen and what she must have gone through last night, and what she must still be feeling today. I was in Winnipeg for the game and I spoke with her today. On behalf of the CFL, I invited her and her family to come to Grey Cup this year as our guests,” said Randy Ambrosie, the CFL’s Commissioner. “I know Karen’s a Blue Bomber fan and her son plays football, so we spoke with Wade Miller, the President and CEO of the Bombers, this morning. He immediately pledged to provide Karen with Bombers season’s tickets for the rest of this season and next season as well. We all know these things can’t compare to a million dollars but we wanted to do something to let her and her family know that we all wished she could have won last night.”

He added: “It was a very tough call made by our official last night, one that could have gone either way. There are tough calls made all the time in our game because these are world class athletes, moving at tremendous speeds, and we ask our officials to make difficult judgement calls in the blink of an eye, and we have to respect their decisions.”

Safeway and Sobeys’ Touchdown to Win Contest, which awards a Visions $25,000 home theatre package to a contest entrant if one kickoff is returned for touchdown, and a million dollars if a second kickoff is returned for a touchdown in the same game, is part of the grocery chains’ partnership with TSN, which along with RDS is the exclusive broadcaster of the CFL. Today, Sobeys announced that, in addition to the home theatre package, it will provide Karen with free groceries for one year at any Safeway or Sobeys.

“We were thrilled that Karen won a $25,000 home theatre package after one kickoff was returned for a touchdown,” said Lyne Castonguay, Executive Vice President, Sobeys Inc. “And while we can’t reverse a referee’s on-field call, we are delighted to be able to offer Karen a year’s worth of free groceries in addition to the great football offers made by the CFL and the Blue Bombers.”

Financial Update for Employees

Posted on by Varinder Singh

Safeway employees,

Earlier this week our CEO Michael Medline announced quarterly results for Empire Company, the company that owns Sobeys and Safeway.

These results are important not only to our shareholders, but also to you, our employees. Ultimately you, are a big part of tackling our challenges and securing our future. These results are a measure of how we are all doing. The numbers Michael announced this week told us we are on the right track. But they also confirmed there is much more to be done.

As Michael said, “we are not where we want to be and we are most certainly not out of the woods yet. Although we are doing a better job of managing our day-to-day business, we remain in the nascent stages of delivering significant cost savings while addressing a number of brand and customer offering opportunities that will provide a compelling reason for consumers to shop us more.”

What does this mean for Safeway? It means we are at the very early stages of getting back to being the place where customers want to shop. That is how we will build a strong and growing company, with stable jobs for our people. To be able to do that, we have to do many things at Safeway — including getting a handle on costs which, right now, are among the highest in this crowded and brutally competitive industry. We have to address this issue since doing nothing won’t make our challenge go away. Addressing it gives us a path forward.

For more information on the results, you can find the full comments here.

You can also read some of the coverage here.

We’re in this together.

Jason Potter

A Summer Worth Celebrating!

Posted on by Varinder Singh

Our company, like this great country of ours, is shaped by the many people, cultures and communities that make us great.

2017 marks Canada’s 150th anniversary. We want to get the party started and celebrate this special summer in communities across Western Canada. Whether you’re a new employee or have worked with us for years, we have plenty of ways to get involved.

You likely already know that we had special t-shirts made for the occasion. You’ve been wearing them and it seems these beauties have created the right atmosphere in our stores. What else? Our Pier 21 initiative is something we’re especially proud of. We’ve partnered with Pier 21 to support their collection of stories on how Canadians became Canadians.

Before we explain, a bit of history for you: Pier 21 opened in 1928 in Halifax. It was the point of entry for some one million immigrants and has been called the Gateway to Canada.  Our founder, J.W. Sobey, was a member of the British Royal engineers and formally immigrated to Canada in 1867. Pier 21 is now the site of the Canadian Museum of Immigration.

With 125,000 employees from coast-to-coast, we’re inviting you to share your own stories and favourite family recipes, through www.sobeys.pier21.ca and help us create a living legacy for future generations.

Once you read our stories, we hope you will tell us yours! Talk to your Store Manager to find out how you can get involved.

We should all be proud to contribute to making Canada a stronger, healthier nation.

Safeway Sherwood Park Mall: Bigger, better

Posted on by Varinder Singh

At the end of April, the team at Safeway Sherwood Park Mall unveiled their newly-relocated, 64,7000 square foot store to hundreds of customers.

As the grocery landscape continues to change, this store is keeping up with those changes.

Safeway Sherwood Park Mall now boasts new features to help residents eat better and more affordably.

What does that look like?

  • An expanded bulk and liquid bulk section – which lets consumers buy how much they need, when they need it.
  • A carvery station – to ensure our customers have the freshest meat, cut the way they want it.
  • A Community Room and a Starbucks – so we continue to be not just a store, but a gathering place for our customers.
  • A Wellbeing and Natural Source section –with knowledgeable, specialized staff to answer questions and help our customers make better food choices.

We’re giving back to the community as well. Safeway employees celebrated the grand opening with a food hamper donation worth $1,000 to the Strathcona Food Bank.

We want to return to our role as one of Western Canada’s leading grocery stores. We’re facing our challenges head on. That is why we’re looking for opportunities to improve the overall shopping experience for our customers in an extremely competitive environment. We’re excited by our new store in Sherwood Park. It is a store that gives customers what they are asking for. And it’s a store you can be proud of.

Check out this video: