Wakefern recently introduced Bowl & Basket as its food line and Paperbird as its nonfood line in its ShopRite stores. In a recent Store Brands profile on ShopRite, Chris Skyers, vice president of private label and own brands for the banner’s parent company Wakefern Food, said consumer research pointed them to this separation. “That was a unique learning for us. We realized that diapers and milk didn’t go well together under [the same store brand] for many consumers,” he said.
Similarly, as profiled in the February issue of Store Brands, 7-Eleven has defined its private brands in two lines: 7-Select for food and 24/7 Life in nonfoods.
McKeown said, “absolutely, yes,” there will be more retailers following this trend, because it’s putting the focus on the consumer. “It’s all about the consumer,” he said. “It’s shopper driven, as opposed to product driven.
Chris Perry, vice president of education at Edge by Ascential, agreed with McKeown. “It’s critical to first highlight that private label is not defined by the brandless, value retail plays of yesterday, but increasingly manifesting itself as “private brand,” fully and uniquely branded, on-trend and exclusive offerings that meet consumer needs in value, equity and/or benefits not currently being met by the national brands,” he said.
Karen Strauss, a principal with Cadent Consulting Group, also identified this change in identity as the leading trend in the state of the industry. “Shoppers go to specific stores for a private label brand,” she noted. “They have very strong equities, they have clear positioning, they deliver on tiers: high price, mid price, low price. The packaging is not that white label can anymore, it’s real packaging with real branding and real communication elements.”
She said the success of discount retailers Aldi and Trader Joe’s, whose goods are majority private label, also have helped usher in the trend for lifestyle brands, and Millennials are shopping more at those retailers. In beauty, retailers like Ulta Beauty, Sally Beauty Supply and Sephora are having a similar impact.
Perry said the “sameness” in store assortment is one reason for this change. According to a private label report from Daymon, “Winning in the Center Store,” 98% of the national-brand assortment in mass merchants and grocers is the same. Perry also noted that private brands help differentiate retail assortment and add a new motivation for shoppers to enter their stores.
