Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., like many large retail and grocery chains, offers store brands (also called house brands or generic brands), which are lower-priced alternatives to name brand products. Many products offered under Walmart brands are private label products, but in other cases, the production volume is enough for Walmart to operate an entire factory.
Apparel brands
- Athletic Works is a brand for athletic clothing, such as gym shorts and running shoes, and has been partially replaced by the Starter and recently acquired Russell Athletic.
- Baby George is a clothing brand for children, organically manufactured for Walmart.
- Child of Mine is a children's clothing brand, manufactured exclusively for Walmart by Carter's.
- Faded Glory 1972 is a brand for basic men's, women's, and children's clothing and footwear. It is Walmart's primary clothing brand and implies that Walmart clothing aims to sustain the glory achieved by the company in 1972, the year the company first became listed on the New York Stock Exchange as WMT. Walmart is now one of the select 30 companies comprising the Dow Jones Industrials.
- George is a brand of more formal clothing for men, women, and children. It also consists of dress shoes, wallets, belts, and neckties. It was created by the British retailer Asda in 1990, and since Walmart acquired Asda in 1999, it has maintained and expanded it to other markets, notably the United States, Canada, and Japan. The George brand was named after George Davies, who was its original chief designer. Davies is no longer associated with the brand, although Asda and Walmart have aimed to remain true to the low price business model that he established.
- No Boundaries, usually abbreviated as NOBO, is a line of general apparel marketed for young children to adults, but chiefly targeted at teenagers and young adults.
- Simply Basic was previously a brand used for health and beauty items, but is now used primarily for women's sleepwear.
- Starter Clothing (SC) Line partnered with Wal-Mart in 2007, and now Starter is exclusively sold there. The products are active and athletic clothing and men's underclothes.
- White Stag is a brand for women's clothing, footwear, and basic jewelry. Founded in 1931 as a skiwear manufacturer in Portland, Oregon, the company was purchased by the Warnaco Group in 1966, which after the company exited bankruptcy, later sold the brand to Walmart in 2003.
- 725 Originals was trademarked in 1996, though it is now discontinued. It is still available in Mexico.
Major brands
Sam's Choice
Not to be confused with Sam's Club.
Sam's Choice, originally introduced as Sam's American Choice in 1991, is a retail brand in food and selected hard goods. Named for Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, Sam's Choice forms the premium tier of Walmart's two-tiered core corporate grocery branding strategy that also includes the larger Great Value brand of discount-priced staple items.
Compared to Great Value products and to other national brands, Sam's Choice is positioned as a premium retail brand and is offered at a price competitive with standard national brands. It typically offers either competitive items in a given product category, or items in categories where the market leader is an "icon" (for example, Coca-Cola in the soft drink category).
Most Sam's Choice beverage products (excluding Grapette and Orangette) are manufactured for Walmart by Cott Beverages. Other products in the line, including cookies, snack items, frozen meals, and similar grocery items are made by a variety of agricultural and food manufacturers.
Competitive pricing of the Sam's Choice brand and store-branded and generic goods is possible because of the lower expense required to market a retail chain's house brand, compared to advertising and promotional expenses typically incurred by the national brands.
Most Sam's Choice-branded products have been replaced by either the relaunched Great Value brand, or the new Marketside brand. The brand was reintroduced in 2013 with a new logo and a focus on premium food products with organic ingredients.
Great Value
Great Value was launched in 1993 (but products were made as early as 1992) and forms the second tier, or national brand equivalent ("NBE"), of Walmart's grocery branding strategy.
Products offered through the Great Value brand are often claimed to be as good as national brand offerings, but are typically sold at a lower price because of lower marketing and advertising expense. As a house or store brand, the Great Value line does not consist of goods produced by Walmart, but is a labeling system for items manufactured and packaged by a number of agricultural and food corporations, such as ConAgra, Sara Lee which, in addition to releasing products under its own brands and exclusively for Walmart, also manufactures and brands foods for a variety of other chain stores. Often, this labeling system, to the dismay of consumers, does not list location of manufacture of the product. Wal-Mart contends that all Great Value products are produced in the United States. Otherwise, the country of origin would be listed.
