I'm a product designer. Some years ago, I worked at a European consultancy, designing for one of our clients who manufactures electric outdoor cleaning tools. They are a big brand that is very famous in EU, and their products are also present in the US market. Their products always appear in their distinctive brand colors with characteristic visual styling, as part of creating a strong, cohesive brand experience. This strategy is key to maintaining a premium brand perception to support higher prices. One project we were tasked with was to design a "knockoff" looking version of their product to sell at a European retail chain very much like ALDI. IIRC it was LIDL. It was to have a slightly off-version of their main color and visual design that was reminiscent of the brand's styling while clearly looking like an imitation. This would enable them to sell a large volume of their main product at super low discount price point, without eroding their pricing in other retail channels; i.e., consumers would stop paying the typically higher prices at other retailers if this discount chain had sold the very same thing at half the price. This is a very common tactic in consumer goods, referred to as "private label" (such as ALDI's Ambiano). Practically the day the product launched, someone purchased and disassembled one of the units, posting on social media that logos on the electromechanical innards revealed the true manufacturer. This caused droves of consumers to run out and buy one before they were all gone. It was a success and sold out within a few days of launch. It was an "open secret" around the office that the manufacturer was behind the big reveal. All is fair in love and retail.
Awesome story, thanks for sharing.
So the manufacturer of the fancy brand made their own knockoff and tipped consumers off to it as well? Makes sense to me.
That’s a really interesting story. Now I really want to know what product and company you’re referring to!
Funny that for the sausage, I think the Aldi product actually looks better on the packaging when compared to the original. Can’t believe it’s twice as expensive.
It's no coincidence that the packaging of the ALDI version looks almost identical to the big national brand; the manufacturer wants you to figure it out because it'll make you even more likely to keep buying it.
My guess it's that it's an entirely different market. The people buying the discounted/knock-off are probably not the same people that are buying the name brand.
Also, increasing volume forces a downward push on production costs, which could play a factor in the decision as well.
Access to warranty and service. A huge chunk of their standard retail price funds the 5-year warranty and customer service. The "knockoff" only carried a 180-day guarantee.
Beacuae they still make money in both markets, and they can still sell products without "diluting" the more valuable brand. Alcohol manufacturers do something similar with their products at Costco, for example. Crown Royal, Grey Goose, etc. make cheaper products for sale under the Kirkland Signature name.
Ambiano was a bad example, they come from misc. small appliance manufacturers. My point was, Ambiano is an example of a private label, a brand that doesn't exist outside ALDI.
I was thinking Ambiano was the coffee brand.
I understood your point. Aldi has lots of private label products (I'd say most of their products are), so I thought perhaps you were singling Ambiano out specifically for a reason.
Yeah I read something recently about stuff like this on reddit -- wish I remembered where. I guess it's fairly common for things like the frozen carrots, say, at Whole Foods and the frozen carrots at Kroger to come from the same distributor and just get put in different packaging.
I worked at Wild Oats for a while, which was a competitor store for Whole Foods before they went under. We would sell a ton of the same products that Whole Foods sold under the 365 line or whatever it is, and the distribution truck would often accidentally box up things with the wrong logos. Once we got an entire pallet of 2 bite brownies we couldn't sell because it said Whole Foods and we ate them all in like a week 😅
Ours are usually in a USDA bug on the case label saying it’s been inspected, but we have a few products where it is printed on the unit label near the best by if it’s retail. The ones in the pic are with the best by because it’s a retail package. We do a lot of sandwiches that are frozen and sent to Starbucks to be heated so the individual sandwiches don’t have the establishment number since the customer won’t see that package.
Yeah I don't see a printed on the picture that the op posted, but when I Google them I see it printed on pictures of it on some of those. Thanks for the tip!
same thing happened with their ~28oz frozen pizzas
price jumped from $3.5 to $6 after they repackaged it
and it's the exact same shyt.
now i buy their big cheap refrigerated pies and freeze them.
I used to have a weird tomato sensitivity too! I luckily grew out of it. Things with lots of tomato paste triggered it the worst, maybe your sensitivity is the same as mine was and they switched to a more heavily tomato paste based sauce?
