Is it just me that thinks ...
 

It seems to me that Google, Apple, MS, FB, etc are becoming "smoke stack" industries.
They're fighting for data about their customers, and are mining it as a resource.

Today, and the past few weeks, I began crystallizing a similar idea about our supermarkets.
They have always(?) had their own brands, but they also sold
the nationally known brands as well as smaller (local) labels.

Our local supermarkets are gradually filling the shelves with all sorts of foods and other stuff with a single, new brand name.
For example, our Alberson's stores are replacing selections with a brand named "Essentials".

Is it just me being paranoid again,
...or are these little smoke stacks being poking their heads up into my life ?

As competition with other stores stiffens, they have to reduce prices and their profit margin falls. To boost profits again, they find cheaper suppliers for the existing store brand and substitute the store brand for independent brands wherever possible. They change the store brand name so customers will know to expect something different and won't accuse the store of pulling a fast one (the cheaper suppliers may provide lesser products). The store brand may be changed to something that doesn't carry the store name until the products are time tested and deemed to be acceptable in quality and of relatively good value by consumers. The tracking and data mining occurs when you use some type of "membership" card to obtain discounts.

Our local ACME Markets, part of the Albertson chain, sells the private brand "Essential Everyday".

Couple of visits ago, at Pathmark market, I asked the guy stocking the cookie shelves if he could tell me where something was. He apologized profusely and said he didn't work for the store, he worked for a supplier. I knew the soft drink companies do that, but didn't realize other suppliers were also. I wonder if the markets are pushing the suppliers to do it to cut labor costs, or the suppliers are offering it to bargain for more shelf space.

The competition is brutal around here, as I imagine all the densely populated areas are. In order to promote the bottom line, stores are "auctioning" shelf space to suppliers who want to expand their lines, promoting self-checkout to cut cashiers, and pushing store brands with larger margins.

I hate that auctioning shelf space shit. When I want to buy my brand of whatever, I don't want to have to look forever to find it, or discover it isn't being stocked to make room for the 30 linear feet of Cheerios shelf space where they have all their different flavors and sizes stocked 3 or 4 boxes wide for each type.

If the store's not offering what you want, in a way that is easy for you to find, vote with your wallet. Shelf space/visibility, that's a valuable commodity for manufacturers of products for which there's greater competition. Part of what you're paying for is the convenience of being able to get the product you want. *I*, have more time than money, so I spend my *time* looking down on the bottom shelf at the far end of the aisle for the product I want because I don't prefer to spend my money on the nearer/more visible offering. That's not for every product, but it's true for many.

Even more frustrating than the shelf space/merchandising hokey-pokey is the inexorable march toward self-fucking-checkout.

Why did I bother to go to the store if I'm doing the shipping *and* the checking out? How is that any different than just clicking on the mouse and having someone else deliver it (and often pay the freight/fuel/hassle expense)? It's not, much. I'm not a fan of that self checkout crap, and it's the WORST in the grocery stores. Screw that.

Voting with you wallet doesn't work when all the stores do it.