49) Can Someone Explain?

There are many things that puzzle me about the human race. I am sure that people don’t understand me because I often find it very hard to understand people. Take for instance ‘Home Brand’ products in the supermarkets.

Both of the two large supermarket chains, Coles and Woolworth not only have one line of their own home brand but two. Coles have one called “You’ll Love Coles” and another that goes by the name “Coles Smart Buys” and both of them have a wide range of products. Sugar, Flour, Tinned Fruit and Vegetables, Cooking Oil, Milk, Tea, Coffee, Breakfast Cereal, Salt, Toilet Soap, Toothpaste, Washing Powder and many others. They sit side by side on the shelves, together and with all the big brand names of the products. The “You’ll Love Coles” range are presented in attractive blue packaging whereas the “Coles Smart Buys” are in much plainer packets. They have white labels with black printing and a big red tick, which is distinctive and easily recognisable if not especially pretty. I don’t shop in Woolworth very often so I am not sure what their home brands are called but they also have the two different lines.

I won’t go into the whole price range but an example of the sugar and flour prices will explain why I am so puzzled. A 2.5 kg packet of CSR sugar costs $2.99, a 2.5 kg packet of “You’ll love Coles” costs $2.69 and the same size packet of “Coles Smart Buys” will only cost you $1.65. A 2kgs packet of “White Wings” plain flour will set you back $4.99 but you will only pay $3.99 for “You’ll love Coles and if you decide to buy “Coles Smart Buys” the same size packet will only cost you $1.85. (These are actual prices copied from the supermarket shelf this week). Now the puzzle, why would anyone pay $2.99 for a bag of sugar when one could get one for $1.65.Surely sugar is sugar. And the difference from dearest to cheapest of the flour is $3.14 a third of the price!!!

I have been told that it is all a snob thing, people like to think that they are only buying “the best”. I find that way of thinking very strange but that does not explain why anyone would buy the “You’ll Love Coles”, a difference of $1.04. Do people really believe that Coles has two factories one producing a product twice as good as the other?

I can understand that maybe one would like the taste of the more expensive tinned foods better than the Coles one, we all have different likes and dislikes and maybe Coffee is not as strong as the branded one and the toilet soap might have a perfume that offends you but basics like sugar, flour and salt are surely all the same. I have looked at the ingredient labels of these products and they read exactly the same as the branded ones. I feel sure that the only difference is the colour of the ink on the labels

Shoppers obviously do buy the expensive ones or Coles would not stock them but it really is hard to understand. Not long ago I was sounding off on this subject, as I am inclined to do, to one of the ladies that I clean for. I was amazed when she said, “I never buy any of the home brands products” I asked her why she said that she was concerned about the contents of them. I said that the ingredients have to be listed on the packaging so one always knows what was in them. But she was unconvinced “Oh I don’t trust Coles, you can’t believe what they put on the packet” As I said ‘People are hard to understand.’