CONnections: Talking elite and ordinary brands

When is the last time you went grocery shopping?

No matter if it was last week or yesterday, the layout of the grocery store is something pretty familiar to us (although Leevers did just redo a fair amount of their freezer section).

Nevertheless, we can clearly picture the frozen foods aisle with all of our favorites. Let’s start with pizza. Do you splurge on the Digiornio pizza or pick up the Tombstones on sale? (They always seem to be on sale.)

Buy Hot Pockets for a quick, hot meal during a busy workweek or maybe a quick afterchurch lunch?

And we can’t forget about dessert- frozen Toll House cookie dough (cooked or not) is delicious, salmonella fears notwithstanding. Would you rather make your own? Toll

House makes chocolate chips too.

Not into cookies for dessert?

Fancy Haagen Daas ice cream or the less expensive Drumsticks cones are sweet frozen options.

How about the most important meal of the day- breakfast. If cereal is on your radar, then there is likely a box of cheerios in the pantry; plain or one of the many flavored kinds that have been created recently.

And we can’t forget about the coffee. Starbucks brand for the at-home coffee aficionado might taste pretty goodI’m a tea person myself, so I wouldn’t take my word for that.

But what about Fluffy and Fido? They have to eat too! And there are pet foods in the grocery store as well. Purina is a major player in the dry pet food section, and Fancy Feast canned cat food is a treat for the cats. The brand also has you covered for the litterbox- Purina makes kitty litter too.

Purina even has reached into the world of cattle- although we won’t see them at Leevers, Purina makes cattle mineral tubs.

That sounds like a pretty randomized list, right? In most cases, there is a ‘premium’ brand characterized by being more expensive or having fancier ingredients, and a ‘utility’ brand, which is the cheaper alternative. Nowhere is this more highlighted than in the frozen pizza aisle- DiGiornio is the fancier pizza, whereas Tombstone is the college-kid or new-parent special.

Now what if I told you that all of those brands- and moreare owned by a single parent company?

That’s true. All of those brands discussed above are owned by Nestle. Incidentally, Nestle also owns Gerber, the big name in everything babyand many of the other baby food brands as well.

Nowhere else than in our food is it more obvious that there is one sure way to make money. Not by pandering to either the masses with the utility brand, and not by serving up to only the elite with the premium brand.

If one company owns both the premium brand and the utility brand, then there isn’t a way to lose money.

Now, Nestle isn’t the devil hidden in our food. In fact, according to their website, Nestle began in 1866 as a familyowned company (started by Henri Nestle) that focused on producing condensed milk.

The company slowly began expanding to other countries and including other products, like Nescafe coffee and chocolate after the wars in the 1900s.

Nestle continued expansion into other arenas of life, such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and infant foods.

In the 2000s, the company grew over several brands of bottled water- utility brands like Deer Park, Poland Springs, and Pure Life and of course premium brands, including but not limited to Pellegrino and Perrier.

Nestle is just one company. But many products found in the grocery store- and the pet store- are all owned by them.

That isn’t the exception anymore. In fact, it’s the rule- in the grocery store, in the pet store, and even in the world of agriculture.

Buying from local small businesses has never looked so good. Which company’s pockets is your grocery money entering? It’s an interesting trail to follow.