Wegmans Touts Private-Label Cereal

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Wegmans Food Markets is spreading the word that its private-label cereal fared better than national brands in a child’s school project. A New Jersey shopper wrote a letter to Wegmans about how her son wanted prove that people prefer the national-brand cereal over the generic brand. He went to Wegmans and bought national brands and their private-label counterparts. He then set up taste tests of both cereals, and 60 people taste-tested the cereals. In all but one case, all 60 tasters preferred the Wegmans cereal over the nationals. The exception was Frosted Flakes, in which 16 of 60 tasters preferred the national. “Although he failed to prove his hypothesis that they would prefer national brands over private brands, I am going to be saving a lot of money now, as he will not accept me not buying your brand,” the child’s mother wrote in a letter to Wegmans. Senior Vice President of Consumer Affairs Mary Ellen Burris shared the story in a consumer column to show that Wegmans-brand products that are “better than anything else you can buy, and at a value that keeps you coming back.”

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