With the worsening economy people are looking for more ways to save money. Food costs make up our third largest household expense. Its no wonder then that groceries are the first place people look to cut costs.
Yet we commonly overlook the huge financial advantages of buying store brands. Here are three simple reasons you should take a new look at store brand products.
Grocery stores have discovered that they can often make more money selling their own store brand products than they can make selling name brand products. Essentially, supermarkets enjoy greater profits owning the product they sell rather than renting their shelf space to manufacturers.
In fact, many grocery chains are purchasing entire food processing businesses in order to process food from scratch, thus reaping even more of the profit for themselves. To keep shoppers coming back and the profits rolling in, the supermarkets must make sure that the quality of their store brand products is comparable to that of the name brands.
Another major financial incentive for supermarkets to ensure quality store brands is the fact that store brands help build store loyalty, working to attract and retain customers. In the cut-throat supermarket industry creating store loyalty is crucial.
If a customer becomes addicted to a particular store brand frozen pizza or spaghetti, for example, that customer will likely return when they need to purchase those items again. For this reason, grocery stores again have a vested interest in ensuring the quality of their store brand products.
Reason 2: Your savings will be significant.
Store brands can cost 20%, 30%, even 40% less than national name brand products. Purchase store brand chocolate chip cookies, for example, and you could easily save $1 a week.
This may not sound like much until you realize that this adds up to $4 a month or $52 a year in savings. Now multiply this by ten or more store brands, and you can see how quickly the savings add up. Simply changing some of your purchases to store brands will save you a significant amount of money.
Reason 3: You can try store brand products risk free.
Many people worry that they’ll waste money if they purchase a store brand product that their family doesn’t like. What they may not realize is that in an effort to promote their store brand products, many supermarkets offer a money back guarantee. If you are not satisfied with your store brand purchase just return it for a full refund.
Check with your grocery chain to see if they offer such a guarantee. This creates a win-win situation for you. If you enjoy the store brand product you’ll continue to save money month after month. If you don’t like the product, simply return it for a refund.
Now is a better time than ever to give store brand products a try. Grocery stores have huge financial incentives to ensure the quality of their store brand items. Your savings will be significant and if you’re unhappy with a particular store brand product most supermarkets will allow you to return it for a full refund.
We’d like to thank Finance Help Ideas for including this post in the most recent Carnival of Personal Finance.
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Oh but it all depends upon the ethics of the store… I’ve bought store brand mixed veggies and in 5 cans it proved the same.. 95%+ carrots and maybe a mangled piece of corn and a green bean or two. If i wanted to buy a can of carrots, i would have bought a can of carrots! Instead I was ripped off and the label was entirely deceiving. Same with the tuna, a deception. The can said 12 ounces. yeah, i expect it to have tuna and water that weighs 12 ounces but in 10 cans of tuna, the average weight of the actual fish was 6.95 ounces! And no way was there 5 ounces of water in that can to make up for the difference. I have pics to prove it.
So yeah, store brands can be good.. i’ve found some myself, BUT there are some out there that are hoping to make $$$ on our desperate search to buy food at lower prices and they are ripping off an already monetarily burdened consumer population that has lost their jobs and trying to feed their families. Grrrrrrrr.
You’re so right Trixie,
Many businesses are only interested in taking your money. Banks get massive bailouts from the government and then raise interest rates on credit cards to unimaginable levels. Rental car companies advertise super low rental rates but fail to mention all the taxes, fees, and extra insurance costs that will make that cheap rate skyrocket.
And supermarkets practice deceptions in all forms. That’s why its so important to check their return policy. If they don’t offer a 100% money back guarantee on their store products then move on to the next store.
One other thing to be aware of: ingredient labels. I’ve been a long-time buyer of store-brand products, but in an effort to eat healthier (less high fructose corn syrup, saturated and trans fats, etc.) I have started paying closer attention to the labels and found that the cheaper store-brand goods often have more artificial ingredients (which cost less to use.) In many cases I have started to buy the name brand stuff for the sake of better ingredients.
Madkathy,
You’re right. It is important to check the labels on any product you purchase. Once you do you’ll be amazed at how much saturated fat, salt, processed corn syrup, preservatives, and artificial dyes and flavorings that we feed to our families.
That’s one of the reasons I suggest people try to buy the least amount of processed foods that they can.
As you stated in some cases the name brand products have better ingredients. In other cases the store brand product tends to be the healthier purchase because it has less salt, sugar or preservatives. There is a particular store brand fruit cocktail that I enjoy because it has less sugar in it than the name brand.