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Slypenslyde t1_jaemjkd wrote

People still buy and want name brands. Sometimes this is just because of brand loyalty, other times they perceive real differences in quality between name brands and store brands. So if people really want Ritz crackers and not an off-brand, they'll stop shopping at a place that doesn't sell Ritz.

Some stores DO take this approach. For example, Trader Joe's only sells their own brand. But you'll note they are much smaller than chains that sell other brands like Kroger, Publix, HEB, etc.

I'm sure the stores think about it. But they know some % of customers who buy the name brands will stop shopping entirely if the name brands go away. So maybe some people will just buy the store brand Ritz crackers, but a lot of other people will go to a different store and that represents losing dozens of other item' worth of sales.

In the end, it doesn't matter what your margin is if there's not a customer to buy the product. So selling items at lower margins is better than not selling anything at all.

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Cyclonitron t1_jaeoqmz wrote

> other times they perceive real differences in quality between name brands and store brands. So if people really want Ritz crackers and not an off-brand, they'll stop shopping at a place that doesn't sell Ritz.

Off-brand Cheez-its are trash. I will die on this hill.

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Slypenslyde t1_jaerh1s wrote

Yeah I picked Ritz because it's one brand I'll stick with. I got the store brand once and they were actually really good, but apparently I picked an above-average box because the next three were flavorless and bad. Went back to Ritz because the worst box of Ritz is still better than the average box of store brand.

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Jayn_Newell t1_jaf1wa3 wrote

Yeah I’ll give store brand anything a try, but I often find there a noticeable quality difference, usually in favor of the branded items.

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