Store Brand Products

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wayne winterland jr.
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Store Brand Products

Post by wayne winterland jr. »

It's true that store branded and labeled products usually have a better profit margin for the grocery stores but there is also a very simple reason for selling store branded and labeled products. For instance when Alpha Beta Markets had just their Alpha Beta labeled products as the low cost item of selection along with national brands, if you can get a shopper to buy a store branded and labeled item if they do like either the item itself or the lower price on the item you could for the most part only buy Alpha Beta labeled products in Alpha Beta Markets and so you also had only one store that a shopper could buy an Alpha Beta labeled product and that was at an Alpha Beta Market. You couldn't buy it at any other grocery store chain except Alpha Beta so in this regard you kept a customer coming back to Alpha Beta Markets for private labeled Alpha Beta items which were not only cheaper than national brands but could only be bought at any Alpha Beta Market so by having a good grade of private labeled products you were almost sure of getting the shopper back into an Alpha Beta Store again and again to buy both private label products but probably also other items as well. There were several reasons for Grocery Stores offering their own private label brands but mostly because of a cheaper price and higher profit on the item and also because you could only buy the items at an Alpha Beta Store and not at another competitor.
tkaye
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Post by tkaye »

Get all that? :-) There will be a test!
danielh_512
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Post by danielh_512 »

I've talked about this in business classes, and you're right. It's all about creating brand loyalty (as are the loyalty cards), as well as a segmentation of the market to the cost-conscious consumer.
todd
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Post by todd »

Years ago in high school I worked at Winn Dixie and we'd often get our boxes of "store brand items" and when we opened the box, it would have other "private labels" inside, like Albertson's or other things (definitely not WD) ...anyway, we'd have to use it so we dump it a buggy and call it a clearance salel.

I remember one manager always made us tear the labels off anf write on the can in marker GREEN BEANS, or whatever, b/c he refused to sell another company's label. We weren't even in an area where there was an Albertson's so most people would have never known the difference anyway.

It leads me to think that often "private labels" are packaged at one big factory and they just put different labels on things. I know WD made a lot of their own stuff (especially colas and dairy). Our big names were ASTOR, THRIFTY MAID, SUPERBRAND, CHEK and ARROW.
jamcool
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Post by jamcool »

It leads me to think that often "private labels" are packaged at one big factory and they just put different labels on things. I know WD made a lot of their own stuff (especially colas and dairy). Our big names were ASTOR, THRIFTY MAID, SUPERBRAND, CHEK and ARROW.

You are correct...there are several mfg's that are exclusively private label producers, and the brand name mfgs also make store brand as well..I was in a Purina plant and along with cases of Purina pet foods were cases marked for Kroger and Albertsons.

Many people don't know but virtually all of the store brand colas are basically Royal Crown/Cott ...who make the syrups and/or the sodas themselves.
tkaye
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Post by tkaye »

jamcool wrote:Many people don't know but virtually all of the store brand colas are basically Royal Crown/Cott ...who make the syrups and/or the sodas themselves.
Doesn't Shasta make quite a few of them as well? I remember seeing Western Family soda having the same style of product codes stamped on the bottom of their cans as Shasta.
rich
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Post by rich »

Until recently, Winn Dixie made soda for other chains including their major Florida competitor, Publix. Kroger also makes house brand items for other chains. Their bakeries (the regional ones, not the instores) used to make goods for competitors, as well---they might still do that today.
ms.lefty
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Post by ms.lefty »

When I worked for a marketing research company in the 1980s, one of our clients was Scott Paper Co. I learned that Scott made paper products for Giant Food, which at that time was the biggest DC/Baltimore grocery chain.

Heinz was another client of ours - they made private-label canned soup for supermarkets long after they stopped selling it under their own brand name.

I wonder who makes all the products for the Aldi chain, since 90% of what they sell is private label?
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shane
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Post by shane »

This thread reminds me of a few weeks ago, when I bought a bag of Trader Joe's frozen orange chicken, and week later I bought a bag of Ralphs frozen orange chicken. Then I compared the ingredient which were word for word the same, and come to think about it the bags also looked very similar.
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tesg
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Post by tesg »

tkaye wrote:Doesn't Shasta make quite a few of them as well? I remember seeing Western Family soda having the same style of product codes stamped on the bottom of their cans as Shasta.
Shasta's parent, National Beverage (who also owns Faygo), makes some store brands, but calls it a small part of their business.

Safeway has its own beverage plant along I-70 in Denver, and I'm pretty sure Hy-Vee has their own as well. Not to say they're not producing their product from syrup coming from other sources...
Rob_L
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Store Brand..

Post by Rob_L »

And, if you are in the NY/NJ area.. you will find that MOST fo the store brand soda is from Concord Beverage... they also make Vintage brand soda and seltzers...
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Dave
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Re: Store Brand..

Post by Dave »

Rob_L wrote:And, if you are in the NY/NJ area.. you will find that MOST fo the store brand soda is from Concord Beverage... they also make Vintage brand soda and seltzers...
Concord Beverage was acquired by Cott in 2000.
jamcool
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Post by jamcool »

In the Southwest, the major private label soda bottler is Southwest Canning, which is owned by Kalil Bottling of Tucson (a RC/7up bottler)
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RandallFlagg
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Post by RandallFlagg »

Who made Alpha Beta's private label of sodas? There used to be a flavor called Tapa punch and I've never found anything with the same taste. Shasta has something close, but that's the best I've come up with. Thanks for any info.
Dean
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Post by Dean »

The chains had their private label...that was to be cheaper. They even went a step further...and had the even cheaper private labeled products. Ralphs had PLAIN WRAP. It was a simple white background with a blue stipe. I actually have a coffee mug with this logo! VONS had SLIM PRICE (they still have some) which was/is a simple red price tag. Alpha Beta had ECONO BRAND which was a red band. LUCKY had simple brown packaging.
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