Discussion of product brands seen across the retail landscape. This is not to discuss products themselves, just the news and history of associated brands.
ClownLoach wrote: ↑November 9th, 2024, 11:18 am
At Walmart last night they only had the new branding without LOL and the core 4 flavors. You'll laugh but I didn't pay attention to the price.
Sam's didn't have the gift pack, or if they did I didn't find it.
It's a great product, it keeps way past the sell by date and holds its flavor just fine, and like I said it makes a better Caffe Mocha than many coffee chains if you add a shot or two of espresso.
I want to say the price at Wal Mart is .74, if you find a location that slots them (many don't). Some have six flavors.
Hopefully they don't kill their product by dumping the LOL branding. I feel like the LOL branding helped command a higher price however this product for what it is is already priced cheaply in its current form (except that 1.29 at Safeway which pushes it). Where this will get worse is if LOL licenses its name to someone else for hot cocoa mix. That will turn into a particular problem for people who buy online and search for "land o lakes hot chocolate" because nowhere in that search will "Cocoa Classics" product ping unless the retailer does some creative programming.
ClownLoach wrote: ↑November 9th, 2024, 11:18 am
At Walmart last night they only had the new branding without LOL and the core 4 flavors. You'll laugh but I didn't pay attention to the price.
Sam's didn't have the gift pack, or if they did I didn't find it.
It's a great product, it keeps way past the sell by date and holds its flavor just fine, and like I said it makes a better Caffe Mocha than many coffee chains if you add a shot or two of espresso.
I want to say the price at Wal Mart is .74, if you find a location that slots them (many don't). Some have six flavors.
Hopefully they don't kill their product by dumping the LOL branding. I feel like the LOL branding helped command a higher price however this product for what it is is already priced cheaply in its current form (except that 1.29 at Safeway which pushes it). Where this will get worse is if LOL licenses its name to someone else for hot cocoa mix. That will turn into a particular problem for people who buy online and search for "land o lakes hot chocolate" because nowhere in that search will "Cocoa Classics" product ping unless the retailer does some creative programming.
Their mistake is redesigning the packaging entirely. If they kept the old logo and design, plus maybe came up with a subtle similar sunset and lake on top, people might not notice. But they have chosen a completely new design that is too dark on the shelf to notice (at least at Walmart with their dark gray shelves and those new black digital strips I saw last night). It is eye level and still lost.
But bringing up Land O Lakes, it seems like Costco has dropped LOL from the Half & Half and Heavy Cream items. From what I heard, there was some kind of price dispute. At least in my area, they are carrying 'generic' branded items (in really 1980s-esque packaging) from 'Superior Dairy', which seems to be part of a larger dairy conglomerate, out of Ohio.
mbz321 wrote: ↑November 9th, 2024, 6:06 pm
I've never even heard of this product before!
But bringing up Land O Lakes, it seems like Costco has dropped LOL from the Half & Half and Heavy Cream items. From what I heard, there was some kind of price dispute. At least in my area, they are carrying 'generic' branded items (in really 1980s-esque packaging) from 'Superior Dairy', which seems to be part of a larger dairy conglomerate, out of Ohio.
This hot chocolate mix product was produced by some other company who was paying a license fee to use LOL. I'm not sure what other items did this, but I think there are some others.
It has been more common in smaller/regional chains. It is interesting Wal Mart carries it. Kroger hasn't carried it in many years anywhere I've been; Kroger used to have identical packets in PS which I think may have been from the same producer but those got discontinued 6-7 years ago.
mbz321 wrote: ↑November 9th, 2024, 6:06 pm
I've never even heard of this product before!
But bringing up Land O Lakes, it seems like Costco has dropped LOL from the Half & Half and Heavy Cream items. From what I heard, there was some kind of price dispute. At least in my area, they are carrying 'generic' branded items (in really 1980s-esque packaging) from 'Superior Dairy', which seems to be part of a larger dairy conglomerate, out of Ohio.
Costco seems to change non-gallon-fluid-milk dairy relatively often (they have the palletized tall gallons which seem to be an optimized product which doesn't use milk crates permanently). We sometimes get Kirkland 4# Greek Yogurt sourced from Canada... We have enough dairies in Michigan (together with difficult peninsular geography) that we may end up with local production slightly more than more central states.
mbz321 wrote: ↑November 9th, 2024, 6:06 pm
I've never even heard of this product before!
But bringing up Land O Lakes, it seems like Costco has dropped LOL from the Half & Half and Heavy Cream items. From what I heard, there was some kind of price dispute. At least in my area, they are carrying 'generic' branded items (in really 1980s-esque packaging) from 'Superior Dairy', which seems to be part of a larger dairy conglomerate, out of Ohio.
Costco seems to change non-gallon-fluid-milk dairy relatively often (they have the palletized tall gallons which seem to be an optimized product which doesn't use milk crates permanently). We sometimes get Kirkland 4# Greek Yogurt sourced from Canada... We have enough dairies in Michigan (together with difficult peninsular geography) that we may end up with local production slightly more than more central states.
Kroger has had some private label greek yogurts over the years sourced from Canada (I don't think they have any currently). I always wondered why they had that. You don't see many dairy products from Canada sourced into the US... due to the cost structure/government actions on dairy... I wonder what is different about this Greek Yogurt?
Costco has dropped the long offered Land O Lakes canned whip cream and replaced it with Kirkland Signature. For at least a year they carried both side by side.
ClownLoach wrote: ↑November 10th, 2024, 3:15 pm
Costco has dropped the long offered Land O Lakes canned whip cream and replaced it with Kirkland Signature. For at least a year they carried both side by side.
My store never carried whipped cream by them..we did sell Reddi Wip before the Kirkland brand was introduced.
ClownLoach wrote: ↑November 10th, 2024, 3:15 pm
Costco has dropped the long offered Land O Lakes canned whip cream and replaced it with Kirkland Signature. For at least a year they carried both side by side.
My store never carried whipped cream by them..we did sell Reddi Wip before the Kirkland brand was introduced.
I don't remember ever seeing Reddi Whip at Costco, but it makes sense especially for stores outside of the area that sold Land O Lakes. Maybe a local dairy was just a regional affiliate of their LOL Co-Op or whatever their deal is. It was a much richer whip cream than Reddi Whip.
Nowadays I make my own. Bought the industrial whip cream kit from Costco Business Center and a box of cartridges. It works great and you can use different coffee syrups to change flavors. Marshmallow is delicious. So is Salted Caramel.
