Groceries. What happened to this?

It's called contracts with non-compete clauses.

I know Winco along with Costco, Member's mark - is branding their own. IMHO, not going to get a plain wrapper 70's style generic again - label design and printing cost are way down...

 

It depends on the store. I know Aldi's and a couple of other stores only sell their house brands. Walmart, etc. have the brand name stuff too.

 

seems the places with more house brands have more food recalls

 

It's the modern co-packing industry. Every brand comes out of the same plant, and there's very little difference in the cost of packaging from one to the next.

Sometimes the item itself is slightly different; they change a die size or a mold plate to get the different shape etc along with the packaging and run a new batch.

 

Yep, the name brands are whistle-blowing on them to, put them out of business. That's my take.

The other side of the coin, is they're cutting corners to maintain their low price. Probably true too, or could it just be superior management team? I've seen both in my career - but that's the negative connotation the larger name brands are trying to push...

 

i think i remember those black and white packages

search

what-happened-to-white-label-aka-generic-products.826641

 

Gone But Not Forgotten Groceries: From the Misc. Foods Aisle: Generic Brands
more photos here
History's Dumpster: Generic Products of The '80s

The black and white label was to convey it being low cost, but the labels really weren't less costly than full color.

 

and no one was interested apparently

 

Of course not. If you can do a 4-color label with photo for the same price as a black and white DESCRIPTION then the one with the fancy label will sell more, even though the product inside is identical.

For some products, they'll even be coming off the same line that makes the 'name brand' stuff- those guys are pros at changing up the recipe and the tooling between batches.

Not just groceries- a lot of products are made this way. There is a battery factory near me that claims to produce over 300 different brands.

 

To answer the OP question, they got prettier packaging, and moved out of their own aisle to sit next to brand name stuff on the shelves.

 

is there still a generic or store brand beer?

 

With all the micro breweries around, aren't the Bud/Miller/Coors the generic now?

 

About the only way that they aren't "generic" is their advertising budgets. They still spend more than just label & packaging costs to differentiate themselves from each other. I think this is mostly a result of the corporate juggling vs. government regulation that got those brands to where they are now.

Ubiquitous availability, consistent product throughout their distribution, low prices, and very little variation in the recipe to distinguish one from the next. All very much like the classic "generic" definition.

 

There was once regional beer brands before regulations ease on self and micro brewing. I got a Rheingold bottle opener, and Yuengling is going. Guess that's how the big three started, then they gobbled up the rest..

 

Stocked up on rice at Walmart yesterday; this is their house brand:


each 2kg bag was $4.97 CDN.

 

paul kalmanovitz, interesting guy!
when we were underage (70-73), we always bought falstaff. idk, but it must have been cheap, nothing else mattered