Food Basics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For information about Food Basics in the USA, see: Food Basics USA.
| Food Basics | |
|---|---|
| Type | Supermarket |
| Founded | 1995 |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario |
| Industry | Retail |
| Products | Dairy, frozen foods, grocery, general merchandise (non-food), meat/deli, pharmacy, produce, snacks |
| Parent | Metro Inc. |
| Website | http://www.foodbasics.com/ |
Food Basics is a no-frills Canadian supermarket chain created by A&P Canada to compete with the successful No Frills warehouse style supermarket operated by Loblaw. Food Basics prices are generally lower due to low maintenance (no free plastic bags, just free cardboard boxes), store decor is kept to a minimum and a smaller number of staff is employed, mostly part-time positions. The chain operates by pushing higher volumes on a limited selection of products than A&P/Dominion, allowing it to compete price-wise with other grocery stores. Currently, it has over 100 locations in Ontario, of which 36 are franchise stores.
Food Basics' parent company, A&P Canada, was purchased from A&P by Metro Inc. in 2005.
Like its competitor No Frills, the name of the store is licensed to an owner who then names the store "x's Food Basics".
Food Basics carries major national brands and three of its own private label brands:
- Master Choice is the company's line of gourmet products,
- Equality is used for average everyday products, and
- Basics for Less is the company's line of large economy-sized products.
Food Basics recently introduced a new line of low-price health and beauty products named Simply 1-2-3.
Great Basics Finds Great Basics Finds are unique items such as ready-to-assemble furniture, clothing, housewares and other seasonal items all specially priced extremely low. They are available in limited time and quantity and vary with every shopping trip.
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, white and beige colours. Drug Basics Pharmacy also changed to just "pharmacy" on a blue background colour. In spring 2007, Metro Inc. initiated their new BDMS inventory system into all of their warehouses.
