Convenience Is Key
CVS offers unique private label Cups and Lids for hot drinks on the go. The Optima lids are leak-resistant and reclosable.
Whether shoppers compare private label paper, plastic and foil products to national brands or to eco-friendly options, convenience is still key.
Eco-friendly products have gained in popularity, but there’s one market where green options still must compete with expedience. From paper napkins to plastic storage bags to aluminum foil, shoppers want products that offer both value and convenience, but when most retailers offer a dizzying array of these products it can be hard for them to choose between the many private label and national brand options. Retailers can promote their private label products with tactics such as comparing items to national brands on the packaging, offering new packaging designs to stand out in the crowd and providing consumers an affordable, eco-friendly option when purchasing disposable items.
Foil the Competition
Private label aluminum foil sales rose just over 13% to over $202 million in drug and mass-merchandisers (excluding Wal-Mart, Club stores and Gas/Cstores) with a 38% share in the category, according to the last 52 weeks ending on October 4, 2009 according to Information Resources Inc. (IRI), Chicago.
PL Plastic wrap, wax paper and aluminum foil are often found competing on shelves with popular national brand Reynolds Wrap, which carries the phrase “5 feet more!” on its packaging. In Wegmans, Rochester, NY, Private Label found store brand aluminum foil next to Reynolds Wrap and while it’s true the store brand carried five feet less than the national brand, it also cost $1.00 less. Target, Minneapolis, MN, offered Up & Up brand aluminum foil on sale for $2.19 for 75 feet in comparison to the adjacent 80 feet of Reynolds Wrap for $3.44.
A NJ area Acme offered Supervalu, Minneapolis, MN, aluminum foil in both its Homelife line and Shoppers Value line next to Reynolds Wrap. While both of the 25-square-foot store brand boxes were five feet less, the Homelife brand in its flashy blue, silver and green packaging was priced at $1.29 on sale and the Shoppers Value brand was only $1.00 compared to $2.39 for the national brand. While PL is still on the lookout for a store brand that rivals Reynolds Wrap Foil from 100% Recycled Aluminum, the Shoppers Value brand is headed in the right direction with its stand-out “Eco Box” logo on its foil made with “Now 25% Less Packaging.”
Color Versus White
White packaging is flooding the shelves these days as seen in national brand equivalent product lines like Great Value at Wal-Mart, Bentonville, AR, and Up & Up at Target, but Wegmans is still sticking with color.
While the Wegmans boxes are similar in that they all have an uncluttered, one-color background and feature a picture of the product on the box, they differ by appointing each product with a different color background. Kitchen bags come in yellow packaging, trash bags get green and storage bags can be found in blue. The sea of colors still stands out on shelves and helps the eye easily spot similar products.
Products carry the Wegmans promise on the back: “Before we put our name on a label, we look for quality that is equal to, or better than, the national brand.” Some items throughout the store carry the Club Pack red and yellow logo to signify which items have “the biggest value,” like a 50-count box of Wegmans ColorZip Zipper Top storage bags for $2.69.
Wal-Mart’s Great Value line includes everything from plastic wrap and foil to sandwich and snack bags to freezer and twist tie bags. Each product features a photograph of food items like pretzels, strawberries, blueberries, corn and broccoli against the plain white background. The white wall of store brands in one NJ area Wal-Mart pop out on the selves in contrast to the neighboring azure wall of Ziploc products. Target’s Up & Up brand prints “compare to Ziploc” right on the packaging of its double zip storage bags, which retail at $2.19 for a 50-count box compared to $3.39 for the same quantity of the Ziploc product.
Store it
Wegmans also sells a variety of store brand storage containers with blue lids that look very similar to rivaling Ziploc containers. Wegmans Storage Containers & Lids come in Deep Dish Size (64 fl oz.) with measurement markings on the side. The containers are dishwasher, microwave and freezer safe and, as Wegmans’s website states, are also great for organizing all sorts of items and to use when traveling to keep things dry. The containers also come in soup and salad size (24 fl oz.), entrée size (25 fl oz.), big bowl size (48 fl oz.) and snack size (9.5 fl oz.).