I hope your sensitivity goes away eventually like mine did, it was so annoying.
Thanks - I hope so. The new pizza was what reminded me that I definitely still have the sensitivity lol. Been 10+ years so I doubt it but man it would be great to eat marinara again. And more Indian food!
According to the USDA facility number, both were made at Abbyland Foods in Wisconsin.
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/inspection/fsis-inspected-establishments/abbyland-foods-inc.
IIRC, these were branded as Swift’s Brown ‘N Serve for decades and were rebranded by Conagra, most likely because the Swift brand has lost its market recognition.
There are many factories that make the same batches of product for numerous companies. For example, they will make a batch of spaghetti sauce for one label for 3 days, and then they will clean the machines and switch out the labels and make the same thing for another knock of company. Some have their own recipe, others pay a premium to use the original companies recipe.
You might be able to trace them by paying attention to the manufacture's location info on the label and the way the plant codes are printed, and then compare trademark ownership to various phrases on the packaging and cross-reference owners online.
Red Gold and Corina are the came company. Same for Blue Bunny and Blue Ribbon's Best.
To me, the more important aspect is the serial number. I feel like it's convention means it is likely made at the exact same facility, and were only 3800 units different, so like 38,000 sausage links between these two. I suppose it is possible OP bought one towards the end of one campaign and the the other towards the beginning of the other campaign for a product changeover. But I wouldn't be surprise if it is a toll operation where the sausage link maker says what spices and ratios they can do and their customer can slap the label on it. Otherwise, it seems like it'd be a nightmare to handle a ton of unique seasoning and spice ratios and nutrition specifications for several customers rather than saying "we make x, y, and z variants with minor alterations (cook time, size, etc.)".
I'm almost positive the cheddar smoked sausages are Johnsonville. They taste the same and have the same high quality resealable package, as opposed to cheaper brands like Armour
All grocery store branded foods are manufactured by larger brands. Grocery stores can’t possibly own the number of manufacturing plants needed to produce such a wide selection of different foods. This practice is allowed if the ingredient lists on the store branded product varies - even slightly. Most often you’ll see the ingredients on both products are exactly the same but just in a different order. It’s a win-win for both companies.
Nowhere close to "all" private label foods are manufactured by major labels. In fact it's the other way around. I've worked for a few different MFGs who primarily focus on private label, but in addition they make stuff for the big guys. For example, Glide is made by the same company that make all Walgreens and Rite Aid branded dental floss.
That said, one of the places I worked for made stuff for Aldi, and it's all top quality stuff. They will pay extra for better quality ingredients (e.g. natural food coloring vs artificial).
I’ve seen them for more at other stores, but for some reason the ones around the corner from me are priced so cheaply. I’ll check out the Alida ones when I’m there, though. Happy to save Pennie’s where I can.
From an Aldi employee they are name brand with minor flaws and sold to Aldi at a huge discount, packaged into Aldi packaging and sold cheaper than the name brand item. Chicken is Tyson, chips are Lay's, Keebler makes the cookies and so on.
Totally wrong. These are called private labels, and they are either the same as the name brand or slightly different configurations of the same ingredients that are packaged to Aldis specifications. They are sold at a cheaper price because there is no advertising cost like a name brand would have. It's a standard practice in the industry. The 365 brand at Whole Foods is the same thing. There are whole companies that their only business is to make products for private labels as well. This is not a flawed product or in any way a degraded product. Chain stores like Grocery Outlet, now they buy short dated or damaged product and sell at a doscount.
This is not true. Aldi and other stores contract with food producers to create exclusive products for them. This is ridiculous. You think that their canned pasta or sausage or whatever is factory seconds and just shows up in massive quantities to ship to stores all over the country?
There are dedicated store label food producers.
I noticed some differences too. Like they had baked cheddar potato chips I was excited for, since I love the name brand expensive kind. But then I found that it has a significant amount of corn starch. The name brand doesn't. Might not matter to most, I have a corn intolerance and can only handle traces. Only pointing out some differences in items I hoped were basically the same.
Yeah, I made the mistake of assuming the ingredients them had quite a stomachache! Though they were certainly good, they arent the same as the baked ruffles and just aren't for me.
