The news from sector analyst TNS that Morrisons must speed up its conversion rate of Safeway stores, comes as no surprise.

Simply taking over and slashing prices behind the Safeway fascia has proved inadequate to halt the slide so far.

Safeway itself had already found this to be an inadequate strategy. It became apparent several months into its own price-slashing initiatives that many shoppers were just cherry-picking the best offers, and not spending elsewhere in the shop as the devisers of the approach had hoped.

The two stores have very different shopper profiles, with Safeway aiming at a higher spending consumer. But by introducing the price cuts and bringing Safeway prices into line with Morrisons, it is clear where the Yorkshire-based chain is heading - indeed, there have been Morrisons’s own branded products alongside Safeway's own label in store for several weeks.

The store must know it is likely to lose some traditional Safeway shoppers along the way in locations where there is a choice of retailers, but the fact that Morrisons’s own recent sales figures - in contrast to Safeway's - have been so encouraging might indicate it is on the right track.

When it comes to produce, it is praised in some quarters for its marketplace and the apparent freshness of its fruit and vegetables as it shuns the industry norm of category management.

But while these are valid points, it would be a shame for Morrisons to lose what is good about Safeway.

And that is it has a perceived breadth and depth of range that seems to be missing from the Morrisons offer.

If Morrisons hopes to keep Safeway shoppers on board, it would do well to remember this.