No Frills, styled as  “nofrills”  is a chain of what is referred to as deep discount supermarkets. Named nofrills, this supermarket chain is a subsidiary of the Loblaw Companies Ltd., and is headquartered in Ontario, Canada.

History
The first Nofrills opened in 1978 in the area of East York. This prototype store that they operated proved to be a success as a significant number of people came when the store first opened.

As the store’s name suggests, nofrills is a store that has no frills. The store offered no store displays, no advertising of its products, no counters for meat and no store clerk to bag customers’ grocery purchases. The store even had a policy that any customer who does not bring their own grocery bags must pay 3 cents for bags. When customers were asked if the store’s system was a bit rough for them, customers would often say it does not bother them. What they take into account is the fact that nofrills allows them to save quite a lot of money.

The first nofrills store featured only about 500 items, unlike most stores that offered many more. A majority of the products sold in the store are private label goods under the no name® brand. Products sold under this label are also considered as “no frills,” as the products are all generic and sold at low prices. The brand, which was introduced by Loblaws months before the first Nofrills store opened, were easily recognized primarily because of its distinct yellow packaging. Many customers who have tried the brand say that the products are very good quality, and there are even some that are better quality as compared to popular national brands.

Because of the success of the first nofrills store, its parent company Loblaws quickly decided to convert about 2 dozen stores into nofrills stores. In the 1980s, the competition in the retail industry continually increased, but Nofrills was able to survive and even managed to grow. In 1987, Loblaws decided to open Nofrills to enterprising people who wanted to own a franchise of the store. Now, some Nofrills stores even have the name of its franchise owner, like Ron’s Nofrills®, Roger’s Nofrills® and Brian and Alison’s Nofrills®.

Headquarters: Brampton, Ontario
Ownership Type:  A subsidiary of Loblaw Companies, Limited
Employees: Information not available
Geography: Canada
Demography: Retail products consumers

Brands
nofrills®, no name®

Important links
Nofrills Corporate Home Page
Promotions and Coupons
Products
Jobs and Careers
Nofrills Contact Information