I Love Dollar Store Brands.....

LBIJim

Satisfied With 2.71828

Joined

Jul 24, 2009

• Apr 1, 2015

• #1

......or at least I like the NAMES of some of the brands. Who could resist buying something called Western Beef Corn Flakes? Not me!!! Hopefully they'll be somewhat edible.

 

toystory1130

Mouseketeer

Joined

Jun 14, 2005

• Apr 1, 2015

• #2

It's probably made out of the same corn they feed their cows.

 

M

Mizzoufan

DIS Veteran

Joined

Jan 8, 2015

• Apr 1, 2015

• #3

To me corn flakes are corn flakes. Enjoy your breakfast!

 

msjprincess

DIS Veteran

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Feb 6, 2010

• Apr 1, 2015

• #4

Western Beef is a supermarket chain

 

bcla

On our rugged Eastern foothills.....

Joined

Nov 28, 2012

• Apr 1, 2015

• #5

I see many real brands at most dollar stores. Then there are the ones I've never heard of.

However, at Dollar Tree a lot of products (especially licensed ones) say "Greenbrier International". That's really just Dollar Tree's distribution arm.

 

LBIJim

Satisfied With 2.71828

Joined

Jul 24, 2009

• Apr 1, 2015

• #6

msjprincess said:

Western Beef is a supermarket chain

Click to expand...

Thanks. I looked it up and they have about two dozen locations, mostly in NYC, and some in Long Island, Westchester County one in NJ, and then three in Florida. It's strange that I never heard of them before. I thought it was some local brand from Montana or Colorado or somewhere similar.

Still, love the name!! But kind of odd for their location.

bcla said:

I see many real brands at most dollar stores. Then there are the ones I've never heard of.

However, at Dollar Tree a lot of products (especially licensed ones) say "Greenbrier International". That's really just Dollar Tree's distribution arm.

Click to expand...

This was in a small local chain of Dollar Stores. Yeah, they had some national brands, but lots of brands I never heard of. I wonder how they obtained the store brand from a relatively closeby smallish supermarket chain.

 

Last edited: Apr 1, 2015

verleniahall

DIS Veteran

Joined

Aug 5, 2013

• Apr 1, 2015

• #7

they could have bout it at close-out like big lots do

 

bcla

On our rugged Eastern foothills.....

Joined

Nov 28, 2012

• Apr 1, 2015

• #8

LBIJim said:

This was in a small local chain of Dollar Stores. Yeah, they had some national brands, but lots of brands I never heard of. I wonder how they obtained the store brand from a relatively closeby smallish supermarket chain.

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Lots of the stuff comes from consolidators, but it has to be specific items that either fit into the dollar pricing scheme or need to have a higher price (this happens occasionally). I remember going to an independent dollar store once, and while mylar balloons were $1, they had a separate charge to fill with helium. It would have been possible to just buy the balloon and fill later with a helium canister.

We've got a grocery chain around here called Grocery Outlet, but used to be "Canned Foods Grocery Outlet". They have some items they get a a discount - often unknown labels. However, a lot of what they have is brand name products that the manufacturer gave up on or have overstock. Some of these items are closer to their sell by dates, but often they're simply failed experiments. Some of the same type of things end up in dollar stores, but they would have to be specific.

Of course the dollar store retailers often have their own items that are carefully sized to fit into the single pricing model.

By the way, has anyone heard of the Japanese equivalent known as "100 yen stores"? There's one of these chains doing business in the US - Daiso (dai-yee-so). Their pricing model here is $1.50 for most items, but others are clearly labeled with higher prices. Even so, I don't think I saw anything more than $5. Most of what they had was their own label, and much of it is extremely high quality. When I wanted to find a red bandana for my kid's railroad conductor outfit for Halloween, I found several there for $1.50 each.

 

LBIJim

Satisfied With 2.71828

Joined

Jul 24, 2009

• Apr 1, 2015

• #9

verleniahall said:

they could have bout it at close-out like big lots do

Click to expand...

Probably. Big Lots is another great place to find oddball brand names you've never heard of before.

 

bcla

On our rugged Eastern foothills.....

Joined

Nov 28, 2012

• Apr 1, 2015

• #10

LBIJim said:

Probably. Big Lots is another great place to find oddball brand names you've never heard of before.

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I used to do summer and part-time work at a shipping company. One of our customers was a company called "Pic 'N' Save". They were one of the big closeout merchandise chains on the west coast. Then they changed their name to "MacFrugals". Eventually they got bought out by Big Lots. Shipping their stuff was kind of random, and could come from any part of the country. Also - they often deal with limited stock such that stores in a region will have different items.

 

Domo

Wotcha

Joined

Oct 19, 2012

• Apr 1, 2015

• #11

Over here we have two cheap stores: Aldi and Lidl. That and some 99p stores like Poundland. Lidl is the most fun. Their brand of soft drinks are called Top Hat and they are strange. I mean, you drink half of them, shake the bottle and suddenly you're plumped with a 3/4 full bottle.

Bizarre.

 

Disney Doll

DIS Security Matron

Joined

Nov 5, 2000

• Apr 2, 2015

• #12

Love dollar stores as long as the stuff is a dollar. I hate when they call
Themselves a dollar store and they charge $1.29.

 

B

barkley

DIS Veteran<br><font color=orange>If I ever have a

Joined

Apr 6, 2004

• Apr 2, 2015

• #13

dollar store is my go to place for 'awesome orange' spray cleaner, **** n span, 'speed stick' men's deodorant, aluminum containers, and most recently-pop up packages w/ sheets of aluminum foil. they are also a much less expensive option for mylar balloons and balloon bouquets in general.

ours also carries a line of 'betty crocker' brand lidded bowls and containers in a variety of sizes that are really durable.

 

Diznotyzed

It made Sunday Nights special

Joined

Jun 6, 2006

• Apr 2, 2015

• #14

bcla said:

We've got a grocery chain around here called Grocery Outlet, but used to be "Canned Foods Grocery Outlet". They have some items they get a a discount - often unknown labels. However, a lot of what they have is brand name products that the manufacturer gave up on or have overstock. Some of these items are closer to their sell by dates, but often they're simply failed experiments. Some of the same type of things end up in dollar stores, but they would have to be specific.

Click to expand...

Ah, yes, Grocery Outlet. Known for years in our family as "The Secret Store". As in, you keep it a secret if you shop there.

 

bcla

On our rugged Eastern foothills.....

Joined

Nov 28, 2012

• Apr 2, 2015

• #15

Diznotyzed said:

Ah, yes, Grocery Outlet. Known for years in our family as "The Secret Store". As in, you keep it a secret if you shop there.

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I found some pretty good stuff there. Some of it was priced about what you'd find at a large supermarket chain, but I suppose they like to have some regular items that aren't simply the oddball items.

They're based in Berkeley. Strike that - they moved HQ to Emeryville. They still have a store in Berkeley that replaced their original store location maybe 25 years ago. That previous location is now a 99 Cents Only location. I remember drinking beer at the Sierra Nevada Torpedo Room, then trying to sober up by seeing what I could find at Grocery Outlet.

Grocery Outlet gets a lot of weird stuff. One of their big coups was when Webvan closed shop and they bought out all their remaining inventory. They've gone nuts with bankruptcy liquidations.