Online columnists weigh in on store brands

In the final week of October, several online columnists provided their insights and opinions regarding store brand products.

On Oct. 26, Angela Nelson, senior editor for Mother Nature Network, offered her perspective on when consumers should buy store brand versus name brand items. She urged consumers to “buy generic with confidence” when it comes to the following products and categories: gasoline, over-the-counter and prescription medications, pantry staples, sunscreen, canned and frozen fruits and vegetables, peanut butter and jelly, and “things you don’t care about.”

To read her detailed column, visit http://www.mnn.com/money/personal-finance/stories/products-you-should-buy-generic-and-products-you-should-buy-name-brands.

Meanwhile, a column critical of private brands that don’t identify the retailer — titled “Phantom Brands Haunting Our Supermarket Shelves as Home Brand in Disguise” — appeared on Oct. 27 in EconoTimes.com.

Gary Mortimer, an associate professor of marketing at Queensland [Australia] University of Technology in Brisbane, wrote, “There was a time when shoppers could easily differentiate between supermarket private labels and proprietary branded products; however, new ‘phantom brands’ appearing on store shelves are clouding the waters. These are private supermarket label products without any reference to the supermarket’s brand or logo.”

Mortimer went on to comment that while this practice benefits supermarkets, “it comes with the inherent risk that shoppers may feel duped into buying a brand, which is not really a brand.” View the posted column at http://www.econotimes.com/Phantom-brands-haunting-our-supermarket-shelves-as-home-brand-in-disguise-369402.

And on Oct. 26, Rebecca Schuman, a columnist for Slate.com, commented on Lidl’s scheduled expansion into the United States and speculated on the potential relative merits of ALDI’s versus Lidl’s private brand and exclusive products.

“As some ALDI stores do, will Lidl carry the single most important German import in the history of foodstuffs, namely Erdnussflips — basically peanut-butter Cheetos?” Schuman wrote. “They may sound vile, but they are irresistible.”

Read Schuman’s column at http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/10/26/the_german_grocery_store_lidl_is_coming_to_the_u_s_and_it_may_produce_the.html. The image above is of Lidl's store brand Erdnussflips.