Grocery store brands once carried a stigma. With no-frills white packaging that telegraphed bargain basement and low quality, they were a last resort for consumers on tight budgets.
Today, they are the stars of grocery store shelves and refrigerated cases.
From Safeway’s Open Nature to Target’s Archer Farms, grocery brands are challenging traditional brands from food companies, and preserving or improving their own slim profit margins.
“There is really widespread acceptance of store brands among consumers,” said Janet Eden Harris, senior vice president of Market Force Information, which recently surveyed consumers and found that 96 percent said they bought private-label brands at least some of the time. “Sometimes I think they don’t actually know what is a store brand.”
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