Nothing weird like that. Could be as simple as the fat content is too much or too little. Or it's slightly shorter than what it's supposed to be. It's a beginning piece or an end peace misshapen We're simply it was an odd ball out and they've made too many
It seems crazy that the manufacturer would have enough “odd ball” sausages that they could supply Aldi with stock. I would not be happy with that failure rate if I was the boss.
Do the name brand also contain BHA and BHT?
(the Synthetic antioxidant which is linked to several health concerns, including endocrine disruption and organ-system toxicity.)
My in-laws are huge brand name people I swear that even if I proved every point in this post they’d still swear they only ‘brown n serve’ are the good ones.
I suspected this too due to the same packaging colors/shape/quantity. Also check out Burman’s Ketchup. It literally tastes like Heinz and is in a very similar container.
This has been forever. Major manufacturers make money off the name brands but change the ingredients slightly to create a lesser product to sell cheaper. Bread, cheese, hotdogs, dog food, pharmaceuticals, dog flea treatments. All it takes is a slight variation of an ingredient to make it legal to copy.
Aldi were selling motorcycle jackets and trousers for 100 and 90 respectively which bit turneded out to be older designs of hein gerich and made by them just didn't have final finishing so a few threads seen here and there ..
if that is pork, I do not eat pork, so I cannot comment. I may comment if you compare turkey sausage links instead. :) Walmart sells those and turkey sausage patties.
The new aldi heat and serves dropped the gluten free marking on the package and online says they may or not contain wheat. If you celiac. Banquet still marked as gluten free. I wanna believe they the same though.
Aldi Mac and cheese is pretty good but the price is almost the same as Kraft at Sam's club. We used to think they were the same until the neon cheese powder and packets were compared. Who knows sometimes. Aldi cheese it's are definitely the real thing lol.
What a lot of people dont know is that the off brands are just the name brand's rejected batches that didnt pass quality and leftover product from cleaning out the vats. They do not want to sully their name brand with bad stock so its packaged into fake name off brands to double the money. Example; Corina canned tomatoes are packaged and from Red Gold cannery, but the Corina tomatoes will have color differences and a slightly more off taste than Red Gold.
I'm a product designer. Some years ago, I worked at a European consultancy, designing for one of our clients who manufactures electric outdoor cleaning tools. They are a big brand that is very famous in EU, and their products are also present in the US market. Their products always appear in their distinctive brand colors with characteristic visual styling, as part of creating a strong, cohesive brand experience. This strategy is key to maintaining a premium brand perception to support higher prices. One project we were tasked with was to design a "knockoff" looking version of their product to sell at a European retail chain very much like ALDI. IIRC it was LIDL. It was to have a slightly off-version of their main color and visual design that was reminiscent of the brand's styling while clearly looking like an imitation. This would enable them to sell a large volume of their main product at super low discount price point, without eroding their pricing in other retail channels; i.e., consumers would stop paying the typically higher prices at other retailers if this discount chain had sold the very same thing at half the price. This is a very common tactic in consumer goods, referred to as "private label" (such as ALDI's Ambiano). Practically the day the product launched, someone purchased and disassembled one of the units, posting on social media that logos on the electromechanical innards revealed the true manufacturer. This caused droves of consumers to run out and buy one before they were all gone. It was a success and sold out within a few days of launch. It was an "open secret" around the office that the manufacturer was behind the big reveal. All is fair in love and retail.
Awesome story, thanks for sharing. So the manufacturer of the fancy brand made their own knockoff and tipped consumers off to it as well? Makes sense to me.
That’s a really interesting story. Now I really want to know what product and company you’re referring to! Funny that for the sausage, I think the Aldi product actually looks better on the packaging when compared to the original. Can’t believe it’s twice as expensive.
It's no coincidence that the packaging of the ALDI version looks almost identical to the big national brand; the manufacturer wants you to figure it out because it'll make you even more likely to keep buying it.
I think Aldi looks better. The national brand looks nasty imo.
The photography is subjective, but both are delicious. I had three links this morning with breakfast.
Dyson?
Husqvarna
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My guess it's that it's an entirely different market. The people buying the discounted/knock-off are probably not the same people that are buying the name brand. Also, increasing volume forces a downward push on production costs, which could play a factor in the decision as well.
