EXCLUSIVE: Metro Is Removing Marché Extra! In Favor Of Marché Ami

Quebec’s commercial landscape is losing another nice, friendly small grocery store banner that has brought life and color into our streets and villages for decades.

Indeed, DepQuébec has learned in exclusivity that Metro is in the process of removing its Marché Extra! banner obtained in 1996 through the acquisition of wholesaler J. L. Duval based in Eastern Quebec (also the creator of the Servi Express convenience store banner which is still doing well with more than a hundred stores).

According to reliable sources, the company has indicated to its Marché Extra! retailers that it is looking to move all current stores under its Marché Ami umbrella to help streamlining its marketing and promotional costs.

The two banners, Marché Ami and Marché Extra!, are indeed very similar, the former grouping larger surfaces than the latter.

The two share the same flyer, Marché Ami’s being more exhaustive than Extra! (6 pages instead of 4) and each having its own website (marcheextra.ca and marcheami.ca).

So far and as we know, the decision of eliminating Marché Extra! has yet to be announced by Metro which, to this day, continues to issue weekly flyers for stores that are less and less numerous.

No more than 22 stores left at last count

The first tip of a problem came during a routine check of the Marché Extra! stores during the holidays. DepQuébec noticed a sharp decrease of this network: from 51 last year, it has melted down to only 22 in one year, a fall of 57%.

Among the 29 stores removed, the majority seem to have been converted to the banner Marché Ami and this, quite recently, indicating an acceleration of the elimination process.

 

In addition, this sharp decline in the store network is confirmed in part by the statistics and directories displayed on the corporate sites of Metro and Marché Extra!.

Retailers confirm

All former Marché Extra! owners contacted by DepQuébec have confirmed Metro‘s intention to get rid of its banner.

“They told us that they now want to repatriate the Marché Extra! banner under Marché Ami to save on costs and time,” according to one of them.

Another said it was Metro who approached him to change his banner and even offered to pay for the expensive sign replacement.

The owners are generally quite supportive at the idea as the Marché Ami banner is seen as an upgrade from Marché Extra!, which positioned itself as the low end of the local grocery category.

Most of them opted for the banner, but some also opted for the “ghost” option, in which they can access the banner’s wholesale prices without displaying it, which saves them from paying weekly for hundreds of flyers at 8 cents apiece and having to emulate the product offering and rebates in their stores.

While food giants are struggling with cost and competition pressures, Metro is thus streamlining its marketing to keep costs down.

But because the operation often entails one-time costs such as changing signs or other, or because they are linked to long-term agreements, the process of removing Marché Extra! takes place gradually.

However, with only 22 stores left, it is highly doubtful that Metro will continue the luxury of printing flyers specifically for such a small network. The end is near.