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Thread: In The Grocery Section, Disappearing Store Brands

  1. #1

    In The Grocery Section, Disappearing Store Brands

    Recently (in the last year,) I have noticed more and more "store brands" disappearing from the shelves. The stores where I regularly shop (excluding Aldi's) now only have Campbell's soup. Walmart has a very limited selection of their in house "Great Value" brand soup. Same goes for oatmeal, only Quaker Oats brand now. Canned veggies at Target, as an in house brand, no longer exist. Shortening is now limited to Crisco brand in some stores. By dropping store brands, prices rise, fueling more profits, and adding to inflation. Wegmans still has all their in house branded products, but they aren't close to us. As a side note, local paper recently did a comparison grocery shopping trip. Biggest flaw was they only shopped stores on one street which are very close to both Lidils and Aldis. These prices don't reflect the prices around the area at other stores.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
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    NE OH
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    Interesting....I have seen just the opposite. I mostly shop at Giant Eagle here in NE Ohio, and many of the "national" brands have been replaced by GE branded versions. A lot of times the store brands are equivalent, but not always. For example, I find the birds eye brand frozen veggies to be way better than the Giant Eagle brand, and the selection of Birds Eye products has been dwindling over the past several years, replaced with GE branded products. Salad dressing and frozen potatoes are other examples that come to mind. I know supply chain issues disrupted the supply of many products, but I noticed this trend well before Covid.
    --I had my patience tested. I'm negative--

  3. #3
    I've noticed this also Bruce. I'm not sure what I'm seeing here ..but my conspiracy instincts tell me that vendors are negotiating to be the exclusive supplier at discount. Walmart announced today they're cutting back, ....lower quarterly earnings...double digit grocery inflation.. consumers are just not spending....there used to be long lines at Chick-fil-A.....working class w/families are pulling back? .....I donno

  4. #4
    Supply chain issues. We have a Lucky store whose home-brand is 'Signature', which is good stuff. For the past 3 or 4 months, many items I've bought in the past have been MIA, like their version of Club Crackers, diet cherry cola, and just about everything in frozen EZ foods has been absent. Stouffers is good but twice the money! Same with Walmart, not many if any Great Value salty snacks like corn and potato ships, tortilla chips, pretzels for quite awhile. BUT just yesterday at Lucky they finally had the crackers, and lots more of the Signature soda than before- still no frozen quickie meals but I think it's only a matter of time...
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  5. #5
    Could it be that the suppliers (canneries, etc) can only get limited amounts of "stuff", so they give priority to their brand over packaging it as a store brand? I dont know - just throwing out an idea.
    "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

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  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2021
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    Spartanburg South Carolina
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    Yeah, I suspect the store brands are really made by the name brands. When times get tough they may be a much lower priority.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Scott Clausen View Post
    Yeah, I suspect the store brands are really made by the name brands. When times get tough they may be a much lower priority.
    Previous life involved a lot of automation projects in food & beverage industries. For a huge variety of products, the economies of scale far outweigh most other considerations. Something like 80% of all refrigerated ready-to-bake biscuits/rolls in the US come from one factory in SW. Another in the SE makes most of the pizza rounds (dough) and bagels -- all they do is change the wrappers. And both are 3rd parties - - not the retailer.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
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    Doylestown, PA
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    Our default store is Giant, owned by Ahold Delhaize (according to Wikipedia at least). That company also owns Food Lion, Stop & Shop and Hannaford. Their store brand goods have increased in price, national brands appear to have increased quite a bit more. Prices appear to have softened [I]slightly[I] the last time I paid attention. Usually I go straight to what I'm looking for, buy it and leave.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    SE PA - Central Bucks County
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    Neither of the two markets that I shop at have had any disappearing store brands.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
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    Modesto, CA, USA
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    I shop at Grocery Outlet which is discount close out store started in Berkeley California right after the war. Only place I have ever seen many east cost brands. Interesting to see USA products labeled in Japanese and Arabic etc.
    Problem is you buy one to try it and they will never have more, ever. So if you like it go back the next day and stock up.
    Many items are the older bigger sizes pulled off tore shelves to be replaced by smaller packages.
    Bill D

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
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    Modesto, CA, USA
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    When I worked at the largest cannery in the world I learned brand names were meaningless. We would label a run of cans until the order was fulfilled. Then switch labels to another brand still pulling from the same warehouse stacks.
    Military orders we rubber stamped the contents, no paper labels. Some government orders just required "standard commercial label" so it did not look like welfare food.
    Bill D

  12. #12
    Kroger (no longer in our market) owns many of their private label producers. Kroger owns several different brands of grocery stores. Here, milk basically comes from either Maryland /Delaware Dairyman Assoc. ( formerly Harris Teeter,) or Pet. By going to web site, "Where does my milk come from," you can figure who produces your milk. Harris Teeter puts up most of Food Lion's dairy products in our area, with either Pet, or Mayola doing the "premium brand." Food Lion stocks two store brand milks (both produced by HT) that sell for different prices. Same milk, just different prices and labels. Tastes the same

  13. #13
    Join Date
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    Good article on store brands on CNN right now...

    https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/06/busin...nds/index.html
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
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    Modesto, CA, USA
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    I remember in the 70's when they brought out generic food. White cardboard with yellow letters names like "cake mix". A little cheaper I guess. I was not buying food then. Lasted. a year or less.
    Bill D.
    Found this online.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  15. #15
    In local Walmart stores, pickles used to be either Mount Olive, or Great Value (also made by Mount Olive.) Suddenly, Vlasic has appeared, replacing the Great Value Brand. Remember that Walmart bankrupted Vlasic several years back, with their cost cutting. Vlasic had spent a fortune on advertising (remember the stork?) showing themselves as a Premium Brand, and Walmart drove the price into the ground to sell it cheaper.

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