Private label products being sold at other chains

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TW-Upstate NY
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Re: Private label products being sold at other chains

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

BillyGr wrote: May 16th, 2020, 12:21 pm Only a couple things at a Price Chopper here since this began, and they were apparently just mistakenly shipped to them, as they had them out on their "markdowns" unit (most stores have a 4 sided floor display about 5 feet high, usually near a register for any markdowns, be they discontinued, leftover seasonal or stuff like this).
I've never seen this in any of the three local Choppers I shop in (well 2 Choppers and 1 Market 32). All they usually do is either have a table set up near the front end with marked down discontinued or seasonal items or a shopping cart or two of assorted items usually set up in front of a closed register. And that method is like a treasure hunt because all kinds of various items are just basically thrown in there and you have to pick through the entire cart. I've even found marked down discontinued items and closeouts right on the shelf on a few occasions. Maybe that's something they just do in the immediate Capital District but not in my neck of the woods.
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Re: Private label products being sold at other chains

Post by storewanderer »

Raleys routinely has Sunny Select product (due to shared distribution with Save Mart) and Equaline product (due to getting drug from Supervalu, but still using Topco drug brands- Raleys is the only Supervalu customer still using Topco drug brands) always in markdown bins. I find a ton of Equaline there. One location likes to just put them all $1 and be done. Have gotten some really good deals on OTC items. The same Top Care item is $15 and the Equaline one in markdown is $1. Granted the $15 is inflated and I could probably get it for 75% less elsewhere/in a larger count but the $1 is a great deal.

Various C&S independents in NorCal usually have a few Kroger grocery items in their markdown bins since C&S supplies the few Kroger NorCal locations for some items.

I haven't really noticed any changes in this since the pandemic. Maybe a little more Sunny Select at Raleys. These are all just distribution center mispicks.

The other thing of a lot of some other chain's private label at a larger chain with its own distribution is either deliberate or an error on the supplier's end packing the wrong items into the wrong boxes. I think everyone will be pretty understanding of this situation right now and I hope the products get sold through and don't go to waste over errors like this. I don't know the legalities of chain A selling chain B's products.
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Re: Private label products being sold at other chains

Post by BillyGr »

jamcool wrote: May 16th, 2020, 11:13 pm Also Walmart is selling the restaurant pack cans of Heinz soups...Heinz hasn’t sold soup at the grocery store level in the US since the 70s
Those may be new, but Walmart has had some larger products over time (usually a small section separate from where the item is normally) - I figured they might just be items they'd have for the Sam's club section and pick a few of the more popular ones for the regular stores.
storewanderer wrote: May 17th, 2020, 1:14 pm I think everyone will be pretty understanding of this situation right now and I hope the products get sold through and don't go to waste over errors like this. I don't know the legalities of chain A selling chain B's products.
I don't either, but it has happened as I was saying with the Price Chopper example and not just now but in the past. I believe most (if not all) items I've ever seen were stores not in the area, though, so that might be different than if it were a local competitor. Either that or if it's a small amount it's probably not likely anyone from the other chain would even know it happened.
TW-Upstate NY wrote: May 17th, 2020, 9:11 am
BillyGr wrote: May 16th, 2020, 12:21 pm Only a couple things at a Price Chopper here since this began, and they were apparently just mistakenly shipped to them, as they had them out on their "markdowns" unit (most stores have a 4 sided floor display about 5 feet high, usually near a register for any markdowns, be they discontinued, leftover seasonal or stuff like this).
I've never seen this in any of the three local Choppers I shop in (well 2 Choppers and 1 Market 32). All they usually do is either have a table set up near the front end with marked down discontinued or seasonal items or a shopping cart or two of assorted items usually set up in front of a closed register. And that method is like a treasure hunt because all kinds of various items are just basically thrown in there and you have to pick through the entire cart. I've even found marked down discontinued items and closeouts right on the shelf on a few occasions. Maybe that's something they just do in the immediate Capital District but not in my neck of the woods.
The stores I was thinking of are all the remodeled (Market 32) locations (the big Market Bistro test store in Latham actually has two of these). I have seen them do it in many ways in different stores, sometimes like you mention in/on a cart or table, some stores had a tall multi shelf (looks like one of those 6' high assemble yourself bookcases the discount stores used to sell) set near one of the entries to the back room - I suspect it's just whatever they have room for, particularly in the older stores.

