Nothing new. Many stores or affiliates have their own brands for sale.
Nothing new. Many stores or affiliates have their own brands for sale.
That's true... if you stop right there.
But, what Walmart has done is not only include their own store-brand -- but -- they're discontinuing the competing "name-brand".
Now... that's the part that is different from the majority of the retail food stores and chains that I'm aware of. And that's the problem that some shoppers are going to have which will cause them to go to another retail outlet -- and perhaps get those customers to say to themselves, "Man, this store is nice; I think I'll keep shopping here!" ... LOL...
This is simply a very sensible trend.
My wife and I have spent half our adult lives overseas and one of the big problems we have noticed with US supermarkets is TOO MUCH choice. It must cost them a lot to stock so many brands and it is unnecessary. We have found many generic brands (not only Walmarts) are just as good or better and save us money. Some are not so we stick with the name brand. It’s called free choice.
Some items we have found better than name brands.
As pointed out by several posters, often the products come from the same production lines, the only thing different is the label. Dropping some name brands seems to be a trend (see this article http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/15/news/companies/walmart_dropping_brands/index.htm.)amoung many retailers. Interesting that Glad is now making Great Value storage bags as the price of staying on Walmart’s shelves. I think this is called the free market system and using your advantages to maximize profits.