Target, Minneapolis, MN, sells stylish airtight canisters under its exclusive Michael Graves Design line of kitchen accessories and PL recently saw them promoted on an end cap in a NJ area Target. One product reviewer on Target’s website said they have each size of the containers. “The base is a clear plastic with a silver cover. When anyone wants what is in the container, we pinch the clear blue butterfly wings and the top releases. There is no guessing what’s inside. With the top back on, the contents are sealed fresh. I like the color and basic design. Everyone in the family naturally reseals the covers because it’s cool in the way it locks the seal.”
Go Green or Not
That is the question consumers must ask themselves when choosing which disposable products to purchase. CVS, Woonsocket, RI offers something busy shoppers will appreciate. The “new” CVS Insulated Cups & Lids for hot drinks on the go are a disposable alternative to travel mugs. The 10-count pack features Optima, the leak-resistant reclosable lid to avoid spills on hectic days.
For the more eco-conscience consumer, Harris Teeter, Matthews, NC, carries Corn Cups, made from cornstarch and specially processed. The cups are 100% biodegradable and environmentally safe for the earth.
Preserving Convenience
Disposable paper products might be convenient, but they don’t exactly help preserve the Earth. That’s why many retailers are stepping up to help eco-conscience consumers be less wasteful when using paper products.
Whole Foods Market, Austin, TX, offers several disposable paper products under the 365 Everyday Value line that are made from 100% recycled paper and are whitened without chlorine bleach. Whole Foods explains on its products and website that its paper products are “made from 80% post-consumer content,” and that “together we are saving trees by using recycled paper rather than virgin wood pulp. Most napkins are bleached with chlorine, including some brands made from recycled fiber. When paper is bleached with chlorine, dangerous chemicals can be released into the environment.” Whole Foods products are “whitened using a safer, environmentally progressive bleaching method.”
Safeway, Pleasanton, CA, offers their Bright Green line in addition to their Basic Red line for consumers who prefer to purchase paper towels, bath tissue, paper napkins or facial tissue made from 100% recycled fiber (80% post-consumer content) and whitened without elemental chlorine. Bright Green products allow shoppers to keep convenience without the guilt that usually accompanies paper purchases. As Safeway says on their website, “Our biodegradable paper towels help you soak up the messes without harming the environment.”
Jean Coutu, Longueil, QC, carries PJC Paper Towels and Personnelle bathroom tissue under its Éco Nature line. The green packaged paper towels are “made of 100% recycled fibres with a majority of post-consumer material” and carry the Ecologo certification, a third-party certification of eco-friendly products. The side of the package features a quote from French writer Antoine De Saint-Exupéry; “We do not inherit the earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children.”
Harris Teeter, in addition to its biodegradable Corn Cups mentioned earlier, also offers another new innovation under the Harris Teeter Naturals line. The stores recyclable trash bags are uniquely developed to be 100% recyclable and are made from post-industrial recycled material. Harris Teeter’s website says the bags perform like regular plastic trash bags and are strong in the roughest conditions, but are easier on our earth’s natural resources.
The Earth Essentials line from CVS includes a 1-ply Bathroom Tissue made from 100% recycled content, but only a minimum of 60% post-consumer content. The packaging reads, “By purchasing this product you are also helping to preserve the earth’s resources for our families and future generations to come.”
The line’s Extra-Strong Tall Kitchen Bags are biodegradable and made by Perf Go Green in partnership with CVS. The 100% recycled paperboard packaging presents the following facts on the side panel: Nearly one trillion plastic bags are used every year, an average family tosses out 1,500 plastic sacks per year, and traditional paper and plastic bags take hundreds of years to decompose. The back panel presents the question, “If it’s Stronger and Biodegradable, why would you buy anything else?” Price could be the answer to that question, but as more and more retailers offer affordable green private label options, there might truly be no reason for shoppers to buy anything else.
