What's happened to all of the supermarket home brand items?

[Mooloolabababy]

So I usually do my food shop in Aldi. I can pretty much get what I need from there, but I also do like to nip in to Asda and Tesco as they're local to me and it's sometimes nice to have a change (although it costs so much more to shop in these other 2 so only generally go for bits and bobs). I've recently noticed that items I used to buy are no longer available in their home brand range. The 2 specific items being thins and bagels, I'm sure there must be others though. Has anyone else noticed that supermarkets have reduced their home brand range? I can't justify the prices of warburtons thins and the New York company bagels so tend not to buy them in there, unless they're on offer and so get them from Aldi/Lidl.

Yes I've certainly noticed this in Morrisons. Tesco does. More of their home brands than Asda. The prices have also rocketed and appears to be on a weekly basis

Yep I've definitely noticed this doing my online asda shop. For several things you now only get the value/basics version or the name brand, nothing in between.

Yes!!! I have definitely noticed (we are in NE London) - I tend to bulk buy in Lidl/Aldi when I'm there instead.

Yes, have definitely noticed this in Tesco. No more Stockwell baked beans!

Do you mean own brands?

I haven't noticed any difference but it's hard to be sure when there are so many empty shelves in all the supermarkets

This is my theory based on a very rudimentary guess as to how food supply chains work:

Factory A makes Weetabix 3 day of the week and Supermarket own label Wheat Bisks 2 days of the week.

They are suffering from huge grain supply shortages / energy costs / staffing issues and can only actually now run the factory line for 4 days out of 5.

They prioritise the Weetabix contract as it's bigger and more profitable than the own brand one. So own brand versions of anything suffer.

Yes home brands, but I have also noticed all of the bare shelves too!

I never thought about it this way, but that's definitely a possibility!

Own brands, home brands isn't a thing 😀

Funny you should mention own brand Weetabix DIL had trouble getting it for a few weeks.

@AllThatFancyPaintsAsFair oops yes sorry, meant own brands, too many gins

I’ve not found Aldi marmite rip off for months, they’ve just taken it away.

You could be on to something there.

But my pet theory is that they make more profit by selling Brand X than by selling Supermarket Own, so if they stop stocking their own brand, people have to buy Brand X instead.

Supermarkets are wholly profit-driven above all else, and the more of Brand X they buy, the bigger the discount they can negotiate from the manufacturer. But they don't pass that discount on to their customers.

Supermarkets want to reduce the number of lines they stock. Ie Aldi stock 2 - 3 thousand. A big supermarket will be way over 20,000.

Guess which is cheaper to run.

Bran Flakes (any brand name or supermarket own brand) - no idea why they’ve totally disappeared. Spent weeks looking for them as I’m down to maybe 1-2 servings left and usually replace as soon as I open the previous pack. Trawled all the local supermarkets and cheaper shops such as B&M/Home Bargains but they all have a massive gap on their shelves.

Also, courgettes, been in my shopping order for last 6 weeks (get a delivery once a fortnight) but either out of stock or substituted - last week they sent an aubergine 🤷🏼‍♀️🤦‍♀️ Ended up going to the Uber expensive farm shop at a local garden centre and paying over the odds just so I can make enchiladas and bulk out a cottage pie for DTs who don’t eat veggies unless disguised!!

I bought bran flakes in Tesco at the weekend, a box lasts me age so I don't know whether they're been hard to get. Might be worth looking there

I bought a jar last week, to try. How does it compare?

Surely increased demand for the (cheaper) own brands is also a factor? I buy for a food bank and need a lot of tins - inevitably they are either fully stocked or vanished at Sainsbury’s, Aldi and Lidl.

Member of staff in Aldi said because supplies are erratic when something does come in folks are buying in bulk

Thanks; I managed to get some at a little supermarket the other week but couldn’t believe so many places had none!

Also, people bulk buy because prices are increasing weekly.

There's that too

I've noticed Tesco had some of there cheaper range back in stock this week...Prices have increased again though.

• Their cheaper range

Yes, a while back I needed new whitener powder for my whites washing. Usually buy Tesco's own brand. Couldn't get any for months - only massively expensive Vanish. Went to Morrisons and got some of their own brand instead.