Save money on food - or groceries store vs name brand.
Many households spend a large share of their budget on food. One way people reduce that cost is by choosing store brand grocery products instead of name brand items. Store brands are often placed next to national brands on the same shelf but sold at a lower price. The difference in cost, with store brands often being 20 to 40% cheaper, can add up over weeks, months, and years of grocery shopping. For many households, switching even part of a shopping list to store brands can result in meaningful savings without changing what types of food they buy.
What are store brands?
A store brand, sometimes called a private label, is a product sold under the name of a grocery store or retailer instead of a well known national manufacturer. These products are common in nearly every category of food and household supplies. A shopper may see store brand pasta, canned vegetables, cereal, milk, snacks, frozen meals, paper products, or cleaning supplies. The label on the package will usually carry the name of the store or a brand created by the store. The food itself is produced by a manufacturer and then packaged with the retailer’s label.
The main reason store brands cost less is not necessarily because the food is lower quality. A large share of the price difference comes from how the products are marketed and distributed. National brands spend heavily on advertising, promotions, and brand recognition. Those costs are built into the price paid by shoppers at the store. Store brands often skip large marketing campaigns and are sold directly by the retailer, which lowers several layers of expense.
As a result of this structure, many private label grocery items cost roughly 20 percent to 40 percent less than comparable national brands. Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA) is one of the main organizations that tracks store brand sales, pricing differences, and consumer behavior. Their research frequently shows meaningful savings when shoppers choose store brands with the PLMA info at https://plma.com/article/more-consumers-buying-private-brands-offset-high-prices.
Examples of savings from store brands
When people walk through a grocery store aisle the price difference can often be seen immediately. As an example, a name brand box of cereal may cost five or six dollars, while a store brand version of the same size cereal may cost three or four dollars. A national brand jar of peanut butter may cost several dollars more than a store brand jar sitting on the same shelf. Pasta, canned vegetables, rice, and frozen foods often show the same pattern.
These differences may seem small for a single item, but they grow when a full shopping cart is involved. Research that compares full grocery baskets has found that the savings can be substantial. Price audits that review dozens of common grocery items consistently show that shoppers save around one third of the total cost when they choose store brands instead of national brands.
Impact to household budgets
To understand how this affects a household budget, it helps to look at a simple weekly shopping example. Small differences on individual products add up when a household buys groceries every week. A family might purchase cereal, bread, milk, pasta, canned vegetables, yogurt, and snacks each week. If the total cost of those items using national brands is around $150, switching many of those items to store brands might reduce the total to about $100 to $120 depending on the products chosen. Using unit pricing when shopping will also help even more. Over the course of a month that difference could reach $120 or more. Over a full year the savings could easily reach several hundred dollars or more.
Some grocery comparisons show even larger long term savings when households rely heavily on private label items. Estimates from grocery industry reports indicate that families who consistently buy store brand products instead of national brands may reduce annual grocery spending by thousands of dollars depending on the size of the household and how much food is purchased.
Common misconception of store brands and usage
Consumer behavior has also shifted in recent years as food prices increased. Surveys show, as shown here at https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/86-of-shoppers-ditch-name-brands-for-private-label-as-prices-climb-rdsolutions-survey-finds-302483499.html that a large share of shoppers now buy at least some store brand products on a regular basis. In one national survey, more than eighty percent of shoppers reported switching to private label versions of certain grocery items as they tried to manage higher food prices.
The popularity of store brands has grown steadily over time. Grocery sales data shows that roughly one out of every four food or household products sold in U.S. stores now carries a store label rather than a national brand name as noted here at https://www.plma.com/events/university-outreach/store-brand-facts.. Store brand sales have reached record levels as retailers expand their own product lines and customers become more comfortable with them.
Quality of store brands vs. name
Another reason store brands have become more common is that the quality gap between store brands and national brands has narrowed. Years ago generic grocery products sometimes had a reputation for lower quality or simpler packaging. Many retailers have invested in improving their store brands, including better ingredients, updated packaging, and broader product choices. Some store brands now include organic foods, specialty snacks, and premium products alongside basic budget options.
Consumer research supports this change in perception. Surveys show that about 80 percent of shoppers now believe store brand products are equal to or better than national brands in many categories as noted at https://www.emarketer.com/content/private-label-sales-growth-2024-grocery-market. This shift in consumer opinion has played an important role in the growth of private label grocery sales in recent years.
In some cases the same manufacturers produce both national brands and store brand versions of the same type of product. A food processing plant may produce several variations of a product that are then packaged with different labels. The ingredients and recipes may vary slightly, but the production process can be similar. Because the store brand does not carry the same marketing costs, the retail price can still be lower even if the manufacturing cost is close to the same.
Taste tests have also shown that store brands can be comparable to national brands in many categories. Comparisons of grocery items such as soup, frozen foods, dairy products, and snack foods have found that many store brands perform similarly to national brands in blind taste tests. In some cases tasters could not easily tell the difference between the two versions of the same product. Studies have also found that a large majority of shoppers believe store brand quality is equal to or better than national brands for many everyday foods.
Using some store brand and name brand at same time
Even with these similarities, shoppers often choose a mix of store brands and national brands. Some items are purchased as store brands because the difference is hard to notice. Pantry staples such as flour, sugar, rice, canned vegetables, and pasta are common examples. Other items may still be purchased as national brands because shoppers prefer a certain taste or recipe. Breakfast cereal, soda, and condiments are categories where brand loyalty is sometimes stronger.
Another factor is coupons and sales. National brands often run promotions, digital coupons, and discounts that temporarily reduce the price difference with more details about coupons grocery items savings. During a sale, the price of a national brand item may be close to the price of a store brand. Many shoppers watch for these promotions and buy the brand name product only when the price drops.
Still, the overall pattern in grocery pricing remains consistent. Store brands are usually cheaper across a wide range of categories. When those lower prices are repeated across dozens of items in a shopping cart, the total savings can become meaningful. For households working with a tight budget, that difference may help stretch grocery funds further each month.
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