Store brands are eating name brands' lunch

Remember when adding cheap store-brand toilet paper to your cart felt like a small defeat?

That era is over: Private-label products (think Costco’s Kirkland, Whole Foods’ 365, and Amazon Basics) have morphed from consolation prizes into must-haves, pulling in $245 billion in sales last year, up from $184 billion in 2020, according to global market research firm Circana. One in five products on US retail shelves is now private-label, edging out household staples that have dominated for decades in categories ranging from soda to salty snacks.

In recent years, consumers trying store brands have realized: Hey, these knockoff Cheerios taste the same as the real thing for half the cost. And with inflation pushing up prices on every grocery aisle, sticking to store brands gives shoppers more power of the purse.

Meanwhile, retailers have stopped treating in-house products as an afterthought—and started spiffing them up with better materials and snazzier packaging. Kirkland, which launched in 1995 with just two products, now offers around 550 items. Amazon Basics started even smaller in 2009, with a handful of generic batteries and cables, and has since exploded to over 1,800 wares. Morgan Stanley analyst Simeon Gutman expects private-label sales to jump 40% by 2030, hitting $462 billion, as store brands get more ambitious, branching beyond off-brand cereal to more exotic fare like lobster ravioli.

The name-brand damage

Not surprisingly, this shift has stirred up an existential crisis for household heavyweights like PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble, which are now scrambling to compete against the very stores selling their products.

The damage has been real. Del Monte, a company with 140 years of canned goods behind it, cited private-label competition as a factor in its bankruptcy filing last year. Energy drink maker Celsius watched its stock drop in March after Costco rolled out a Kirkland-brand rival.

Beat ’em—or join ’em

Corporations are fighting back the best way they know how—by appealing to shoppers’ bottom line. PepsiCo slashed prices on Doritos, Tostitos, and Cheetos by up to 15% this year—though sluggish sales suggest these efforts arrived too little, too late. Investors noticed; the stock slid.

Other companies have taken a less diplomatic approach: Mondelēz sued Aldi, accusing it of copying Oreo and Chips Ahoy packaging, while J.M. Smucker went after Trader Joe’s for allegedly ripping off its Uncrustables. Turns out imitation isn’t always the sincerest form of flattery; sometimes it’s a lawsuit.

Some companies have stopped fighting the trend altogether, and started quietly manufacturing store brands themselves. Edgewell, for instance, not only makes shaving products under Schick, but for Walmart’s private-label brand Equate and Target’s up&up line. Niagara makes bottled water for grocery chain Kroger; Crystal Geyser does the same for Wegmans.

Although these companies risk cannibalizing their own brands, maybe that’s a risk worth taking to keep the factories running. And let’s face it—at the end of the day, does it really matter if everyone’s toilet paper comes from the same place?—JD