by Rosa Saba
BNN Bloomberg
Over the past few years, consumers have been buying more private-label products at the grocery store to save money — and the trend may be here to stay.
Amid renewed investment by grocers in their store-branded offerings, studies show many shoppers no longer see store brands as lower quality than name brands.
“For customers, the private brand is becoming not just a knockoff,” said Annie St-Laurent, senior director for Metro’s private-label portfolio.
“The growth is really good in private label.”
Grocers’ in-house brands — like Metro’s Irresistible and Selection, Loblaw’s No Name and President’s Choice, and Sobeys’ Compliments and Panache — tend to be priced lower than their name-brand competitors.