Quebec’s largest supermarket chain will launch a program next week that discounts entire categories of products by as much as 40%.
Alain Brisebois, vice-president of grocery, purchasing and merchandising for Montreal-based Metro-Richelieu, says the company will discount more than 4,000 items in its independently owned supermarkets.
Brisebois says the average discount will be 20%, adding it will last at least three months.
He says national brands and the company’s own house brand, Metro, will be discounted in the Long Lasting Budget Price scheme.
He says the program is not a reaction to warehouse-style food stores, which have moved aggressively into Quebec and other parts of the country.
However, Brisebois says he hopes to lure back to Metro-Richelieu supermarkets customers who have gone to the warehouse stores looking for bargains.
The company will promote the new scheme with three weeks of radio advertising in Quebec, regional newspaper flyers and point-of-sale materials.
Metro-Richelieu’s ad agency is bcp Strategy-Creativity in Montreal.
Brisebois says Metro-Richelieu’s share of Quebec’s $7-billion supermarket business is 52%. DC