I've also seen the markdowns on the shelf - I think they do that first with regular or seasonal (rather than these mistakenly sent) items, then take whatever is left over and put it on these special shelves when they are actually resetting the section.
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Re: Private label products being sold at other chains

Post by cw06 »

The most common private label mixup I saw at Harris Teeter was 1 pound baby carrots. HEB and President's Choice came to us more often for some reason. Grimmway Farms must really not pay attention to their packing. Also saw bagged salads from Raley's and Walmart, and apples from Trader Joe's.

Other company's stuff wouldn't scan because the UPCs weren't loaded into our system. We'd usually just use it on the salad bar or rewrap it and put it on the markdown rack.
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Re: Private label products being sold at other chains

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

cw06 wrote: May 19th, 2020, 4:49 pm The most common private label mixup I saw at Harris Teeter was 1 pound baby carrots. HEB and President's Choice came to us more often for some reason. Grimmway Farms must really not pay attention to their packing. Also saw bagged salads from Raley's and Walmart, and apples from Trader Joe's.

Other company's stuff wouldn't scan because the UPCs weren't loaded into our system. We'd usually just use it on the salad bar or rewrap it and put it on the markdown rack.
It's been a long time since PC (from Canadian Loblaws) was sold in the States. Jewel used the President's Choice brand on some items up until SVU bought Albertsons. Lucky also used PC until the ABS/ASC merger 21 years ago.
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Re: Private label products being sold at other chains

Post by Bakeragr »

Maybe it’s been longer than I realize, but you used to find President’s Choice items at Hy-Vee. I am guessing maybe 7-8 years ago?
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Re: Private label products being sold at other chains

Post by cw06 »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: May 19th, 2020, 5:28 pm
cw06 wrote: May 19th, 2020, 4:49 pm The most common private label mixup I saw at Harris Teeter was 1 pound baby carrots. HEB and President's Choice came to us more often for some reason. Grimmway Farms must really not pay attention to their packing. Also saw bagged salads from Raley's and Walmart, and apples from Trader Joe's.

Other company's stuff wouldn't scan because the UPCs weren't loaded into our system. We'd usually just use it on the salad bar or rewrap it and put it on the markdown rack.
It's been a long time since PC (from Canadian Loblaws) was sold in the States. Jewel used the President's Choice brand on some items up until SVU bought Albertsons. Lucky also used PC until the ABS/ASC merger 21 years ago.
Harris Teeter used to carry President's Choice themselves in the late 90s. They used it as their "premium" private label brand before they replaced it with HT Traders stuff.
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Re: Private label products being sold at other chains

Post by buckguy »

A very small number of food processors supply most house brand items, so there will be mis-shipments. Heinz used to house brand soups---I don't know who does that now. Cott does a lot of the sodas. Kroger makes items like peanut butter that other chains sell. They're not always the same formulations---even national brands change things for different sales regions. Campbell's has been doing this with soup for ages. There also are some distribution arrangements that are suprising--Heinen's in Cleveland used to get some items from Shop-Rite and occasionally a Shop-Rite branded item would turn up on their shelves. Loblaw used supply President's Choice to a number of chains, but when they started supplying Wal-Mart, the brand disappeared, although I don't know if they simply changed the labels. Loblaw's p[arent company, Weston has long had food processing infrastructure in the US. They supplied National Tea when it still existed (and it was part of the Weston empire), but they've also supplied others and had wholesale operations like Peter Schmitt in the eastern Great Lakes that would have been another channel.
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Re: Private label products being sold at other chains

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

Didn't Loblaw actually develop the Sam's Choice line for Wal-Mart way back when? I think I read somewhere there was some tie in that way? My parents used to buy those products all the time and it was probably one of the best house brands Wal-Mart ever had.
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Re: Private label products being sold at other chains

Post by Super S »

Fred Meyer carried a lot of President's Choice products during the 1990s. These started fading away around the time Kroger took over, but I think they do still have a few random products under the brand.
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