Who Remembers Those Black and White Generic Products?

Today the supermarkets are filled with a huge variety of products, some priced lower than others for certain. But, there was a time when you could buy many of these same shelf stable items for half the price because they came in packages with frills- very little color, no designs, no descriptions, no slogans. The items were named simply, too. Luncheon meat instead of SPAM, Spread instead of Country Crock, and everyone’s favorite, Beer.

Do you remember buying these items in the 1970s and 1980s? These brands certainly opened up a lot of products for those without extra money to spend as they were cheaper than even the store brands. The first of these products were introduced in the 1970s when inflation and gas shortages made people thriftier than they had been in years. To make the items stand out many stores had whole aisles dedicated to only these products so that there was no confusing where to find them.

The products were so popular that many in-house store brands began to use the no-frills packaging to corner the market, such as Jewel did in the early 1980s. Despite the rather bleak packaging and lack of big budget advertising, most of the products weren’t half bad and even surpassed bigger brands at times. There were quite a few brands doing this at the time: P & Q, No Frills, and No Name were just a few.

By the late 1980s many stores had stopped carrying products like these. Better promotions and coupons from major brands had restored faith in these more expensive brands. Meanwhile, without advertising the no name brands failed to convince many shoppers that they would be as good as their counterparts in more colorful packaging. You had to try them out and decide which products you liked that could save you money, a task many folks never set themselves to, ironically for fear of wasting money.

Did you have a favorite no name product from back then? I can recall the corn chips being quite good, but frankly it’s been so long since I tried them that I’m not sure!

See how this generic craze unfolded in an Atlanta grocery back in 1980.