For every purse and purpose

With the recent shake-up at Loblaws..er..Loblaw...(well, more on that in a minute) - I obviously started to pay very close attention to how things were moving in the House that Weston Built.

I started to notice a scarry parallel.. between Loblaws and GM. I was reminded of Alfred Sloan's famous quote:

"A car for every purse and purpose."

No Frills ~ Valu-Mart ~ Fortinos ~ Great Canadian Superstore ~ Loblaws ~ and now Loblaw Great Food

Sound familiar?

Chevrolet ~ Pontiac ~ Oldsmobile ~ Buik ~ Cadillac

The principle is great, until the brands start to swell, and consumers are left with too many overlaps, and a blurred brand.

You can buy high end Pontiacs with GM, and Fresh Fish at No Frills.

Huge pallets of Wal*Mart-esque discounts at the Superstore, and the disaster Cadillac Caterra.

If the brands are that blurry, how much clarity can there be in the Leadership Teams at either company?

Well.. I guess the lack of clarity finally came to a head at Loblaws.. let's hope the smoke cleared as they opened the door...