I can no longer shop happily

[venta]

A while ago, the mother (who reads the business pages and pays attention) mentioned in passing that Tesco was going to ditch its long-running Value brand. The red, white and blue packaging which saw me through my days as a poverty-stricken student was to be retired and something new (and as yet unspecified) was to take its place.

Now that I am no longer so poverty-stricken (or, for that matter, a student), and do a large chunk of my shopping in local independent shops, I actually buy remarkably little from the Tesco Value range. However, on my quick sprint through the supermarket yesterday I did spy that some products had got new outfits on. The value sparkling water (19p for 2 litres, if you're curious) now has a snazzy green label. Not only does it look a little more upmarket, it's now much more easily visually distinguished from the unfizzy kind (which I believe is blue).

The first value brand I ever remember encountering was the "Yellow Pack" range sold by the (now defunct) Fine Fare when I was a kid. The packaging was bright yellow, with stencilled-look lettering. It didn't actually say "War Deparment" on it, but seemed designed to appeal to a generation that remembered the post-war "Utility" goods. It was an aesthetic that was subsequently adopted by Kwik Save's "No Frills", and then by the chains which are still big players today. Plain labels, no pictures, very stark and very clearly marking itself out as a product which was not going to waste its customers' money on all that design nonsense, thank you very much.

Then, earlier in the year, Morrisson's abruptly raised the bar on value packaging. OK, so it was still clearly recognisable as a value brand, but suddenly the labels didn't seem to be designed to make the purchasers feel they were living in some weird alternative Soviet future. I remember idly speculating that this might prompt a bit of a re-brand elsewhere.

While searching yesterday for Tesco's own (not value) orange-squash-with-added-sugar-you-bastards[*] I happened to spot a shelf which had both old and new packaging on it. Compare and contrast:



The "Everyday Value" label design seems to be the same on all products I've seen thus far, though the colour varies. It gives the products a consistent, branded feel whilst looking a little more upmarket than the old one. The labels are cheerful, and I like them.

Clearly we are in an age where we want our austerity to look a little less... austere.

[*] It seems to be increasingly difficult to find squash which doesn't cheerfully trumpet "No Added Sugar" at you. Which is a shame, because no-added-sugar squash is almost invariably vile. Tesco's own-brand squash comes in small or large bottles in every flavour - except no-added-sugar orange, which comes only in large bottles.

Comments

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I like no-added-sugar squash and actively seek it!

I also like my value food to look like ration packs, for obvious reasons.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Surely you don't need to seek no-added-sugar squash, it's everywhere! I'm perfectly happy for other people to like sweetener-flavoured squash and be able to buy it easily, I just wish the other kind was readily available too.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

There's another factor which I suspect may be involved... Don't tell anyone I told you this, but there's now another product tier below "Value" on the cost scale!

The trick with the new stuff is that it has its own (non-Tesco) branding, but if you look closely there's a little "Tesco Discount Brands" icon either in the corner of the packaging or on the shelf label (or both).

Actually, I say it's "below" value but in fact whether these products cost more or less seems to vary from thing to thing.

My guess with this stuff is that the aim is to associate a more consistent image of quality with their own name. Possibly not so much for the people who buy the value stuff as for the people who don't.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Well, that's interesting - I didn't know that. For things like cleaning products, I did notice last year there was a cheap-o brand ("Daisy", I think) which Tesco were promoting with little red labels as an "economy brand". I don't think there was anything on the labels to hint at Tesco involvement.

I had assumed that the slight upmarket shift was because the supermarkets have finally worked out that actually, the people who consistently buy value products aren't actually very valuable as customers. I think the theory was that you tempt people in with the bargains, and while they're there they'll buy other stuff, but in practice it often doesn't work like that. People come in and perniciously just by the cheap stuff, the rotters.

I shall keep half an eye out for these "below" value products, I'm most curious! Your suggestion that they want the Tesco name associated with quality stuff makes a lot of sense.

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

From what I've seen in my limited travels, the 'Tesco Discount Brands' are more likely to vary between locations. I suspect it's cheaper to get X brand spaghetti hoops locally than it is to ship Value brand nationwide.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Clash - Lost in the Supermarket

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

I like some of the Tesco Value stuff, even though I can afford the "Tesco *Finest" stuff.

