A new shop has opened, called Morrisans, which shares a remarkable resemblance to a major UK supermarket. The shop shares an incredibly similar name and colour scheme to the supermarket group Morrisons.
But instead of copying the business’s brand wholesale, the owner has craftily replaced an “o” with an “a” and shaved off an “s” from the high street chain’s name. He has also exchanged Morrison’s famed logo - symbolising leaves on a tree - for an image of a trolly with an arrow pointing into it.
Amused locals, who spotted the newly opened premises, felt it resembled similar past attempts by store owners to adapt supermarket branding to their advantage. In 2020, Mandeep Singh Chatha, 34, sparked a backlash after denying his store ‘Singhsbury Local’, in Birmingham, was a copycat of a Sainsbury’s.
He's also used a typeface that was akin to the shopping giant’s famous lettering but insisted that the title came from merging his last name and the location of the store. And in 2014, another store owner Gulfar Ahmed also claimed his shop ‘Tecco Express’, in Salford, Greater Manchester, was "completely different" to Tesco.
Social media users, who recently noticed the shop in Manchester, poked fun at the similarities between it and Morrisons, which has 1,136 stores in the UK. But they also worried about how long the owner would be able to keep his doors open before a possible legal challenge arrived from the shopping giant.
One wrote: “Expect a cease and desist letter before the end of next week."
Another said: “Singhsburys has some competition.”
A further user joked: “Nothing will beat Tecco Express."
While another added: “Won't last long, anyone remember Harry Ramadan's chip shop?”
Morrisons has been contacted for comment.
