Because people buy them and the profit margin is good

Brands pay for premium spots like aisle ends to run promotions etc

Some consumers shop for name brands, for whatever reason; if your store drops Coca Cola products, they may simply start buying soda at another store.

Having both name brand and generic brand products on shelves is good for the store. The people who don't care about the brand will buy the generic stuff, while the people who are adherents to a specific brand will buy the name brand stuff. Dropping either group of products will lose sales for the store.

People still buy and want name brands. Sometimes this is just because of brand loyalty, other times they perceive real differences in quality between name brands and store brands. So if people really want Ritz crackers and not an off-brand, they'll stop shopping at a place that doesn't sell Ritz.

Some stores DO take this approach. For example, Trader Joe's only sells their own brand. But you'll note they are much smaller than chains that sell other brands like Kroger, Publix, HEB, etc.

I'm sure the stores think about it. But they know some % of customers who buy the name brands will stop shopping entirely if the name brands go away. So maybe some people will just buy the store brand Ritz crackers, but a lot of other people will go to a different store and that represents losing dozens of other item' worth of sales.

In the end, it doesn't matter what your margin is if there's not a customer to buy the product. So selling items at lower margins is better than not selling anything at all.

A LOT of reasons.

• Name brands often have sexier packaging, assembly, and presentation than not-name brands. A lot of people are into that, and pay the mark-up on the name brand.
• Name brands sometimes go on sale based on discounts from their manufacturer for lower prices than non-name brands. You can often score really decent deals on stuff like branded laundry detergent, shampoos, canned sauces, and so on. You just have to wait for the sale.
• Name brands are ADVERTISED. Want an example? "Aspirin" is "Acetylsalicylic Acid". Which do you think most people recognize? They'll buy Aspirin and Tylenol because they "know" what it is due to seeing the ads. But they won't buy ASA or Ibuprofen, even though they're the same thing.
• People are really gullible. Brands tell stories about their product that people believe, and so they buy them rather than no-brand stuff.
• Some name brands are simply better than no-name. I've never found wheat chaff in my brand flour, and I do a LOT of cooking. I have found wheat chaff, and had to sift it out, in the non-branded stuff. And most tomato sauce is far better when branded, trust me on this. (I make a ton of pasta).

All of these things make people go to your store and buy your store's stuff. A great, great many people would never go to your store if it only had non-branded stuff though.

Because when people are willing to pay for brands. It's not always about paying for simply the logo. It's about what comes with the logo i.e. quality of the product that has been acquired through time.

For instance... I'd rather buy a certain brand of cheese/chips/ketchup than the generic store ones because that brand just tastes better. And it's worth the difference in price.

Also... Some people rather pay extra for the logo simply cause they want to be associated with the class status that comes with the product.

> other times they perceive real differences in quality between name brands and store brands. So if people really want Ritz crackers and not an off-brand, they'll stop shopping at a place that doesn't sell Ritz.

Off-brand Cheez-its are trash. I will die on this hill.

Yeah I picked Ritz because it's one brand I'll stick with. I got the store brand once and they were actually really good, but apparently I picked an above-average box because the next three were flavorless and bad. Went back to Ritz because the worst box of Ritz is still better than the average box of store brand.

People who insist on buying the name brands are willing to pay more for them, and will buy them even when store brands are available.

People who are willing to buy the store brand will buy it even if a more-expensive name brand is available.

By offering both name brand and store brand items, the store gets both of those people to come in and shop.

Many consumers want brand name products... they're loyal to the brand, not the store. They'll just go elsewhere if you don't what they have today, and you forego any additional items they may buy. Say somebody is out of their deodorant and decides to go to Target for it. But they then also remember they need more Band-Aids, they may as well grab some cereal since they're running low, a bottle of wine when they see it on an end cap, and a couple throw pillows that are cute. That $4 deodorant run netted $75. Now, imagine the customer knew Target didn't carry their brand and they went to Walgreen's instead... $0 instead of $75.

Plus, you're more likely to convert a customer to the store brand by having the name brand next to it for direct comparison. Somebody comes in for a bottle of Tylenol or bag of Domino sugar sees the store brand that's only 2/3 the price for same amount, and they can compare to see it's exactly the same ingredients so they decide to switch. Without the brand name for comparison, the customer might not be willing to pull the trigger.

But you do see some stores that do almost entirely move away from name brands and are successful... look at Aldi or Trader Joe's.

Oh, you mean Cheese-it’s

Re: your Aspirin example.

Food is of course a matter of taste and name brand food items are often (but not always!) simply different from generics. But I can’t for the life of me see why you’d buy name brand OTC meds besides allergies or maybe a kid who has to have the superhero packaging or a very specific version of artificial cherry flavor

I used to manage route sales. For instance, store brand bread is made and distributed by a name brand company. Because of this, the name brand company had more and better shelf space than other brands.

Few companies would make only store brand products since more markup is on name brand.

Yeah I’ll give store brand anything a try, but I often find there a noticeable quality difference, usually in favor of the branded items.

You just gave three separate examples of why you would, and you're ONE person.

Now extend your post to someone else.

• "It's the only thing I ever see advertised on TV."
• "9 out of 10 doctors recommend it compared to... well, the other... stuff"
• "My niece told me she saw a poster for it and it helped her sick baby."
• "It's been around for over a hundred years!"
• "I am a Huge fan of Politician X, and he promoted it!"
• "I just love their advertisements, they make me laugh so hard!"

And keep going.

Yes, some of those answers are probably indicative of someone that's not as aware or smart as you.

But that doesn't matter if they spend their money on the brand product in question.

I have yet to see a generic version of Advil Dual Action, which is truly a miracle pill.

And as an all-year-long “seasonal allergy” sufferer, there’s really no generic allergy medication that comes close to Zyrtec in relieving my allergy symptoms.

The generic version of BioFreeze has an odd odor, and seems greasier than the original.

There are justifiable reasons to not purchase generic medications.