Comments on In With Bacchus: A Marks and Spencer Review

Most store brands in the UK are looked down upon, ...

2011-07-10T18:55:39.089-04:00

Most store brands in the UK are looked down upon, but M&S has always been a 'sign of quality'. Both in advertising and in most cases in fact - most of the supermarkets (as M&S has never really billed itself as one) now have 'Taste the difference' or 'Finest' ranges which I reckon have been very much influenced by M&S. M&S's entire store is billed as being better than the rest, whereas the supermarkets have one brand of many (as they all also have a basic brand that is cheap, and generally rubbish) which they put that focus on. Basically - M&S is special :)

And their food advertising is pure porn: http://www.youtube.com/user/marksandspencertv#p/c/19/2rQ9rN-2MHQ

Hey, so I'm looking over this and I'm fair...

2011-07-08T21:10:23.484-04:00

Hey, so I'm looking over this and I'm fairly impressed. I love this ability in the UK and I could also get behind it in the US although I doubt it'll ever happen.

While it might fly in states like here in NY where they are loosening regulations to allow some wine sales in grocery stores and beer sales are allowed not just in your grocery store but everywhere anyway (Stewarts, 7Eleven, anyone?) But states like, for example, PA (where I just moved back to NY from, so it's gonna be my comparison) are so almost-anti-liquor-sales in the first place... In PA not only can you not buy *any* kind of liquor in grocery stores but beer is sold only by the case from beer distributors. If you want only a bottle or two or a six-pack you have to go buy it from a bartender at a bar or restaurant. (Forgive me, I'm a NewYorker- that is ridiculous.) And the beer distributors, by state *law*, can only sell beer. If you want wine or any other liquor you must go to the 'Wine and Spirits' store; a state-wide chain (I assume, though I don't know, that it's owned/operated by the state) that, as far as I know, is pretty much the only place you *can* get wine/liquor in PA.

That said, if they and other states have laws this strict now, I feel safe to see that we'll probably never see equal-liquor-sale-laws in the states and, if the sale standards aren't going to be equal, then it's not going to be worth it for big grocery chains (like Hannaford, Genuardis or even Stop 'n Shop) to attempt to start any such program. And without a push from retailers...well, I think this will be staying a UK phenomena for a good long while.

And... that wasn't even what I was going to comment about. What I wanted to ask was what the UK-customers perception of this branding is. While I *know* that M&S is *miles* (kilometers?) away from Wal*Mart, that's what 1st lept to my mind.

We all know that Wal*Mart brand is often cheaper and, probably, of equal-ish quality but there's a lingering...impression, I suppose that Wal*Mart brand is...less, somehow. Is there anything to that in M&S? Or does the fact that M&S is such a 'higher' brand negate those feelings?
(For that matter, maybe the negativities associated with 'store brand' are American?)

Thoughts? Ideas?

Thanks

~Willa

M&S is a bit of a special case, though - almos...

2011-06-30T11:16:27.887-04:00

M&S is a bit of a special case, though - almost all of their products are own brands. It's quite strange to find the manufacturers name on their other products, but in more recent times they have started being more transparent on their booze. It's not total yet, check out some of their beers (although far from all these days) for anonymous brewers, but is increasing.

Wine is one category where you will see this happen a lot and most supermarkets have bottlings with their name on. I suspect this is in part due to the buyers having close relationships with the vineyards and thus getting exclusives. However, the other way of looking at that is that the supermarkets buy up entire bottlings (at massive discounts...) and then get their own label on the bottle as theirs is the only shop who can sell it.

Store brand alcohol isn't quite so hailed outside of the wine category (M&S excepted again) with beer, spirits and the like (with a couple of exceptions - Aldi Cromwell Gin is meant to be rather good and Brewdog used to do a bit of secretive contract brewing for someone, I think) generally being rubbish, and anonymous.

US liquor sales are just weird though :)