Online supermarket shuns product branding for quality

Brandless offers food and household goods without the fancy packaging and marketing often seen in store.

While food was once sought in shops purely to feed, consumers are now quick to become besotted with unique packaging and often gimmick-covered buzzwords and branding. Much like the public reacts to out-of-the-ordinary awareness campaigns or branding powering a free cycle scheme. In the retail world how something looks often manipulates opinion of an item before even knowing what it is.

San Francisco and Minneapolis-based Brandless hopes to change this perspective with its ‘brandless’ goods, which include food and cleaning products. These items focus on quality for a better price, eliminating BrandTax that is a hidden cost when buying a national brand. The company claims the average person pays at least 40 percent more for products of comparable quality to its own and up to 370 percent more for beauty products.

Products by Brandless are non-GMO, organic, fair trade, kosher, gluten free, no added sugar and more, catering for a variety of pallets. It has also banned over 400 harmful ingredients in its beauty products such as parabens and phthalates, and its feminine hygiene range is free of chlorine, fragrance and dye. Brandless is also donating to domestic hunger relief organization Feeding America with every sale. There is a USD 9 flat shipping rate and free shipping for over USD 72 worth of purchases. Does branding in store sway you and would you try a brandless item?