This article puts quite a bit of focus on packaging, but I think there is a much bigger picture here. We started using store brand products more and more when the store brand products
got better. Not long ago, most store brand foods were very mediocre. It’s only when companies like Costco started creating their own good house brands that my wife and I started going with store brand stuff.
With true “generic” product, a company doesn’t need to invest in good food quality. There is no brand to protect. “Kirkland”, is a decent respected brand on it’s own. You can only buy it at Costco, but you know it’s going to be decent. Trader Joe’s is similar. It’s not “generic”, it’s Trader Joe’s Brand. It’s a pretty significant difference, particularly at places like Trader Joe’s where a big portion of what they sell is their house brand.
The other significant piece of this is the ubiquity of branded stores. 30 years ago, when you went grocery shopping, you had 5 different regional supermarkets. Those supermarkets couldn’t afford to front their own brand so they went with generics as their cheap product. Now, we have so many country or even world-wide retailers that those retailers can afford their own brands. Some of them even have multiple “store brands” for their higher quality products.
The packaging is just the end-result of all of this, to have a brand, you need an identity.