Company information:
Safeway
Miramonte and Cuesta
Mountain View, California
United States
safeway.com
Slowly but surely, Safeway is dropping all the brands that I like and replacing them with its own brand. For years, I had been buying Mrs. Butterworth's Lite syrup until, suddenly its availability was spotty at best. Finally, the store just stopped carrying it. It still carries the regular Mrs. Butterworth's and the godawful sugar-free stuff (I don't mind less sugar, but I do mind the fake chemical sweeteners). You might think it's because the demand dropped, but at the same time, suddenly a Safeway brand of "Lite" syrup showed up.
I went looking for Saran Wrap, which is the only brand of wrap that has the right amount of hold. Safeway's brand is awful. It has little hold. And Glad's is way too clingy. Guess which brand is missing from the shelves? Yep, Saran Wrap.
Finally, the store has dropped the Ruffles Reduced Fat brand. It's just like the Mrs. Butterworth's deal. Safeway still carries the godawful stuff with Olean. But just carrying the product with less of the bad stuff without a substitute chemical component doesn't seem to be in Safeway's DNA. I haven't yet found a Safeway brand of low-fat ripple chips.
But I am so tired of finding products I have bought for years and years just disappear. According to the company Web sites, these products are still being made and merchandised. Just Safeway has dropped them.
Yes, I do know that Safeway's profit margin is much higher when it sells its own brand. But I don't shop at Safeway to increase its profit margin. I'm happy if the company can stay in business, but I shop there to find products and brands that I like. I don't want to be sold on a similar brand.
It's like the time I told my husband to get pickles, and he returned with one type of pickles--not the brand I'd requested. "Pickles are pickles, aren't they?" he asked. Well, no. They're not. Different brand pickles taste different. Different chips taste different--and there is no other non-baked, non-Olean-laden, lower fat ripple chip on the market. Different syrups taste different. Different plastic wraps cling differently.
Please, Safeway, stop dropping my brands.