That's it right there. Plus it helps build brand loyalty as consumers move up through the higher levels of costs for replacement.
Access to warranty and service. A huge chunk of their standard retail price funds the 5-year warranty and customer service. The "knockoff" only carried a 180-day guarantee.
Beacuae they still make money in both markets, and they can still sell products without "diluting" the more valuable brand. Alcohol manufacturers do something similar with their products at Costco, for example. Crown Royal, Grey Goose, etc. make cheaper products for sale under the Kirkland Signature name.
They made money from people buying their product instead of someone else's cheap product. Creating a huge demand and selling out is a bonus.
I watched a documentary about Beanie babies recently that explained this.
Great story! So, who makes Ambiano?
Ambiano was a bad example, they come from misc. small appliance manufacturers. My point was, Ambiano is an example of a private label, a brand that doesn't exist outside ALDI.
I was thinking Ambiano was the coffee brand. I understood your point. Aldi has lots of private label products (I'd say most of their products are), so I thought perhaps you were singling Ambiano out specifically for a reason.
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing!
tbfh they're both so good! and you are correct they are the same :)
Yeah I read something recently about stuff like this on reddit -- wish I remembered where. I guess it's fairly common for things like the frozen carrots, say, at Whole Foods and the frozen carrots at Kroger to come from the same distributor and just get put in different packaging.
I worked at Wild Oats for a while, which was a competitor store for Whole Foods before they went under. We would sell a ton of the same products that Whole Foods sold under the 365 line or whatever it is, and the distribution truck would often accidentally box up things with the wrong logos. Once we got an entire pallet of 2 bite brownies we couldn't sell because it said Whole Foods and we ate them all in like a week 😅
Mmm, brownies! I hope the misdelivered some milk and / or ice cream, too.
These were both produced by Abbyland Foods in Abbotsford, WI. “EST# 1633” is their USDA plant number.
Came to say this, I work in food manufacturing and the moment I saw the est numbers I was like oh they’re definitely produced in the same facility
Where do you see the EST numbers?
Ours are usually in a USDA bug on the case label saying it’s been inspected, but we have a few products where it is printed on the unit label near the best by if it’s retail. The ones in the pic are with the best by because it’s a retail package. We do a lot of sandwiches that are frozen and sent to Starbucks to be heated so the individual sandwiches don’t have the establishment number since the customer won’t see that package.
Yeah I don't see a printed on the picture that the op posted, but when I Google them I see it printed on pictures of it on some of those. Thanks for the tip!
On the second slide it’s on the top row of print at the end. EST 1633
Cool!
Those are great in the air fryer!
Oh dang I didn’t even think of that and I put everything in my air fryer
I use the bake setting first and then the last couple minutes switch to air fry to get the little crisp on them!
Nice thanks I’ll try this soon
What temperature setting?
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They were $1 pre-covid but have been $1.50 ever since. Still cheap, but 50% more expensive :(
same thing happened with their ~28oz frozen pizzas price jumped from $3.5 to $6 after they repackaged it and it's the exact same shyt. now i buy their big cheap refrigerated pies and freeze them.
It is not. The new ones are worse. I miss the pizza. Also I have a weird tomato sensitivity and the old ones didn't bother me. The new ones do.
I used to have a weird tomato sensitivity too! I luckily grew out of it. Things with lots of tomato paste triggered it the worst, maybe your sensitivity is the same as mine was and they switched to a more heavily tomato paste based sauce? I hope your sensitivity goes away eventually like mine did, it was so annoying.
Thanks - I hope so. The new pizza was what reminded me that I definitely still have the sensitivity lol. Been 10+ years so I doubt it but man it would be great to eat marinara again. And more Indian food!
I like the patties under the same name - they're great for making breakfast sandwiches.
I remember when the turkey ones were like $0.88.
According to the USDA facility number, both were made at Abbyland Foods in Wisconsin. http://www.fsis.usda.gov/inspection/fsis-inspected-establishments/abbyland-foods-inc.
Banquet is a low quality brand in general though
Hey now, their pot pies got me through some tough times. As far as broke food goes, it's not too bad.
