Celestial Weasel ([info]celestialweasel) wrote,
@ 2008-10-11 16:43:00
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Supermarket sweep
I see that Tesco's have changed their tactic for own-brand things and are inventing fake brands for things e.g. 'Daisy' for dishwasher tablets and 'Planter's Best' for herbal tea. Would anyone more attuned to the dark arts care to speculate why? My guess would be that it's to attract the people who wouldn't normally want to think of themselves as 'own brand' buyers but are feeling the pinch.

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[info]hoiho
2008-10-11 03:53 pm UTC (link)
Are they really any more "fake" than the many dozens of brands owned by the big conglomerates?

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[info]celestialweasel
2008-10-11 04:17 pm UTC (link)
Well, not really but they are Tesco fake brands not P&G fake brands (I see an advert here 'they're not any old fake brands, they're M&S fake brands').

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[info]burkesworks
2008-10-11 04:10 pm UTC (link)
From what I can work out from recent Tesco advertising, it's almost as if they've taken a look at the economic situation and have chosen to divert their tactics from competing with their traditional rivals, and are instead aiming for a share of the Netto/Aldi/Lidl hard discount end of the market.

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[info]celestialweasel
2008-10-11 04:30 pm UTC (link)
Certainly they have in-store price comparisons with them when before they were beneath their notice.

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[info]beingjdc
2008-10-11 04:11 pm UTC (link)
Yes, it's because they've found that people would rather buy Aldi / Lidl unknown-brand products cheap than Tesco products cheap.

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[info]celestialweasel
2008-10-11 04:19 pm UTC (link)
But why would they do that? (I tried one of Aldi / Lidl once but it wanted a pound for the shopping trolly I didn't have so I went away again - it did have a truly crap bit of 'outdoor art' in the carpark though - Oxfordshire, home of crap outdoor art presumably mandated by the council when it's not busy putting money in dodgy Icelandic banks).

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[info]beingjdc
2008-10-11 04:21 pm UTC (link)
Because much of it is very good value, whereas Tesco value can be very hit and miss (sweetcorn good, peas terrible, lemonade good, cola terrible, etc etc)

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[info]celestialweasel
2008-10-11 04:29 pm UTC (link)
Ah yes, the peas. We have some in the freezer for use as a cold compress, we have to remember to tell the dog-sitters 'don't eat those peas', they have been around a long time now.

The crappest own brand thing I ever bought was Tesco babaghanoush which was clearly formulated by someone who had never eaten babaghanoush and for some bizarre reason thought a mixture of aubergine and flour would do the trick.

The weasel list of things that you shouldn't buy own brand of...
1. Razor blades
2. Baked beans
3. Washing powder (etc.) [because it tends to bring me out in a rash]
4. Blackcurrent juice drink

I am of the generation where own-brand cola was all unspeakably bad so would never consider buying it (the introduction of non-crap off-label cola is probably the only think Richard Branson has done of any merit).

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[info]burkesworks
2008-10-11 05:20 pm UTC (link)
Lidl scores highly on such items as coffee, chocolate and cold cured meats (almost always sourced from Germany), and pasta sauces, antipasti, olive oil and much of their Italian food in general. Every bit as good quality as Waitrose or M&S and a lot cheaper. Many of the other items, tinned stuff and own-brand cola among them, are as much abominations as most other "own brand" or "value" items in bigger supermarkets.

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[info]oldbloke
2008-10-11 07:51 pm UTC (link)
The weasel list of things that you shouldn't buy own brand of...
1. Razor blades
You shouldn't buy those at all. Go electric FFS. Only people who do things with powders and/or self-harm use real razorblades these days. You'll be datamined into a very dodgy list, I'm warning you.
2. Baked beans
Any brand is OK, as long as you don't mind adding some cumin and pepper and worcester sauce to them while you warm them through.
3. Washing powder (etc.) [because it tends to bring me out in a rash]
OK fair enuff.
4. Blackcurrent juice drink
Another thing you should never buy, it's just rub. Any brand.

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Cola
[info]dotty
2008-10-12 09:04 am UTC (link)
We buy this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breizh_Cola
It's better to try and find alternative ranges in some things...

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Americanising of Tesco?
[info]applez
2008-10-11 06:24 pm UTC (link)
Safeway has its own brand line of stuff, not called 'Safeway' but "Lucerne" (for milk) or its own "Organic" line.

Trader Joe's has a similar branding policy in place...

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[info]juggzy
2008-10-11 10:25 pm UTC (link)
This, I find really amusing. Warren Buffet says 'buy when other people are sellign and sell when other people are buying'. He's the most succesful investor of the last fifty years.

So I am thinking that I'll actuallly, finally buy some stocks and shares, and Tesco looks good on the back of their managing to swing themselves around in a very short space of time and pretend that they are a discount store by renaming their value brands. Hey. Nobody said it had to be moral.

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Shares
[info]dotty
2008-10-12 09:15 am UTC (link)
You'd better invest in Eurotunnel shares, once the link France/UK is done, there's no way it's going to close. Like they're ever going to close Suez/Panama canal. Same thing.

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[info]undyingking
2008-10-13 09:33 am UTC (link)
M&S have been disguising their own brand food as "St Michael" for donks. Ha, as if they're fooling anyone.

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