For an increasing range of food-savvy consumers, the days of approaching the supermarket deli with a mindset of simply “1 pound of sliced ham, 1 pound of sliced turkey, half-pound of sliced American cheese, 1 pound of potato salad” have started drifting into mere memory.

Milk accounted for about $15.6 billion in sales and refrigerated juice/drinks almost $6 billion in 2012, according to SymphonyIRI Group data.

Sometimes it might come off as a little cheesy. But there’s no joking around about the strength of private label sales in the cheese category today.

Detergents are a $7 billion category, with private label holding a 4.4 percent dollar share and a 6.7 percent unit share (1.4 billion units), according to Nielsen records compiled for the 2012 PLMA Private Label Yearbook.

Grabbing chairs at the ECRM Private Brands Food conference in Napa, Calif., in March, a small group bantered around ideas about private label today.

PLBuyer’s 2013 Non-Food Hot List includes private label non-food categories that saw dollar sales across supermarkets, drugstores, mass market retailers, military commissaries and select club and dollar retail chains increase at least 10 percent in 2012.

And you stand next to them, with a slight grin on your face, knowing that you’ve already gotten the present. Having to keep yourself from spilling the beans before it’s time.

 Because sometimes the best surprises are the ones that we have the most trouble keeping a secret. 

I am spending more and more of my time speaking with retailers and manufacturers about product development models as currently being utilized around the world. In fact, I am heading out to Shanghai this week to do just that.

Reuters reported in March that JCPenney was bringing back high-low pricing for its private label products after the failed experiment with everyday low pricing under JCP CEO Ron Johnson (ousted in April after just 16 months when JCP rehired Johnson’s predecessor Mike Ullman).

Back in March, Wendell Pierce – known for his acting roles on HBO’s Treme and The Wire – opened the first of several planned Sterling Farms grocery stores in his native New Orleans, a chain that will complement his Sterling Xpress convenience stores; both fall under the umbrella of Sterling Fresh Foods, LLC.