As a kid, the grocery store's generic brand came in yellow boxes with black letter that stated what was in the box (e.g. "Corn Flakes"). There were no other markings. I can't see Amazon letting a cereal box sit in front of someone while they eat and not try to sell them a Kindle.
That sounds like loblaws/superstore's "no name" brand: http://imgur.com/aEkQBfx It's actually a really great instantly recognizable brand, for all its generic-ness.
"No Name" translates to the French "Sans Nom" (dual language English/French packaging is pretty standard in Canada).
Sans = No.
Nom = Tasty (from the modern usage of "Nom nom nom").
Sans Nom = No Taste.
At least the way I read it.
But I kid. The No Name stuff is perfectly good. Their potato chips are actually really good.
I wish I could say that this decision is why I quit AmazonPrime and quit doing business with them already, but I already chose to do that due to how badly they treat customers, how high their prices are, and how limited their selection is. Amazon doesn't provide useful value to consumers anymore, and before they roll out any more services or private label products, they should step back and see why all their customer…
For me as a parent in Manhattan, the selection covers most household shopping needs aside from adult clothes and groceries. We order once or twice a week using free two-day delivery via Prime. It's more convenient than everything except the CVS across the street, and cheaper than everything in Manhattan.
Given the recent problem with fakes on Amazon I worry when they move to food - in China they now fake even eggs, rice, amongst others - how will they stop that getting started sold to their customers?
It seems like Amazon will be in a better position to offer fresh products in the long term than a grocery store.
I can't imagine ordering fresh produce without first seeing or touching it. Boxed goods like cereal is OK to order online, but I want to pick out the unbruised, best pieces of fruit of veg.
Meal-in-a-box outfits like Blue Apron seem to have mostly solved this problem. Of the 3 or 4 test orders I received from 2 such services, the produce was generally in excellent condition.
I've inadvertently purchased a lot of low quality junk from Amazon lately propped up by fake reviews and shady third-party dealers peddling counterfeit goods. If they want to sell me vitamins and food, they need to fix their brand. Are they a supermarket that is in control what they sell, or are they a back-alley bazaar that's strictly buyer-beware?
Be careful if you return too many of those shitty products, they will close your account, even if you have a Prime membership. Amazon is shady as fuck and an untrustworthy retailer. The way they treat employees is beyond atrocious. Amazon makes Walmart look ethical and honest in comparison.
hey look, it's https://xkcd.com/993 in the real world!
One of the best parts of the movie Repo Man (1980s) was this exact thing: http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5583664de4b088692d5198... Also just an all around fantastic movie in general.
I've inadvertently purchased a lot of low quality junk from Amazon lately propped up by fake reviews and shady third-party dealers peddling counterfeit goods. If they want to sell me vitamins and food, they need to fix their brand. Are they a supermarket that is in control what they sell, or are they a back-alley bazaar that's strictly buyer-beware?
Unfortunately now you can't even dodge this by making sure the things you buy are sold by Amazon. They deem many products to be interchangeable so they will take "Fulfilled by Amazon" stock and commingle it with stuff from third-party sellers.
Be careful if you return too many of those shitty products, they will close your account, even if you have a Prime membership. Amazon is shady as fuck and an untrustworthy retailer. The way they treat employees is beyond atrocious. Amazon makes Walmart look ethical and honest in comparison.
Your anecdote is the opposite of my experience.
Same. Well, just the first point. I've returned a ton of stuff from many sellers without a problem and sometimes I was not required to return the actual object (I just got money back).
So long as they don't revive the defunct "No Frills" brand, maybe they'll have a chance. I don't know why store brands skimp on branding and presentation. All they need is one intern churning out design and keeping a fresh look, rather than a set it and forget it approach where you have the housebrand look the same way it did when it debuted even decades later. Maybe they worry about cannibalization into higher profi…
The point of a house brand in most supermarkets is to appeal to bargain-hunting buyers. The most important part of the branding, then, is to communicate that the product is no frills. Dated-looking branding probabky actually helps with that, which may be why even when store brands are new or updated, they are bith plain and dated-looking from the start. This also means that they don't really have a lot of reason to.k…
I think the 'value' house brand's plainness also helps to nudge less price-conscious customers up to the next level up of own-brand stuff. Tesco used to have three levels of own-brand: the blue-and-white-stripe "Tesco value", a more "normal" looking Tesco own-brand, and the premium "Tesco Finest". I suspect the dated plain look of the 'value' range helped it avoid cannibalising sales of the mid-range versions of the same items.