Hi. I often sneak around, ghostlike, with a cellphone in hand snapping pics of random products.
Well, truth be told, we were marooned in CVS the other day while waiting for a prescription to be filled out. The pharmacist was too busy talking with her co-worker about her nice boyfriend who kept giving her two black eyes and a bloody nose. You know. I got bored and starting walking around taking pictures of the different products.
By the way, do not do this in front of employees. They’ll probably think you’re a product terrorist.
I spent quite a while in the lotions and perfumes, because you know, every mid 30s year old guy likes to read the labels on that kind of stuff. Just in case. In case of what, I’m not quite yet sure.
Now, I’ll often buy a generic “store brand” of product over the equivalent name brand product. I usually focus on food when I do that, but sometimes I’ll buy other products too. It’s not any sort of news to see the store brand copying the look and packaging of the name brand. But I guess I never really looked closely at the lotions and perfumes at CVS.
It’s pretty astounding how similar the color and shape of some of the products were. Item after item was lined up nicely next to it’s doppleganger generic product. I noticed that certain types of items are rarely “copied”. I haven’t really seen store-brand deodorant, for instance. Or toothpaste. But for lotion, shampoo and perfume, they sure try really hard to make it almost identical.
OK, so I’m not sure where this post is going. I guess it’s just an observation. However, a strange thing did happen to me that day. I actually started to feel SORRY for the Aveenos of the world. Not only do they have to worry about competition from other product companies, but getting their product into the big stores means that they’ll probably end up sitting right next to the generic store brand which looks the same, yet costs slightly less.
To be honest, I’ve heard some stories that the manufacturers are actually in cahoots with having their product placed next to the generic brand. Some actually manufacture the generic brand themselves. The reason they agree to it, is that they give the customer the illusion that they’re actually “sticking it to the man” (or woman) by purchasing a cheaper knock-off. They lose a bit by having to sell the product at a cheaper price, but the original products are marked up so high anyhow that they’re happy to make the sale.
At least that’s what I’ve heard. There are now 53 indignant people preparing a comment on how I know nothing about how business works.
It’s true. I know nothing about it, I’m just another customer with a short attention span. My sympathy for the product manufacturer devils lasted exactly 5 minutes after it occurred to me. We picked up the prescription and rolled toward home drinking faux generic soda, eating faux generic chips, sporting faux generic jeans and shirts and wearing faux generic lotions and creams.
[Editor’s Note: That would be cool if they made a faux generic brand deodorant. I would definitely try it out.]
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July 6th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
One time I accidentally picked up a name brand (shampoo? I forgot what) instead of the generic. Maybe that’s part of the plan if they’re owned by the same company.
July 6th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
I work in retail and can give you a little bit of info on generics.
You are seeing generics pushed more now because consumers are comming around to them more. Stores make a BIG profit on generics as well. The mark up on generics can be 70% whereas I have seen mark up on brand name as low as 70 cents.
Brand names are still what customers want. I have spent I dont know how much time trying to convince customers that “Tylenol” is a brand name. That one can get the same drug in generics. Many people refuse to belive this. Brand names sell.
Generics are hit or miss. Many big names refuse to manufacture it and will say so on their product label.
July 7th, 2009 at 2:46 am
“I often sneak around, ghostlike, with a cellphone in hand snapping pics of random products”
Hahaha…me too! Lately I’ve been collecting a bunch of generic cereal and soda pics.
Have you ever been caught snapping pics and questioned about what you were doing?
July 7th, 2009 at 8:28 am
@holly - I’ve picked up the wrong product like that as well - though usually it’s something like accidentally picking up the “diet” version of a product.
@at - thanks for the info on generics! I think I know what you’re saying about brand names, it works on me too although it shouldn’t. So, is it sometimes a requirement by the chain stores (like CVS) that a product be manufactured as a generic as well, in order to get placement into the store?
@ryan - LOL! So far, I haven’t been “caught” - have you? But I don’t take pics as much in grocery stores. I do it at thrift stores quite frequently.
July 8th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
I love store brands! My and my roommates often buy them when available. I love walking down the cereal aisle and seeing how they’ve copied the box designs from the name brands. Usually I can’t even tell the difference between them anyway.
You sometimes have to watch out for store brands that are under a different name (e.g. Insignia is a store brand for home theater equipment for Best Buy). This is more of a concern for electronics and other large purchases, not so much for food or other basics. Wikipedia as a pretty good list of these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Store_brand
July 9th, 2009 at 9:42 am
@ Bryan … I was at this Peruvian rotisserie joint and saw this lonely table, with one lonely plate on it…it had a great looking rotisserie chicken half just sitting there. No one was around. I questioned my friend about it…clueless…so I said “I’ll snap some pics while you look out for me.”…I guess I was too caught up taking pics to hear my friend telling me someone was coming and I was nabbed. It was actually the owner of the place…his lunch…hahahaha. He was cool with it though and appreciated my interest in the food.
July 9th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
No Bryan its not a requirement.
What types of generics a store has is strictly their own choice, but you may have noticed the choice of generics has grown.
Its also no guarantee if the name brand manufactured the generic. Most of the meds I see seem to be done by a company that does generic meds for stores, Doesnt bother me as the ingredients are the same.
Generics can be hit or miss, but it doesnt hurt to try as most stores offer a money back guarantee.
July 16th, 2009 at 9:16 am
@ew - I totally hear you on “store brands” electronics. I remember the old Circuit Ctiy used to do this - they’d guarantee the lowest prices on say, speakers, but that was only because the model number was UNIQUE to Circuit City. So, of course they’d have the lowest price since they were the only ones carrying it@
@ryan - lol, so far we haven’t gotten yelled at for taking pictures of food - but I haven’t really tried to sneak photos of other people’s food yet. Maybe I should try that soon =)
@at - thanks for the info, it’s very helpful to hear it from someone who’s in retail. I definitely want to take a closer look at generic medicine next time we buy.
July 19th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Sometimes you can tell which company manufactures the store-brand products. Earlier this year I was looking at cans of corned beef hash at the supermarket. There were two types of the shelf - name brand and store brand. They both had identical date stamps on the bottom, so they were probably made in the same factory.