mtbc | Buying store-brand groceries (Reply)

mst3kmoxie had a Tesco voucher for coffee we like expiring today and the weather has been lovely this weekend so out we all went to Tesco. We cannot afford to shop there routinely but, not uniquely among grocery stores here, their own-brand merchandise is differentiated into three different classes or market segments: there is the regular stuff, there is the economy stuff that is routinely affordable and often quite adequate, then there is the fancy stuff for those who are not price-sensitive and wish they lived nearer Edinburgh so they could stop into Waitrose instead. I like to make a point of visiting the very-discounted shelves of groceries that expire today so must now be sold: quite often I thus end up getting to taste food from the fancy range, including today which included a nice fancy fishcake. Even the discount grocery chains such as Lidl at least have a fancy range, theirs being deluxe. Tesco's is finest and they now call their economy range everyday value.

I realize that I cannot recall these different levels of own-brand fanciness from my past shopping, either in the US or years ago in the UK. It is quite likely that I simply forget. Still, I wonder when they were introduced and where. It seems quite a good idea, effectively making the store three-in-one. The main social differentiation I recall in Ohio is that we were more likely to be offered free samples of food if we went to a store branch sited in an affluent white neighborhood, just like how one drives over to those neighborhoods on Hallowe'en for better candy.