# Whatever happened to generic product labelling **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 4, 2016, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-generic-product-labelling/747937 "2016-03-04T17:26:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-generic-product-labelling/747937/41 "2016-03-05T18:48:35Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > The BuzzFeed commentary is for the most part amusing Not really. The beef stew flavoured dog food emphasizing the ‘stew’ over the ‘dog food’ is kind of amusing, but the rest are mostly ‘wow, this is stating what it is, isn’t that WEIRD?’ ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-generic-product-labelling/747937/42 "2016-03-05T19:40:07Z")
> [@Wolf333](#): > > Everything in the grocery and liquor stores is generic, including the six-pack of “Drink”. Other examples of this were the TV show “The Prisoner” and the short lived "Otherworld. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-generic-product-labelling/747937/43 "2016-03-06T02:18:40Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > Yes, store brands existed before the black-and-white generics did. There were differences between store brands then and now - store brands then often had names that were more obviously store brands- (think Target brand diapers rather than “up and up” or Target brand cookies rather than Archer Farms or Market Pantry) and the products were more basic and there was less variety ( for example, I don’t recall any store brand frozen dinners or diapers in in the 70’s) Not that I recall; what I recall were more like “national” house brands; you might find a couple of grocery store chains using the same house brand. Only the very biggest chains had their own in-house private label house brand. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-generic-product-labelling/747937/44 "2016-03-06T04:12:23Z")
The A&P stores used Ann Page as a house brand at least as early as the 1920s, when it multiplied into the largest chain store in the country, with 15,000 outlets in 1927. They also used A&P and Jane Parker as brands long before the 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-generic-product-labelling/747937/45 "2016-03-06T06:37:17Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > As Data might have said: [It is green.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPpvViI6tgg) That Data line was actually an homage to a Scotty line from the Original Series episode “By Any Other Name”. [It’s grrreen!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIMPbPDwj_g) ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-generic-product-labelling/747937/46 "2016-03-06T08:04:33Z")
As mentioned above, Loblaw’s in Canada still uses plain black on yellow labeling for their cheapest house brand. One summer I was walking past the garden centre portion of the local Superstore and came across a pallet full of bags labeled: **cow manure** compost **de fumier de vache** Naturally I snapped a picture and posted it to facebook with the caption “So there I was, reconsidering my view that NoName™ is mostly shit, when…” ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-generic-product-labelling/747937/47 "2016-03-06T09:49:01Z")
There’s a generic brand sold from various independent grocers in Australia that has a yellow label with black writing on it - nothing fancy at all. It tends to be mostly for things like lollies and tinned goods, from what I’ve seen. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-generic-product-labelling/747937/48 "2016-03-06T15:38:00Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > There’s a scene in the original “Repo Man” where Otto, the punk rocker played by Emilio Estevez, is eating out of a can labeled “food”. 😛 > [@Wolf333](#): > > Everything in the grocery and liquor stores is generic, including the six-pack of “Drink”. > [@bump](#): > > I also recall a six-pack of beer with white cans that literally just said “BEER”. Are my posts invisible? > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I still have in my collection a [generic BEER](http://www.billsbeercans.com/~billsbee/canstore/images/IMG_0835.JPG)can. Unlike the other generic products, this one actually had the brewery in fine print (Falstaff in my case). Wonder if that was a requirement because of the alcohol or something? > > All of a sudden I have this craving to rewatch [Repo](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/ea/f8/0c/eaf80c4b8a146baab40b5a7f87268d14.jpg) [Man](http://www.magnetmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/repoman4806.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-generic-product-labelling/747937/49 "2016-03-06T16:18:14Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Are my posts invisible? Well, they’re kind of generic. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-generic-product-labelling/747937/50 "2016-03-06T19:08:44Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > I haven’t seen this type of packaging in years - is it still done perhaps in other countries Sort of, in Sweden: Ica Basic\*. I liked the old Blåvitt better though. Still have a specimen of the coffee mug “MUGG”. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-generic-product-labelling/747937/51 "2016-03-06T22:48:48Z")
> [@Ignotus](#): > > Sort of, in Sweden: Ica Basic\*. > > I liked the old Blåvitt better though. Still have a specimen of the coffee mug “MUGG”. 🙂 I see that “mugg” is indeed the Swedish word for mug, which for some reason I find to be delightful. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-generic-product-labelling/747937/52 "2016-03-07T06:51:38Z")
> [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](#): > > Well, they’re kind of generic. > > 🙂 Hmmm…My posts are black on a white\* background. You might be right… \*ish ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-generic-product-labelling/747937/53 "2016-03-07T16:03:06Z")
**POST** ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-generic-product-labelling/747937/54 "2016-03-08T09:25:55Z")
> [@bump](#): > > **POST** Now some non-member will stumble on this thread and sign up just so they can use the apprpriate screen name: **DOPER**. Because it’d totally be worth it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-generic-product-labelling/747937.md?page=2)