THE SOURCE OF THE NAME

DAVID ORGEL

ST. LOUIS -- It's a label creator's dream. Save-A-Lot here is so dedicated to custom labels that is has created some 100 registered names just for itself.

Where do the label ideas come from? Often the inspiration is truly home-grown. J. Higgs potato chips are named after company chief financial officer Joe Higgs. Gilmore's Gourmet popcorn bears the namesake of controller Larry Gilmore.

Vice president of grocery purchasing David McDaniel lent his name to McDaniel's Coffee. The Coburn Farm label for dairy borrows its name from the mother-in-law of William Moran Jr., Save-A-Lot's president and chief executive officer.

Even label creators get into the act. Hargis House Chili was named after Mary Hargis, a label artist.

Interestingly, Save-A-Lot's labels are more successful to date in food categories than in home care, where the store still makes national-brand labels more prominent, Moran said. It turns out that while shoppers trusted the custom labels for food, they wanted to be sure they could recognize brand names for categories like household cleaning products for floors.