Store Brands Are Filling Up More of Your Shopping Cart

From pretzels to pet food, store-brand goods are gaining on big-name brands: ‘Our food budget had exploded’

By Jesse Newman and Stephanie Stamm of The WSJ.

I have done a few posts on how consumers are trying to deal with inflation. See related posts below. It is not surprising that people are on the look out for cheaper alternatives.

Excerpts from the article:

"U.S. consumers are trying many tactics to cut their food spending: eating out less, buying less groceries and ditching name brands. That is boosting lower-cost store brands, which last year claimed 22 cents out of every dollar spent in grocery stores—the largest share ever for so-called private-label products."

"But store brands, manufactured by companies including TreeHouse Foods for such retailers as Walmart Kroger, are gaining ground, raising pressure on big food companies that have pushed their prices higher."

"a confluence of factors is fueling store brands again, according to food-industry executives and analysts. Groceries are far more expensive than they used to be, with prices in April 26% higher than 2019 levels"

"Sixty-five percent of shoppers say they choose private label over national brands because of store brands’ lower price"

"Some consumers are shifting to private-label goods as they give up or postpone other expenses, from piano lessons to streaming services"

"The quality of private-label offerings has improved markedly, with more resources devoted to product development, packaging, marketing and more."

"Consumers’ views on private labels are improving, with millennials and Gen Z leading the pack"

"High-income shoppers are also turning to more store brands, with 68% of those surveyed viewing them favorably—above the level for middle- and lower-income consumers."

Related posts:

Consumers Fed Up With Food Costs Are Ditching Big Brands (2024) 

One thing that I always talked about with inflation was that one of its costs was all the things we had to do to avoid it. Consumers are making 8% more trips to different retailers as inflation continues to upend household budgets. They are going to more stores to find lower prices. But it costs time to do that and probably more money on gas.

Are Americans Worrying Too Much About Inflation? Two opposing views (2024)

The Era of One-Stop Grocery Shopping Is Over (2024)

When workers were paid twice a day and given half-hour shopping breaks (Germany, 1923) 

By mid-1923 workers were being paid as often as three times a day. Their wives would meet them, take the money and rush to the shops to exchange it for goods. However, by this time, more and more often, shops were empty. Storekeepers could not obtain goods or could not do business fast enough to protect their cash receipts. Farmers refused to bring produce into the city in return for worthless paper. The requirements to calculate and recalculate commercial transactions in the billions and trillions made it practically impossible to do business in paper Marks