As Walmart's most extensively developed retail brand, covering hundreds of household consumable items, the Great Value line includes sliced bread, frozen vegetables, frozen dinners, canned foods, light bulbs, trash bags, buttermilk biscuits, cinnamon rolls, pies and many other traditional grocery store products. The wide range of items marketed under the Great Value banner makes it Walmart's top-selling retail brand.
The Great Value brand can also be seen in Canada, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Brazil and some Trust Mart stores in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China, through a partnership with Walmart. Bharti EasyDay retail grocery stores sell Great Value brand products in India as well. Great Value brand products as well as Walmart merchandise are also present in Seiyu grocery stores (owned by Walmart) in Tokyo, Japan as of October 2014, despite at least one report of a transition away from the brand.
By mid-summer 2009, Walmart had redesigned the Great Value labels to be predominantly white. The new redesign also includes over 80 new items, including thin-crust pizza, fat-free caramel swirl ice cream, strawberry yogurt, organic cage-free eggs, double-stuffed sandwich cookies, and teriyaki beef jerky. Walmart changed the formulas for 750 items, including: breakfast cereal, cookies, yogurt, laundry detergent, and paper towels. The new brand was tested by over 2,700 people. Other retailers are following suit with their private label packaging as well.
Great Value went through another redesign in 2013 for most of its food items, replacing predominantly white designs with more colorful packaging.
Equate
Equate is a brand used for consumable pharmacy and health and beauty items, such as shaving cream, skin lotion, over-the-counter medications, and pregnancy tests. Before its takeover by Walmart, the formerly independent Equate brand sold consumer products at both Target and Walmart at lower prices than those of name brands. Equate is an example of the strength of Walmart's private label store brand. In a 2006 study, The Hartman Group marketing research firm issued a report which found that "Five of the top 10 "likely to purchase" private label brands are managed by Wal-Mart including: Great Value, Equate, Sam's Choice, Wal-Mart and Member's Mark (Sam's Club), per the study." The report further noted that "...we are struck by the magnitude of mind-share Wal-Mart appears to hold in shoppers' minds when it comes to awareness of private label brands and retailers."
In mid-2010, the brand underwent a logo redesign, as well as packaging changes similar to the Great Value brand.
Mainstays
Mainstays is a brand marketed by Walmart for its lower-priced lines of bedding, ready-to-assemble furniture, and home decor.
Ol' Roy
Ol' Roy is Walmart's store brand of dog food, created in 1983 and named after Sam Walton's bird dog. It has become the number-one selling brand of dog food in the United States, surpassing Nestlé's Purina.
In 1998, samples of Ol' Roy (together with various other brands) were subject to qualitative analyses for pentobarbital residue by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine due to suspicion that the anesthetizing drug may have found its way into pet foods through euthanized animals, including cats and dogs. DNA test for all the samples failed to detect cat and dog DNA but multiple Ol' Roy samples tested positive for the drug, presumably from rendered cattle. The CVM has said that due to the low level of exposure, the risk of adverse effects was low.
Special Kitty
Special Kitty is Walmart's store brand of cat food and other cat care products, such as litter and treats.
Parent's Choice
Parent's Choice is Walmart's store brand for baby products, including diapers, formula, and accessories. Like other Walmart store brands, its design and packaging was relaunched in 2010. Parent's Choice is manufactured by Wyeth (a pharmaceutical company). Wyeth was bought out by another pharmaceutical company in 2009, Pfizer.
Price First
Price First is a bottom-tier, low priced generic brand that Walmart introduced in late 2013. It includes very basic grocery items, trash bags, and paper goods. It was launched as an experimental brand targeted towards the most budget-conscious shoppers. It is the lowest priced brand at Walmart and availability varies by stores. Some of the grocery items include milk (which is often brand-name milk with a Price First label, as is Great Value milk), bread, granulated sugar, canned fruit/vegetables, boxed brownie mix, toaster pastries, elbow pasta, egg noodles, spaghetti, and skillet meals. Non grocery items include paper towels, toilet tissue, trash bags, and food storage bags.
Play Day
Play Day is a wide-ranging brand of budget-priced children's toys. Play Day launched in between mid-2014 and early-2015, as a replacement brand for Kid Connection. .
Pen+Gear
Pen+Gear is Walmart's store brand for school and office supplies. From notebooks, pens, markers, paper, binders, pencils and even paper shredders which can be a bit costly for a Walmart/generic brand item. Pen+Gear replaced a former brand Casemate in late 2016. