Kroger's Manufacturing, the side I did not know

     Reviewing an article about Kroger's Grocery Stores stepping up it manufacturing process of foods, I found out that Krogers manufacutures just about half of their own name brand products that they sell.  (This article was found in two different locations. (1). (2). )This totals to about "14,400 in-house products", such as their icecream and their colas. Making the products themselves saves the company on costs, which passes the savings onto the customers.

     Some other companies that do this is WalMart, which owns 40 companies to do their manufacturing, and Safeway which has 32 manufacturing companies. The companies that manufacture their own products have a greater control on contents of the products as well as price to sell to the general public.

     By offering and manufacturing their own brand of popular products, this has created factories and more jobs for the economy. It has also offered consumers a cheaper alternative to name brand products during a time when most people are trying to get the most for their money during the economic crunch. Sales of the in-store name brands has increased over the last year, and by offering more variety can only increase the sales and profits.  Also, by making their own product, it saves on time to go from the manufacturing floor to the stores. This would cut down on warehouse storage time, and increase product freshness.

     The stores dont make all their own product, there are some things that still get "farmed" out to other companies to make. However, as this trend increases, we may see more of the store brand products being offered will be made by the store themselves.

     Some stores that sell store brand products do not do any of their manufacturing, such as the National Grocer Supervalu Inc. Making their own product does not seem to fit into their way of doing things.

     Being a Kroger shopper, I found this very interesting, for I normally by the store brand products. This makes it mean more knowing that by buying the products, I am supporting a way to keep my savings down and keeping people employed when jobs are tough to find.


(1). http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/grocer-kroger-cranks-up-food-manufacturing-335006.html
(2). http://news.findlaw.com/ap_stories/f/1310/10-07-2009/20091007070507_09.html