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January 15, 2006

Generic Brands

When I first started grocery shopping for myself, generic brands were horrible. Over the last five years I have tried generic brands, mostly at Wal-Mart, to see of I can save money. I have found Wal-Mart to have some great alternatives to name brand.

I googled about the Wal-Mart brand and ended up finding some interesting articles.

This article talks specifically about Wal-Mart brands:

The icing on the cake for Anderson, who has been with Wal-Mart since the start of the Great Value brand about 14 years ago, is that Boston Consulting Group recently declared Great Value the best-selling brand in the U.S. grocery market. Skeptics could argue that sheer volume drives much of the more than $5-billion in Great Value sales, but nonetheless, private label plays a big role in the wonder that is Wal-Mart.

Another article has some interesting info, including this:

Two private-label brands—Sam's Choice and Great Value—dominate the food and beverage offerings, which number more than 1,400 SKUs.

Here is an article about Generic brands. It quotes Consumer Reports test results of generic brands with Wal-Mart's Great Value brand part of the best in cereal and peanut butter categories.

More about Wal-Mart's private labels:

Wal-Mart is also challenging its suppliers by developing more of its own products, called "private labels." It stepped up that effort in the mid-1990s as it expanded into vitamins, batteries and bathroom tissue. Its Great Value grocery line has 1,475 items, from beans to salsa, up from 194 two years ago.

Wal-Mart says it is committed to keeping shelves full of well-known brands such as Kellogg cereals and Tide. But, in general, private-label profits run as high as 30%, vs. 15% on brand-name items, says Burt Flickinger, managing director of consultant Reach Marketing.

And despite what people say, Wal-Mart says:

"We're a national brand company first," says Wal-Mart's Bob Anderson, vice president/GMM proprietary brands. "Our private label exists to service the customer as an alternative. If customers want a national brand, we have them. But there is a customer base that is looking for a quality, value alternative. That's a strong element of the Wal-Mart culture – we're trying to bring quality and value to America, and now we're taking it around the world. "We're trying to lower the cost of living for people. We're not trying to be the biggest, as a lot of people think, we're trying to be the best," he adds. "We're looking to improve the standard of living in communities by offering quality merchandise."

And my last link is a list of Wal-Mart brands can be found at Wikipedia.

But the main reason for my post was to share with you the Wal-Mart brands that I use and to find out if you do also.

My favorite is the Great Value Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs. They have a flavor that needs no additional assistance. I think that Progresso is the name brand equivalent, but it's seasonings are not as good and as much. Last week I bought a name brand chicken coating product and will never buy it again. It cost just as much as a can of GV Italian Bread Crumbs and only covered enough chicken for one meal. A can of GV can coat quite a bit of chicken, not just one meal. And it taste much better.

I am also a fan of their peanut butter, pasta, and fruit bars. And I am sure I will be trying more in the future.

Costco carries Kirkland brand baby wipes that are wonderful! They are bigger and stronger than the expensive brands at the store. And even though my kids are not in diapers, I still use them for cleanup of not just the kids, but the house. I let the girls use them when they help me clean since they don't have any chemicals. And they clean great! All this and they are still cheaper than name brand wipes. Wooo hoooo!

So, what generic brands do you use? Are there any you stay away from?

I also know there are many Wal-Mart haters out there and to each their own opinion, but I found this to be very interesting:

Foote, Cone and Belding identified four attitudinal segments of Wal-Mart shoppers. They are "champions," "enthusiasts," "rejecters" and "conflicted." As the largest segment, champions account for 29 percent of Wal-Mart shoppers. They're young consumers and young families. They have a positive association with Wal-Mart and like its one-stop shopping. Champions spend the most money at a Supercenter—about $402 over a four-week period. They also make the most visits to the store—7.3 trips during this timeframe. Who spends the second most dollars? Ironically, it's the conflicted. This group, which accounts for about 15 percent of Wal-Mart shoppers—includes upscale families. They don't like Wal-Mart due to social and political reasons. But they make the second most trips to a Supercenter—5.6—over a four-week period and spend about $289.
Full article here.

Posted by on January 15, 2006 09:57 PM |

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Comments

I am a big fan of almost everything "Kirkland" at Costco, from jeans for DH to shelled nuts. Their house brand is consistently of good quality.

About the only WM brand stuff we used to buy regularly was the WM Sam's choice soda, which is CHEAP and really good, except for Dr. Thunder, which made us sick, and the WM Good Value fruit snacks, which DH is addicted too.

Now WM is too far away to go regularly.

Posted by: caltechgirl | January 16, 2006 02:30 AM