Don't believe everything you hear, especially if you hear that consumers never vary from their shopping lists and never consider private label alternatives once they're in a store. That was the message that a panel of speakers delivered to the opening session of the Private Label Manufacturers Association annual trade show Sunday in Rosemont, Ill.

 

The PLMA Consumer Research Report, released earlier this year, found that 42 percent of those surveyed by research firm Buxton for PLMA said they always or almost always make shopping lists, with another 25 percent saying they frequently make such lists. But research also found 80 percent of shoppers buy items not on their lists. “This is the most joyful thing a grocer can hear,” joked Ned Dunn, a former Harris Teeter president who moderated the first panel at the conference.

 

The research “tells us that much of what we’re doing today is working,” said consultant Terry Lee. Consumers are willing to switch to private label, especially as private label improves in quality, he added. Retailers should be using the full range of in-store merchandizing tactics available to them, such as end cap displays, samplings and product demonstrations, to increase private label sales, Lee added.