Generic brands

“How The Recession Has Changed U.S. Consumer Behavior”

by Betsy Boholen, Steve Carlotti and Liz Mihas

This article is depicting how the recession has affected the consumer and to a certain extent the producer. It begins with showing some statistics with “an average of 18% of consumer-packaged-goods consumers bought lower-priced brands in the past two years.” It shows other statistics as well, but it is important to understand that these industries that offer the higher priced brands will be losing profitability. It shows how the recession allows for consumers to change their spending habits and to search for the better buy, by looking to the alternative brand.

It is a simple article yet with a profound scope. It is true that the consumer masses to sum it up, wants a good deal. Especially now that there is a recession. The important point of this article is to understand that the higher-priced brands are losing customers and the lower priced generic brands are receiving a lot of attention.

However, these generic products may offer a good deal, but what is being offered by those generic brands. Not all generic brands have the same quality as the higher-priced one. The most important and best example to use is the food products. Taking a look at a package of Oreo's from Nabisco and you can read the ingredients and nutrition facts on the back. If you pick up a generic brand and look at the nutrition facts and ingredients you are able to observe that there is a higher fat content than the higher-priced brand. The reason these food products may be cheaper is because they use lower quality ingredients sometimes and that is what the buyer must be aware of. I agree with this article, but for those individuals who might not know this, there should be more information on this article or make another one that is connected with this one.

The lower quality ingredients such as substitution of regular FAT for TRANS-FAT. Well what exactly is TRANS-FAT anyways?

Well, trans fat does occur naturally produced by enzymes.  HOWEVER

Trans-Fat that is created with help from physical agents causes heart problems such as blocking your arteries eventually leading to a coronary disease.  

But, I thought only saturated fat caused heart problems? True, but incorrect, trans-fat can cause heart problems as well.

The scary thing is that Nutritional labels that say 0% FAT, TRANS-FAT, SATURATED FAT, etc. actually do still contain a certain amount of it.  The fact that it says 0% is because they do not want to print on the label 0.0089% FAT, TRANS-FAT, SATURATED FAT, etc. because the Food and Drug Administration said to report these figures in whole numbers, therefore companies go through the loophole and do not report the amounts because they feel that the law of rounding numbers that we learned in math class does not apply to them.

Eat healthy people.