Why are grocery prices so high ?

[TheEmissary]

Originally Posted by Trevor92

The grocery store doesn't actually make the grocery store brand. Most are just repackaged national brands with a Food Lion or Laura Lynn or whatever else logo. Some companies such as the Snack Alliance Inc. make all the generic chips and snack foods for Food Lion, Ingles, Wal-Mart, etc. They just change the label. I usually always buy the store brand when I can except for a few things, unless the national brand is on sale and cheaper.

TE, one thing I've noticed at least at Food Lion is that they've started giving their store brands other names. Anything in Food Lion that's labeled as a brand of Healthy Accents, Home 360, Nature's Place, Smart Option, On the Go Bistro, and Taste Inspirations, are all Food Lion brands. It's becoming more and more common, Wal-Mart has used Great Value for years. So it may just seem like Pathmark and ShopRite have more house brands because of this.

Trevor - I've noticed that in Food Lion too. I think that you and sb are on to something with the house brand stuff. There must be several more large food packagers that probably do a run of Food Lion, Pathmark, Kroeger and others with a simple label change. In addition, many major national labels do this as well. Food Lion canned ravioli as well as Southern Home (Bi-Lo's house brand) seem to be pretty much the same stuff as Chef Boyardee and cheaper as well. I guess a major brand like that sees that strategy as having all their bases covered. Their philosophy must be "we got you no matter what you buy"! As long as I save money and the house brand is pretty much the equal of the major label product, I'll buy it. Only if the store sells the national stuff at a lower price than the house brand, will I bite! But it seems you're spot on with a chain offering even two or three variations on house brands. Clear Value, and Southern Home are the lower and higher end house products I've seen at Bi-Lo. Remember A&P with their Jane Parker brand? I can remember an old Mad magazine with a woman with a shopping cart holding Jane Parker cookies with the caption, "Didn't she write "Pride and Prejudice?"

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by Trevor92

The grocery store doesn't actually make the grocery store brand. Most are just repackaged national brands with a Food Lion or Laura Lynn or whatever else logo. Some companies such as the Snack Alliance Inc. make all the generic chips and snack foods for Food Lion, Ingles, Wal-Mart, etc They just change the label so usually the generics at Ingles are the same as the ones at Pathmark which are the same as they have at Food Lion. I usually always buy the store brand when I can except for a few things that I want in a specific brand.

TE, one thing I've noticed at least at Food Lion is that they've started giving their store brands other names. Anything in Food Lion that's labeled as a brand of Healthy Accents, Home 360, Nature's Place, Smart Option, On the Go Bistro, and Taste Inspirations, are all Food Lion brands. It's becoming more and more common to make people think they're not getting the cheapo generic brand. So it may just seem like Pathmark and ShopRite have more house brands because they just don't use multiple house brand names.

I'm aware of how the store brands are made, & marketed but they do not all come from one place. I have purchased store brand items that I did not like at one store but I liked the equivalent store brand at another store. I know that Pathmark's store brand frozen vegetables were packaged by a regional brand. I think it was Hanover.

There are 2 Food Lions in this town & the only non-name brand salad dressing in either store is Food Lion ranch dressing. The Ingles has a full line of store brand salad dressings & some are in 2 sizes. That's an example of what Emissary & I were discussing.

[Trevor92]

Originally Posted by southbound_295

I have purchased store brand items that I did not like at one store but I liked the equivalent store brand at another store. I know that Pathmark's store brand frozen vegetables were packaged by a regional brand. I think it was Hanover.

I don't doubt what you're saying, but as I said in relation to your post, most are coming from the same factory as the national brand, or at least the same generics going to all the different stores. It is far more often the exception rather than the rule that Company A will bid the lowest to provide Generic Product X to this grocery store, and Company B will provide the lowest bid for the same thing at another grocery store, but still possible due to several factors. It's also possible that a specific grocer might request small alterations in the ingredients such as more or less salt in some foods which is a pretty easy request to accomodate. It just sounded like you were surpised that the housebrand items at Ingles were as good as the ones at Pathmark, which is what I would have expected until proven otherwise. A fun fact is that Laura Lynn is Robert Ingle's daughter.

Originally Posted by southbound_295

There are 2 Food Lions in this town & the only non-name brand salad dressing in either store is Food Lion ranch dressing. The Ingles has a full line of store brand salad dressings & some are in 2 sizes. That's an example of what Emissary & I were discussing.

I understood your discussion. I was merely giving a reason why Food Lion, and other chains that use the same strategy, may appear to have less generics than they actually do. To use your example, at my local Food Lion they carry a full line of organic Nature's Place dressing, which appears to be a name brand but is in fact a generic. Although I believe they also carry a much larger line of regular generic dressing near me also that even includes Light dressings, not sure though because we only look at and get Kraft when it's on sale.

But I also believe Ingles has a fantastic bakery. While growing up, we would always make the drive across town just to go to Ingles when we wanted something from the bakery.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by Trevor92

I don't doubt what you're saying, but as I said in relation to your post, most are coming from the same factory as the national brand, or at least the same generics going to all the different stores. It is far more often the exception rather than the rule that Company A will bid the lowest to provide Generic Product X to this grocery store, and Company B will provide the lowest bid for the same thing at another grocery store, but still possible due to several factors. It's also possible that a specific grocer might request small alterations in the ingredients such as more or less salt in some foods which is a pretty easy request to accomodate. It just sounded like you were surpised that the housebrand items at Ingles were as good as the ones at Pathmark, which is what I would have expected until proven otherwise. A fun fact is that Laura Lynn is Robert Ingle's daughter. I understood your discussion. I was merely giving a reason why Food Lion, and other chains that use the same strategy, may appear to have less generics than they actually do. To use your example, at my local Food Lion they carry a full line of organic Nature's Place dressing, which appears to be a name brand but is in fact a generic. Although I believe they also carry a much larger line of regular generic dressing near me also that even includes Light dressings, not sure though because we only look at and get Kraft when it's on sale.

But I also believe Ingles has a fantastic bakery. While growing up, we would always make the drive across town just to go to Ingles when we wanted something from the bakery.

I used blue cheese salad dressing as an example because I have tried store brand blue cheese dressing at many stores & some of them are absolutely awful (I suspect several reasons, including different types of blue cheese) I also used the kleenex because so many storebrands have a woody feel to them & Pathmark's doesn't have that feeling. In my opinion those 2 examples seem to have a higher that usual fluctuation than average for storebrand products.

Since the comparisons were being drawn to Pathmark & Shop Rite, both North Jersey-based chains, I was leaving out details & other chains, because the people familiar with Pathmark & Shop Rite can fill in those blanks. For instance, I didn't use Acme Markets in the mix because the people who came from North Jersey have never heard of it, & there are not nearly as many people in the Charlotte area, yet, who are from the area served by Acme.

Storebrands are made to the chain's specifications, as you mentioned, so it is easy to have fluctuations coming out of the same food processing plant.

I think that another factor, besides the store brands, is regional food processors which usually provide high quality products at somewhat lower cost than the national brands. In frozen food. For example, Hanover, Sea Brook, & Pict Sweet are all available in the tri-state Philadelphia metro area. The 2 Food Lions here only had Food Lion & national brand frozen vegetables. The Ingles here has national brands, Laura Lynn, Pict Sweet, McKenzie, and a few products each from multiple other processors.

Also, store size plays into what can be carried in a store & how much variety is available in it. The Kings Mountain Ingles is huge. I think that both of the Food Lions could fit in it, with room to spare.

I agree with you totally about the Ingles bakery. It is light years different from what is available in the Food Lions, neither of which has a physical bakery in the stores.