Discount supermarket chain closes nearly all of its locations

Private labels existed before Costco turned its Kirkland Signature into a core part of its offering, but they were largely not considered high-quality products.

Companies had white-label generics and other value offerings, but they were considered inferior to the big-name brands. Costco COST pioneered the idea that a house brand could be equal, or even better than, a national brand.

Kirkland Signature promised to deliver quality without the marketing, packaging, and advertising expense that comes with big-name brands. That was idea the warehouse club's members embraced.

It was also a concept that rivals including Walmart, Target, and Amazon embraced.

Canadian company Loblaw also learned lessons from Costco, which guided its own "No Name" house brand and its more recent "No Name" grocery store chain. That brand will continue to be sold in the chain's full-line stores, but the No Name grocery chain is shutting down.  

Costco's Kirkland Signature’s history:

• 1995: Costco unifies its private labels into Kirkland Signature, named after Kirkland, WA (the chain's former headquarters).
• Goal: Match or beat national brand quality at 15-20% lower prices.
• Expanded from basics (like vitamins) to thousands of products across food, household, apparel, and more.
• Many items are produced by well-known manufacturers under Costco’s brand.
• 2025, Kirkland accounts for one-third of Costco’s sales (tens of billions annually). Source: Wall Street Journal

Loblaw launched a new kind of store

Loblaw, a traditional grocery chain operating across Canada, pioneered a new type of store in August 2024. Dubbed No Name stores, the chain was created to help customers save up to 20% on everyday grocery and household essentials by lowering operating costs and carrying only a targeted assortment of products.

“Our goal is simple – providing food and essential household items across a limited range of national brands and no name brand products at our lowest possible price,” said Loblaws CEO Per Bank in a press release.

He believed that market conditions made this the right time for these stores.

“Since food inflation took off globally, we have been laser-focused on doing what we can to keep prices lower for customers, including opening more discount food locations in more parts of the country. This new test concept allows us to pass on lower prices to our customers – it’s a completely different and simplified shopping experience.”

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The No Name stores reduced operating costs through a variety of ways, including:

• Shorter operating hours (10 a.m.-7 p.m.)
• Smaller assortment, making the store less complicated to run
• Limited marketing and no flyers
• No refrigeration (no dairy or fresh meat products)
• Reused fixtures: Shelves, cash lanes to minimize building costs
• Fewer weekly deliveries, reducing logistics costs

“Our commitment to customers is that products at the no name store will be up to 20% less than the regular retail price on a comparable product at any of the four main discount grocers in that local area," said Loblaw Companies Ltd. President Melanie Singh.

Loblaw closing its No Name stores

While it was a noble idea, Loblaw has decided to shut down the No Name experiment. That name will remain on the chain's house brands, but the stores carrying the No Name moniker will close. 

"Loblaw Companies Ltd. is slowly winding down its ultra-discount No Name grocery store program, with two of the three pilot locations in Ontario now closed or slated to shut down just over a year after they first opened," BlogTo reported.

The fate of the last remaining location has not been decided by the company. 

 "There was a strong initial response at the LaSalle location, the company said, but the customer base it needed to remain sustainable in the long term failed to materialize," City News Everywhere reported.

The grocer "had the right intentions but missed a beat on execution," said Amar Singh, senior director at the consulting firm Kantar.

Customers, she noted, don't want to have to visit multiple stores.

It was a “very bland assortment, limited assortments, two freezers in the back, and that’s pretty much it,” Singh said. “You can’t even buy milk.”

Loblaw’s No Name store experiment

• Sept 2024: Loblaw launches No Name pilot stores in Ontario (Windsor/LaSalle, St. Catharines, Brockville) targeting ultra-discount grocery shoppers.
• Store concept: Limited assortment of No Name and President’s Choice shelf-stable/frozen products; minimal services; no fresh items like milk or meat.
• July 2025: St. Catharines store closes due to low traffic and missing essential products.
• Oct. 25, 2025: LaSalle (Windsor) store closes, leaving only Brockville operational.
• Key factors behind closures: Insufficient customer traffic, lack of fresh food offerings; similar to a previous Loblaw discount experiment in Denmark that lasted.
• The fate of the final store remains undecided.

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