Asda stopped selling their own cheaper brands? 20 March 2020 at 1:45PM in Gone off! 9 replies 489 views

smjxm09

Whether it is cornflakes, bake beans or whatever I can no longer find Asda own brands or cheaper brands on sale, which normally sell for at least half price. Plenty of bake beans for sale today but they are all Heinz.     Now I was reading that supermarkets are cutting back on duplicate products so to ease the supply chain but are they cutting the cheaper versions to maximise profits?

Farway

NO, it's people panic buying the cheapest option  first

mikb

Possibly panic buying, but a recent Morrisons shop showed that people had cleared out all the "good" (branded) pasta, yet there was a whole load of the "Savers" pasta just sitting there. Of course, 2 days later, that was gone too So people aren't necessarily buying cheapest first.

Before Covid kicked in, a number of stores were quietly reducing and removing their own-brand products.

p00hsticks

Could it be that in many cases the different brands are actually all made in the same factories, just to slightly different recipes and price points ?

In which case, if the factory wants to simplify / speed up production, it would make sense to just make a single brand that could be delivered to all supermarkets.

20aday

p00hsticks said:

Could it be that in many cases the different brands are actually all made in the same factories, just to slightly different recipes and price points ?

In which case, if the factory wants to simplify / speed up production, it would make sense to just make a single brand that could be delivered to all supermarkets.

I work for Tesco and, as an example, the people who manufacture New York Bagels also make our own brand ones too. As you point out, it'd be far more efficient to make one type and send it out, rather than variant X,Y and Z whilst demand is so high. Plus my understanding is that the supermarkets are focusing more on lines that would be considered essential or are in high demand.

Defensivelynchpin

Supermarket own brands make the most profit, soo where possible they will sell their own brands above everything else

Browntoa

Tesco normally stock something like 90 different types of sausages , that's likely to be reduced to around only 6 .

It's to increase volume of produce by avoiding shutting down the production lines

redfox

Browntoa said:

Tesco normally stock something like 90 different types of sausages , that's likely to be reduced to around only 6 .

Let's hope it stays closer to that number after this is over. It's a ridiculous amount of choice to be offered in the first place. Who needs that many to choose from!

njm123

redfox said:

Browntoa said:

Tesco normally stock something like 90 different types of sausages , that's likely to be reduced to around only 6 .

Let's hope it stays closer to that number after this is over. It's a ridiculous amount of choice to be offered in the first place. Who needs that many to choose from!

So long as they keep the various price points for ranges and limit the choice at each price point that's no bad thing, if they use it as an excuse to remove the cheaper (probably less profitable) price point it could be catastrophic for those on limited incomes. 

pumpkin89

redfox said:

Browntoa said:

Tesco normally stock something like 90 different types of sausages , that's likely to be reduced to around only 6 .

Let's hope it stays closer to that number after this is over. It's a ridiculous amount of choice to be offered in the first place. Who needs that many to choose from!

Nobody needs 90 choices, but everybody disagrees on what the 6 should be!  That's why, despite their huge popularity, Aldi and Lidl will never be market leaders - they simply don't cater to some customers.