PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Pictured are
Kelloggs Fruit Loops and Ralphs Fruit Rings. You can spot the
difference, but can you taste it?
By Timothy Kudo
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Myth: name brand foods are of higher quality than store
brands.
Fact: much of the time, the label is the only difference.
“Whoever makes the store brand typically is making the
national brand,” said Ed Hobson, an Albertson’s sales
manager.
At Ralphs, store brands are sold anywhere from 10 to 40 percent
below name brand cost and about half are name brand products in
disguise, said Ralphs spokesman Terry O’Neil.
Markets are able to cut the cost because they don’t have
to pay for advertising and thus any profits go into their bottom
line. At Albertson’s, 20 percent of total sales are from
store brand items.
For some students, the brand name loyalty they’ve been
drawn to all their lives often conflicts with their budgets.
Nina Peng, a fourth-year psychobiology student, feels name
brands are worth paying extra for because she believes they are
better.
“It’s just the preference in taste and the brand
name,” she said.
She said the variety offered by different name brands, such as
different types of orange juice, are something she simply
can’t find in store brands.
Third-year history Student Luisa Escobar feels otherwise.
“Whichever one is cheaper,” she said. “They
taste the same and there’s not much difference.”
The grocers themselves make the products not made by name brand
companies, but sometimes, when they have a surplus, the grocers
will sell their items to the name brands.
“If you meet their standards and their ingredients, then
there are times when there are more than we need,”
O’Neil said.
In fact, some products made by Albertson’s are copies of
their name brand counterparts if they can get permission from the
companies.
“For Albertson’s brand cereal, we don’t use
Kellogg’s and General Mills, but we copy ingredients,”
Hobson said.
For the most part, the products’ appeal toward shoppers on
a budget and as a result, stores in poorer areas have a higher
selection of store brand products.
Though some have a strong attraction to name brands for certain
products, many customers seem to feel that brand name is irrelevant
in certain products, Hobson said.
“Most of the milk we sell is with our store name on
it,” he said. “Paper towels as well, canned goods, with
these items people are not very brand loyal, a lot of consumers go
for the best deal.”