Mixed messages.

Out in the stores, store brand prices aren't always lower and store brand packages aren't always equal. In recent store visits, Wegmans conventionally grown salads were 50 cents a bag more than Dole's; their organic salads were priced 50 cents a bag more than their own brand conventional salads and $1.00 a bag more than Dole's conventional salads. Trader Joe's salads, initially sold under the Fresh Express brand, were priced the same as they were when they wore the Fresh Express brand, mostly at $1.99 a bag, which is 51 cents a bag less than Whole Foods charges for Fresh Express and Wegmans charges for its own.

Even within the same store, store brand graphics aren't always the same in quality, attitude, or position; e.g., the store brand cereals may be packaged in soft or garish colors that look inferior to the quality colors of Kellogg's or General Mills packages; store brand juice, soft drink, and cookies may be in bright and bold colors that say "Look at me" or dull colors that say "Not bad if you're broke."

In Safeway's Genuardi stores, packages range from the elegant "O organics" brand to second-rate graphics and colors on generic-looking products under the Safeway and Safeway Select labels. Store-brand sizes aren't always equal or larger, and they aren't always alone; e.g., the outside package may include a national brand sauce, dip, chip, etc., or the package itself may be co-branded with a national name.

At Wal-Mart, some of the store brand products are simultaneously responsive and misleading: Wal-Mart's Great Value 100-Calorie Packs of Mini Striped Shortbread Cookies sound and look like a good-for-kids value but they have an ingredients list that would scare away any parent with the time and determination to read it (in addition to HFCS, the ingredients include "partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, cocoa processed with alkali, sorbitan tristearate, artificial colors, sodium bicarbonate, ammonium bicarbonate, etc.")

At Acme, many store brand label designs have been upscaled. but some categories that had store brand options until recently are, at least for the time being, national brand only.

At Wegmans, store brand Thai, Vegetable, Chicken and Beef Culinary Stocks are not only innovative and healthful but packaged with lovely graphics in resealable Tetrapaks and supported with an on-shelf explanation of the differences between stocks and broths.

Our Store Brand Turn Around Report, with detailed perception demographics, will be available in August.