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.

[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.

[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.

[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!