Saturday, December 13, 2008

Store brands on the march

In the news:

As the economy plunges into a deep recession, grocery stores are one of the few sectors doing well. That is because cash-short consumers are eating out less and stocking up at the supermarket. And store brand products, which tend to be cheaper than national brands and more profitable for grocers, are doing especially well.

Store Brands Lift Grocers in Troubled Times (New York Times)
The article notes though that some name brands seem inimitable: "Grocers certainly sell store brands that look like Cheerios or like Heinz ketchup, but to many palates, the knockoffs do not taste the same." I'm glad it's not just me.

Related post
Name brands and Brand X

comments: 2

Anonymous said...

I'm here to testify that the store-brand Cheerios don't even come close to the real thing, but almost everything else is fine, especially the olive oil. Don't pay for fancy labels.

It amuses me, penniless as I have been the last several years, that everyone is coming back to the grocery store. I've been there all along. I LOVE the idea that I can create an elegant meal with steak, fish, shrimp, or whatever, for a tiny fraction of what it would cost in a restaurant-- even if I'm fixing chili and chicken legs most nights.

Michael Leddy said...

And how.

We've bought store brand olive oil for years.

Speaking of chili, look at what Elaine made tonight.