This can’t be anything new. Hasn’t any other retailer ever had a manufacturer develop a line for sale by its own chain?
It isn’t new at all. What do you think Sears’ Kenmore line is? Sears didn’t do any development of Kenmore appliances in the last three quarter century. They and most other historic retailers did this for more than the past century. This is the same as the relabeling or contract manufacture of the past.
Sears was known for its Kenmore appliances, which were produced by other manufacturers and given the Kenmore label.
Aren’t most of the generic store brand items from stores like Kroger/City Market the same idea?
It’s done all the time, deals exclusive to a certain retailer.
This has been going on for decades. Sometimes the products are identical to those sold in other stores and only differ in a model number. Other times there are minor design differences, sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle. Then there are the truly custom products developed for a single retailer.
The risk here is that Amazon demands exclusivity and won’t sell other manufacturers’ products. So far, you find Amazon branded products next to a myriad of similar products from other merchants and/or manufacturers, but mainly for small items. This could lead to a lot of internal conflict with the platform people responsible for broad revenue and the product people responsible only for their own Amazon brand products.
Every grocery store has their house brands. They used to be more or less garbage, on the level with generic goods. Recent years have shown a significant improvement in “store brands” and many are as good as any name brand.
“Hasn’t any other retailer ever had a manufacturer develop a line for sale by its own chain?”
I buy the ‘Sure-Fine’ STORE Brand at my local grocery store. The canned goods are produced and packaged by Del Monte NATIONAL Brand.
They just fire up the line, load it with differently labeled store-brand cans, and the fill ‘em up! ;)