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

I often start with the Value stuff, and only if its horrid will move up til I get to finest. Value tomato Juice was amazingly glutenous, lovely, but they stopped it. I think the blue/white label make it much easier to stop, but being the key Tesco colours I bet some brand manager hated the idea.

[exspelunca.livejournal.com]

If you're going to make a pasta sauce with various other bits and bobs (oregano, mushrooms, bacon etc) anything dearer than Sainsbury's basics chopped tomatoes is rampant profligacy - and Sainsbury's seem to stick to the orange and white with no upmarket-look bid, so far.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Daisy washing powder makes your swimming stuff come out of the wash smelling like spermicidal lubricant. Thanks, Tesco!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Well, you wouldn't want to get pregnant from swimming in dubious pools, would you? They're practically doing you a service!

(The only Daisy product I've used is a knock-off of Flash yellow multi-purpose cleaner, and it's fine.)

[venta.livejournal.com]

One kudo.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I guess that's what I did in effect, because I mostly bought Value stuff as a student and graduated upwards when I could for some products. I can't think of a 'new' product I've started buying in Tesco in recent years, so haven't had cause to try anything out.

I reckon the 'worst' Value products are long-grain rice and pasta (or they were some years ago, I guess they may now be new and improved).

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

I always have a downer on value peaches, as the cheapo coring machines always leave shards of core that ruin the whole experience.

[snow-leopard.livejournal.com]

I HATE the profusion of "No added sugar" cordial as they invariably contain sweeteners and, with my IBS, I am allergic to sweeteners.
This means each supermarket trip involves reading pretty much every label in the cordial aisle to try and locate the ONE bottle that actually contains sugar!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Eep :( I don't have your sound reasons, I'm just a bit picky about my drinks! The squash selection in our house is the Tesco own-brand orange, which is ChrisC's preference of the many orangey brands he's tried, and Ocean Spray "Cranberry Classic" for me. You can only get the Tesco one in very large stores, and the cranberry one has turned into a ridiculous quest as most places only seem to stock the sickly cranberry-and-raspberry version. All Ocean Spray drinks proudly tell you on the label that they're free from articial sweeteners, hurray.

It certainly used to be the case that M&S's high-juice squashes were all sugar-only, but I don't know if it still is.

I imagine that the posher we're-cordial-not-squash products (eg Bottle Green) don't contain artificial sweeteners, but maybe that's wishful thinking?

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

The value long-grain rice is brilliant! It's one of the few brands that isn't easy-cook, so doesn't have that strange waxiness to it. You just have to rinse it before cooking.

[venta.livejournal.com]

You're correct that easy-cook rice is an abomination... and I'd rinse any rice before cooking! To be honest, I haven't bought supermarket rice in years, so maybe it's improved. I tend to buy a 10kg sack of basmati from my nearest Asian grocer, as it's usally about the same price as a tiny bag in Tesco :)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mm, this. Tesco have seen their market share and profits shrink recently, and the prominence of 'Value' is one of the things blamed. It seems to have been so visible that it effectively dragged the whole Tesco brand down-market.

Will be interesting to see if the new 'discount brands' strategy works for them. It's subtle, but maybe too subtle.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Call me a knit-your-own-yogurt hippy, but I don't much like either sugar or sweeteners in my fruit-based refreshing drink. I just water down fruit juice, about 1:4 in the case of orange.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't dream of accusing you of making your own muesli out of macrame. I also drink fruit juice, and usually water it down, but I'd regard that as a totally different drink. (And if, like me, you were drinking cranberry juice I think you probably do want sugar in it ;)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mm, I'm not sure I've ever had cranberry juice just as is. That might be a bit too refreshing.

[lnr]

That's not so much a problem with no-added-sugar ones though - those obviously contain sweetener. The problem is the fact that many *non*-diet drinks which *do* contains sugar *also* contain sweeteners, because they're cheap. Personally I think it's appalling, even though I'm a diet-drinker.

I'm glad to see that standard Ribena has no artificial sweeteners in - with Robinsons it looks like only their "Select" range is safe now.