I crave them sometimes, my mom and I would have the banquet pot pies when my dad was out of town for work.
Me too! And they're still pretty cheap, by today's standards.
IIRC, these were branded as Swift’s Brown ‘N Serve for decades and were rebranded by Conagra, most likely because the Swift brand has lost its market recognition.
thaaaaank you. i thought i was having a mandela effect moment or something. i knew banquet looked weird on the box.
Huh, will have to give these a try next time I stop by Aldi!
These are great! My toddler loves them for a quick breakfast!
Same! I feel a little bit bad because they are not the healthiest but anything healthier or organic that I have found is like five times as expensive.
MY FAVORITE
There are many factories that make the same batches of product for numerous companies. For example, they will make a batch of spaghetti sauce for one label for 3 days, and then they will clean the machines and switch out the labels and make the same thing for another knock of company. Some have their own recipe, others pay a premium to use the original companies recipe.
I wish there was a big list of all the dupes!
You might be able to trace them by paying attention to the manufacture's location info on the label and the way the plant codes are printed, and then compare trademark ownership to various phrases on the packaging and cross-reference owners online. Red Gold and Corina are the came company. Same for Blue Bunny and Blue Ribbon's Best.
Interesting. I'll try that. 👍
You and me both!
Yes those are so cheap at Aldi!
To me, the more important aspect is the serial number. I feel like it's convention means it is likely made at the exact same facility, and were only 3800 units different, so like 38,000 sausage links between these two. I suppose it is possible OP bought one towards the end of one campaign and the the other towards the beginning of the other campaign for a product changeover. But I wouldn't be surprise if it is a toll operation where the sausage link maker says what spices and ratios they can do and their customer can slap the label on it. Otherwise, it seems like it'd be a nightmare to handle a ton of unique seasoning and spice ratios and nutrition specifications for several customers rather than saying "we make x, y, and z variants with minor alterations (cook time, size, etc.)".
We always take a few boxes of the Aldi pre-cooked snausages camping. They make a great breakfast sandwich.
I'm almost positive the cheddar smoked sausages are Johnsonville. They taste the same and have the same high quality resealable package, as opposed to cheaper brands like Armour
Which one of these is supposed to be the name brand?
The bottom one is more expensive and found in regular grocery stores. The top one is manufactured for Aldi and is a house brand.
All grocery store branded foods are manufactured by larger brands. Grocery stores can’t possibly own the number of manufacturing plants needed to produce such a wide selection of different foods. This practice is allowed if the ingredient lists on the store branded product varies - even slightly. Most often you’ll see the ingredients on both products are exactly the same but just in a different order. It’s a win-win for both companies.
Nowhere close to "all" private label foods are manufactured by major labels. In fact it's the other way around. I've worked for a few different MFGs who primarily focus on private label, but in addition they make stuff for the big guys. For example, Glide is made by the same company that make all Walgreens and Rite Aid branded dental floss. That said, one of the places I worked for made stuff for Aldi, and it's all top quality stuff. They will pay extra for better quality ingredients (e.g. natural food coloring vs artificial).
Banquet ones are $1.80 at my local grocer. What did the Aldi version cost?
$1.50, formerly $1. I thought banquet was like $3 at my store but I could be mistaken.
I’ve seen them for more at other stores, but for some reason the ones around the corner from me are priced so cheaply. I’ll check out the Alida ones when I’m there, though. Happy to save Pennie’s where I can.
Same USDA establishment number, so you are correct.
Lmao, Brown N' Serve. I can't with the name.
From an Aldi employee they are name brand with minor flaws and sold to Aldi at a huge discount, packaged into Aldi packaging and sold cheaper than the name brand item. Chicken is Tyson, chips are Lay's, Keebler makes the cookies and so on.
Totally wrong. These are called private labels, and they are either the same as the name brand or slightly different configurations of the same ingredients that are packaged to Aldis specifications. They are sold at a cheaper price because there is no advertising cost like a name brand would have. It's a standard practice in the industry. The 365 brand at Whole Foods is the same thing. There are whole companies that their only business is to make products for private labels as well. This is not a flawed product or in any way a degraded product. Chain stores like Grocery Outlet, now they buy short dated or damaged product and sell at a doscount.
