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The original nofrills® store was just that, no frills. No product advertising, no store displays, no meat counter, no clerks to bag your groceries, and you had to bring your own bags or pay 3 cents for each. "It doesn't bother me a bit," replied first day customer Frank Atlas when asked about bagging his own groceries. "I've saved a couple dollars with this order."

nofrills® introduced some highly innovative retailing concepts to Canadian consumers. While most grocery stores carried thousands of items, that first nofrills® featured only 500. And many of the products were themselves no frills, namely no name®, the line of generic products launched by Loblaws just months earlier. With their distinctive yellow packaging, bold lettering, and low prices, no name® was proving a big hit with consumers. "They're a lot cheaper than name brands, most of them are just as good and some of them are even better," commented one Toronto shopper.

nofrills® was able to pass on even more savings by leaving products on display in their cardboard shipping cartons, with the sides cut away. Produce, normally washed by hand and carefully arranged, was left in its original box.