.safeway

Status:	Proposed
Registry Provider:	Neustar
Type:	Brand TLD
Priority #:	1676 - Safeway Inc.
More information:

.safeway is a Brand TLD being proposed in ICANN's New gTLD Program. The applicant is Safeway Inc.

Application Details

The following is excerpted from the applicant's response to question #18:

'Safeway Inc. (ʺSafewayʺ) is one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America. As of December 31, 2011, the company operated 1,678 stores in the Western, Southwestern, Rocky Mountain, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States and in western Canada. In support of its stores, Safeway has an extensive network of distribution, manufacturing, and food processing facilities. Safeway owns and operates GroceryWorks.com, LLC, an Internet grocer doing business under the names Safeway.com and Vons.com. Through its subsidiary, Blackhawk Network Holdings, Inc., Safeway provides third-party gift cards, prepaid cards, telecom cards, and sports and entertainment cards to retailers in North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Safeway also holds a 49% interest in Casa Ley, S.A. de C.V., a food and general merchandise retailer with 185 stores in western Mexico. Safeway content is accessible in multiple TLDs, including the .BIZ, .COM, .INFO, .NET, and .ORG gTLDs, and the .CA, .CO.UK, and .US ccTLDs.

Safeway will be analyzing and evaluating other .BRAND gTLD applications as well as general market adoption to determine short- and long-term potential best-in-class use case options to more effectively service and enhance its online strategy. Safewayʹs current operating strategy is to provide outstanding value to consumers by offering a unique shopping experience in its stores and online, with a wide selection of high quality products at low, everyday prices and attractive Club Card specials. Safeway is also taking a brand management approach to building high quality proprietary consumer brands with significant innovation and new product development work.

The intended future mission and purpose of the .SAFEWAY gTLD is to serve as a trusted, hierarchical, and intuitive namespace provided by Safeway and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates for consumers. Safeway will be the entity to bring the .SAFEWAY gTLD to market and is also applying for .VONS, .JUSTFORU, and .GROCERY (“Safeway Family of gTLDs”).

Although ICANN has not specifically recognized a .BRAND gTLD specification in the current version of the Applicant Guidebook, it is widely anticipated within the brand owner community that this will become a specialty subset of new gTLDs. The .SAFEWAY gTLD was planned as a .BRAND gTLD, with the goal of protecting Safewayʹs online presence and identity, expanding its marketing and promotional efforts, providing a secure channel for products and information online, and offering a platform on which to consolidate many of the intellectual property activities of Safeway.

Safeway intends to initially limit registration and use of domain names within the .SAFEWAY gTLD to Safeway and its qualified subsidiaries and affiliates. This initial use will allow Safeway to establish its operations and achieve full sustainability. This limited distribution, coupled with the other requirements set forth in Specification 9 of the template Registry Agreement, is intended to exempt Safeway from its annual Code of Conduct Compliance requirements."