Consumers are pinching pennies at the grocery counter as hard as they are at the gas pump these days.

Experts say there are ways to save when shopping, including purchasing store and value brands instead of the often pricey brand-name goods.

Grocery aisles are packed with a wide array of brand-name items, store-brand items and value-priced goods, including everything from peanut butter to laundry detergent. Store managers and other officials say consumers don’t have to sacrifice quality when choosing the items which will stretch their dollars the furthest.

‘People are getting real creative’“Our store brand is experiencing a huge uplift in sales, and we mainly attribute that to the current economy and the fact that we do a lot of taste tests with Southern Home,” said Joyce Smart, a Bi-Lo spokesperson.

Headquartered in Mauldin, Bi-Lo operates 220 supermarkets in the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee and employs approximately 16,200. Southern Home is the company’s main store brand and is available in 2,000 items, including fresh dairy and meat products, baked goods, canned items and home products.

“We conduct taste tests with our Southern Home products and some national brands to see which participants like the best. Our Southern Home brands usually win those. Our store brands are very comparable to the national brands and usually about 10 to 20 percent less in cost. So it’s a great value for customers,” Smart said.

Dr. Bonita Manson, an assistant professor in South Carolina State University’s Department of Family & Consumers Sciences, said Bi-Lo and other supermarkets push the sale of their store brands as hard as they can to draw customers back.

“Some consumers go for service, or they like the personnel. There are different things that draw people to different stores. They try to figure out how to get them back to the store. If I start producing my own product -- and it’s a lot cheaper -- that might get them there, so stores do that a lot,” Manson said.

Smart said Bi-Lo also carries items under the label of Clear Value, which is the grocery store chain’s line of products for budget-conscious consumers. Clear Value and Southern Home are touted to be as good as national brand offerings, but are typically sold at a lower price because of minimal marketing and advertising expense as compared to brand-name items such as Coburg (milk) and Kingsford (charcoal), she said.

“We have brands on everything, but they’re at difference price points. The Clear Value product is perfectly good. There may not be as much consistency in the size of a can of green beans, for instance, but it’s perfectly good. We do want to make sure that our customers get good quality for the price that they’re paying,” Smart said.

She said the store brands are generally of equal or higher quality than name-brand items.

“Actually, we use many of the same packaging plants or, in the case of milk, the same dairies and just put our label on it. Again, the difference is the marketing funds that the national brands would use to promote their product. We don’t have to do that. We advertise them in-store, but we don’t have to do a national campaign,” Smart said, as Bi-Lo is more focused on providing the best bang for a customer’s buck.

Orangeburg resident Myrtle Brown, who was scanning the aisles at Bi-Lo, said she largely buys name-brand items but doesn’t find much difference between them and store-brand items.

“I think they seem to taste better; however, sometimes when the generics are on special, I try them, too. I find that some of those are just as good as the name brand. I also use coupons. I don’t really buy anything I don’t need anymore,” Brown said. “I can’t afford it.”

“People are getting real creative about how to save a little bit of money on their grocery purchases. You need to go to one place to shop and get the best value that you can with the price of gas,” Smart said. “So, that’s what we’re trying to do for our customers. Bi-Lo has double coupons every day and a senior discount day.”

She said unit pricing is another tool consumers can use to get the most for their money.

The unit price tells you the cost of an item per unit, such as per ounce, per pound or per sheet to buy the product. The price of the item is divided by the number of units to get the unit price, but many grocers have the figure posted on the bottom of the shelf tag.

“Customers should really check those. Most people think just because an item is in a larger package, it’s going to be less expensive,” she said, or that buying one large container will not cost as much as two or three smaller packages of something. But that’s not always the case, Smart said.

‘You gotta save money’David Faile, grocery manager at the Columbia Road Piggly Wiggly in Orangeburg, said, “A lot of times the smaller boxes are just as cheap or cheaper per ounce than the bigger box.” He said shoppers in some discount stores are deceived in buying items which are in bigger packages but have less in them.

“It’s a misrepresentation, but there’s nothing illegal about how big a bottle you put it in,” he said, noting that the Piggly Wiggly store-brand items are generally as comparable in quality to the national brand items.

“You have a national brand, the store brand and then a value-based brand. Our value-based product is ValuTime. ValuTime may be a little bit lower grade. Any of those value-priced items are going to be a little bit lower grade. Store brand is basically the same grade as any national brand, it’s just sold at a little bit cheaper price” because of the national advertising costs associated with brand-name items, Faile said.

He said Piggly Wiggly buys items such as milk and bread, for example, from the same supplier as brand-name items.

“It basically comes from a major corporation ... . They just outsource it. It’s not like we have a company that does nothing but make private-label merchandise. Somebody’s gotta make it,” Faile said.

“In terms of food safety and all the other regulations in terms of standards, all the plants and warehouses have to meet the same qualifications. So, you’re not actually getting better. It’s just that some people have grown accustomed to certain brands and think they’re supreme,” Manson said.

Faile noted, “There’s probably a 50/50 split between (the sale of) store brands and national brands” at Piggly Wiggly.

“National brands are what they run on sale. Store brand is just the bargain price. Consumers are more price conscious now. They’ll look for sales. If the national brand is not on sale, they’ll naturally go with the store brand. We run a sale every week,” he said.

Greg Waters, Piggly Wiggly store manager, said, “If we pride ourselves on anything, it’s the fact that we have more local produce than any store in the area,” including peaches, corn, tomatoes and beans.

“I’m not trying to impute anybody, but we make an extra effort to make sure it’s regional or local. That’s good not just for quality but for price. Everybody was worried about tomatoes, but not me. I didn’t worry about anything because I knew where ours were from, and that counts,” Waters said.

Piggly Wiggly shopper Ernest Ryant of Orangeburg, who was looking for bargains with his mother, Mabell, said he looks specifically for store-brand items and is not particularly hooked on the taste, flavor or consistency of any brand-name item.

“You gotta save money and go for that store brand,” he said.

“You can’t do nothing now. You have to kinda hold a penny back for something. I stay with the store brands,” Mabell said. “If a product isn’t any good, I don’t want it. But if it’s good and is the store brand, I’ll buy it.”

Manson said consumers can save money by opting to purchase not just locally-grown items, but store brand items as well.

“Even though you may be familiar with the national brand, the quality is generally going to be about the same. Store brands and national brands are equal quality, but with the generic (value-based) brands, you may not have uniformity of shape as with vegetables and fruits. The quality may be a little less, but the nutritional value is still going to be there,” Manson said.

“Yes, we know that taste is a big factor, but now since mind-sets have changed to some extent, most people buy for the nutritional value of the food products,” she added. “And, if you travel far to go to a warehouse (to buy items cheaper in bulk), it is really worth it to shop in the neighborhood and look for values,” she said.

Orangeburg resident Keisha Rivers had her Piggly Wiggly buggy neatly stacked with only a few boxes of cereal and a package of meat. She said smart shopping is key.

“I normally go for the brand items when I’m here in Piggly Wiggly because it’s not too much difference in price from Piggly Wiggly brand and the national brand. But, when I go to Wal-Mart, I definitely see a price difference. It would have to be a very critical time for me to go to a low, low (value-based) brand. That’s basically how I shop.”

She said she is pinching pennies in the tough economy like most people.

“Between milk and gas, yes, I am,” she said.

T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534.

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