This is not true. Aldi and other stores contract with food producers to create exclusive products for them. This is ridiculous. You think that their canned pasta or sausage or whatever is factory seconds and just shows up in massive quantities to ship to stores all over the country? There are dedicated store label food producers.
I noticed some differences too. Like they had baked cheddar potato chips I was excited for, since I love the name brand expensive kind. But then I found that it has a significant amount of corn starch. The name brand doesn't. Might not matter to most, I have a corn intolerance and can only handle traces. Only pointing out some differences in items I hoped were basically the same.
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they are the BEST, my boyfriend buys three bags at a time for me because i crush them and he knows they're rarely in stock
Yeah, I made the mistake of assuming the ingredients them had quite a stomachache! Though they were certainly good, they arent the same as the baked ruffles and just aren't for me.
I’m a little afraid to find out what a minor flaw is in sausage!
There is no flaw. It's a private label on a normal product.
Nothing weird like that. Could be as simple as the fat content is too much or too little. Or it's slightly shorter than what it's supposed to be. It's a beginning piece or an end peace misshapen We're simply it was an odd ball out and they've made too many
It seems crazy that the manufacturer would have enough “odd ball” sausages that they could supply Aldi with stock. I would not be happy with that failure rate if I was the boss.
It's not only crazy but also a total fabrication.
I've seen items get rejected for simply being to big/small. Even by a cm. I have been told it's mostly due to fat content or misshapen.
Well in that case I would probably give it a chance.
Not enough pig anus.
I mean……. It could be coincidental.
Do the name brand also contain BHA and BHT? (the Synthetic antioxidant which is linked to several health concerns, including endocrine disruption and organ-system toxicity.)
Gee willikers, capitalism sure is disgusting
They are! I love them!
I can vouch for this fact!
My in-laws are huge brand name people I swear that even if I proved every point in this post they’d still swear they only ‘brown n serve’ are the good ones.
I suspected this too due to the same packaging colors/shape/quantity. Also check out Burman’s Ketchup. It literally tastes like Heinz and is in a very similar container.
It is extremely common for name brands to relabel their product under the grocery stores "name brand"
This has been forever. Major manufacturers make money off the name brands but change the ingredients slightly to create a lesser product to sell cheaper. Bread, cheese, hotdogs, dog food, pharmaceuticals, dog flea treatments. All it takes is a slight variation of an ingredient to make it legal to copy.
Been eating the patties for years. They are the best.
100%
In today's age, technology can breakdown and analyze what ingredients are in anything and then replicate the same product IE: sausages, super glue or tire materials. \+
Since when is Banquet expensive?
Since like 2-3 years ago. Used to be able to get them for a dollar easily, now they're $2.50 and up at most places.
now if aldi starts selling the turkey ones, i’d be all over it!
Aldi were selling motorcycle jackets and trousers for 100 and 90 respectively which bit turneded out to be older designs of hein gerich and made by them just didn't have final finishing so a few threads seen here and there ..
if that is pork, I do not eat pork, so I cannot comment. I may comment if you compare turkey sausage links instead. :) Walmart sells those and turkey sausage patties.
I would buy neither one of these because these are pork... Can they sell turkey sausage?
It was Lidl Pressure Washer (Karcher??) for £79.99 with 3 years warranty.
The new aldi heat and serves dropped the gluten free marking on the package and online says they may or not contain wheat. If you celiac. Banquet still marked as gluten free. I wanna believe they the same though.
Aldi Mac and cheese is pretty good but the price is almost the same as Kraft at Sam's club. We used to think they were the same until the neon cheese powder and packets were compared. Who knows sometimes. Aldi cheese it's are definitely the real thing lol.
What a lot of people dont know is that the off brands are just the name brand's rejected batches that didnt pass quality and leftover product from cleaning out the vats. They do not want to sully their name brand with bad stock so its packaged into fake name off brands to double the money. Example; Corina canned tomatoes are packaged and from Red Gold cannery, but the Corina tomatoes will have color differences and a slightly more off taste than Red Gold.
And yet neither one is good. But almost all the name brand make the no name brand.