Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery – but it’s proving more than a little confusing for shoppers looking for their favourite brands.
Supermarkets have been accused of tricking consumers into buying own-brand products by making them look like household labels.
Which? claims that retailers have been “free-riding” on the reputations of brands by mimicking the packaging of better-known producers of biscuits, cereals and bath products.
Another example of infantilising the population. Which? must think we are all thick. I have never accidentally bought an own brand product. What I buy is a deliberate choice and, yes, I can clearly tell the difference. Similar is not the same as “same”. There are enough obvious differences to make the difference obvious – to all but the terminally thick or the infantilised who need organs such as Which? to go crying to mummy on their behalf.
The layout of supermarkets is also carefully planned. Fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy are all placed around the outer limits of the store, with pre-packed, processed and frozen foods at the centre. That means shoppers must pass through the “unhealthy sections” to buy products needed for a balanced daily diet.
Oh, FFS!
The clear and obvious solution to this is “plain packaging.”
First of all, require that all foods be packaged in uniformly shaped puke green boxes. The food and brand name can be printed in font size 10 Arial typeface on the bottom front of the boxes.
For added effect, all foods containing meat, fat, salt, sugar, or carbohydrates shall have 75% of their surface area covered with gory pictures of obese people with bedsores, clogged bloody hearts, oozing cancers, and assorted other certified child-friendly images designed to combat juvenile obesity.
If the above measures prove insufficient to ensure healthy and happy diets, said packages could be stored out of site behind opaque locked cabinets accessible only through intermediary store personnel.
You’ll thank me later.
– MJM
Great idea. Let’s first ban food in pubs and see how we go.
Y’know, those pubs which used allow smoking inside, sold large quantities of alcohol and/or made a bit extra in profit by selling food ?
The ones which banned smoking inside, sell decreasing quantities of alcohol and/or try to up the profits by selling more food ?
Oh, err…hang on a mo…
Don’t give them ideas, MJM!
I make a point of buying own brand stuff generally as it appears to be of similar quality to the branded stuff and almost always significantly cheaper. Having worked in a factory where our product went off the same production line into lots of different brands’ boxes, I suspect that many of the own brand products are actually the branded product in a different box. What if you do buy the wrong product by mistake? You either use it, throw it away or give it away. You then pay a bit more attention the next time that you shop. I get the impression that some people have got too much time on their hands.
As for that last quote at the bottom of the post, I actually said ‘Oh FFS’ out loud just before I read yours.
I can’t speak for every product, but I’ve got a bit of insider knowledge of some food companies. The mid-priced own label stuff should be of similar standard to the mainstream branded stuff. The basics stuff is genuinely inferior, and the premium own-brand things are much better and, if it’s meat you’re buying, well worth paying the extra for (though a trusted butcher, I’m sure, trumps them all).
The Aldi style own brand ‘homages’ to the real thing can sometimes be fairly amusing, too.
I regularly visit four different ‘Supermarkets’. A Sainsburys, a Waitrose, a small Tesco, and a Co-op. Not a single one of them is laid out in the manner claimed in that quote. In fact, in the one I visit the most (a large Sainsburys) I usually, and quite naturally, completely avoid the frozen section unless I specifically have something I need to buy.
I am just one man, of course, and these are just four supermarkets. But, still.. I’m calling *bullshit*.
You’re not the only one. I have never seen a supermarket laid out as in the quote and several people in the comments to the piece are saying likewise. Did you see the cretin I was arguing with? Any more dense and he would bend light.
“…The basics stuff is genuinely inferior…”
The basic stuff at Asda is called ‘Smart Price’ and is packaged in green and white. If you shop at Asda I would recommend trying this brand as it is of good quality and so cheap that they are practically giving it away. The only Smart Price product that I can think of that is of low quality is the lager.
I too call bullshit on the supermarket layout quote. Even if it was true, I would just wheel my trolley through the alleged unhealthy zone without buying anything.