The No Name pilot stores are nearly no more.

The Brockville, Ont., location will be the last of three value-based shops remaining after Loblaw reportedly announced an Oct. 25 closing date for its No Name shop in Windsor on Thursday. The St. Catharines store closed in July, less than a year after Loblaw launched the three Ontario-based ultra-low-price stores in September 2024.

However, experts say shoppers generally benefit from format experimentation, even if it fails, and that Loblaw stands to benefit too.

Last fall, Canada’s largest grocer unveiled the pilot project, with a promise of a 20% reduction in prices made possible through a limited marketing approach, reduced SKU options, shorter store hours and no refrigeration. The aim was to offer the lowest possible price, with only essential household items available from a limited range of national brands and private label products.

“This is a test and learn project, and we’re planning to listen and adjust quickly,” Melanie Singh, president of Loblaw’s hard-discount division, said at the time.

June Cotte, professor of marketing at Western’s Ivey Business School, says the No Name pilot is indeed a learning opportunity and that Loblaw will have collected excellent data for the future, even if the business metrics aren’t there in the present.

Cotte tells strategy that rather than throwing good money after bad, and faltering on a large scale, it makes more sense to fail fast and pivot.

“However, I am a little surprised that it didn’t work, as this sort of idea has worked in other countries and with other companies,” Cotte says.

“It appeared to me at the time that with its No Name stores, Loblaw was trying to emulate German grocery Aldi,” adds Doug Stephens, a consumer analyst and the founder of the Retail Prophet consultancy. “Aldi takes the same bare-bones, down-and-dirty approach to its store-product assortments and merchandising. They’re extremely aggressive players at the ultra-low end of the market.”

But despite the need for increased competition in the grocery sector, Stephens says there’s clearly a reason the Aldi model has yet to find success Canada.

“It could be that Canada’s population, while becoming more polarized from an income and wealth standpoint, simply does not have enough of an unserved market at that extreme-discount end,” Stephens says, adding that the value-shopper segment may be adequately served by established offerings such as Food Basics, No Frills and Price Chopper.

Retail analyst Bruce Winder concurs.

“This was probably [Loblaw] just seeing sort of where the floor is in a certain market,” Winder says, adding that the No Frills model, and hard-discount banners in general, has already proven successful for Loblaw.

Dollarama has a similar offering to No Name, he says, but perhaps shoppers justify that trip because they can buy a variety of household items there, not just basic food.

According to Cotte, efforts should be made to help customers understand the benefits of a project like No Name to encourage them to change their shopping routines.

“If customers thought they could get all these items at No Frills, and do all their shopping at once, then it would be hard to make them change their habit, certainly,” Cotte says. “The positioning around price would have had to be extensive. And, honestly, Loblaw as a company doesn’t have the best reputation price wise, so I’m not sure that positioning was clear.”

Besides, she says, if someone is driving to a store already, they are more accustomed to getting refrigerated items and to expect longer opening hours.

Winder says it’s important for corporations to sometimes take chances and risks to avoid stagnation. And, besides, the pilot-store project was ultimately an attempt to create something that would benefit consumers.

“I think it’s a bit of a badge of honour to try something, even if you fail, because at least you’re out there trying something, versus letting the competition try for you,” Winder says. “Fail fast, fail often.”