Safeway’s consignment to the history books has been delayed by a planning wrangle.
Morrisons sounded the death knell for the fascia last weekend after completing the conversion, sell-off or shutdown of the Safeway store estate.
But a row with Merton Council over its Wimbledon store means Morrisons must get planning permission to change the sign before replacing the fascia with its own moniker.
A Morrisons spokeswoman confirmed it was its only store still trading under a Safeway sign. She said that it had applied for permission to change to sign but was
unable to say when a decision was likely to be made.
“This is a very unusual case. The store has a Safeway sign over the door for the time being but it is being run as a Morrisons outlet,” she added. The store is selling Morrisons branded goods and using Morrisons carrier bags. However, the interior remains in the Safeway format without the Morrisons Market Street feature.
The spokeswoman confirmed that the retailer was waiting until the decision over the sign was made before carrying out the full Morrisons makeover.
Meanwhile, Waitrose has completed the conversion of the last of the 24 Safeway stores that it bought from Morrisons.
Sainsbury is next week due to complete the rebranding of the nine Safeways it took off Morrisons earlier this year.
Ronan Hegarty

Topics