Big Name Brands Are Feeling the Squeeze From Grocers’ Private Label Brands
What’s in a name? A lot of extra cost. Shoppers are ditching branded goods for cheaper store brands — a shift driven by years of rising food prices. This trend reflects consumers feeling the financial squeeze and changing their shopping habits.
- National brands still dominate 78% of US food and beverage sales, but store brands are catching up, claiming 22 cents of every grocery dollar spent last year — a record for private labels.
- Store brands are growing fast: pet food sales are up 7.5%, pasta and grains are up 7.9%, while national brands have seen a 15.2% drop in baking supplies.
Brand(less) wars: According to a Food Industry Association survey, 65% of shoppers prefer private labels for lower prices. Facing this shift, established brands like McCormick and Mondelez are under pressure to defend their market share as over half of retailers expect private-label goods to drive growth this year, per an NIQ survey. This creates a brandless competition between store brands like Walmart’s Bettergoods and Target’s Good & Gather. Aldi plans to nearly double the pace of its private label footprint by 2028, suggesting that the next big brands might come courtesy of your favorite store.
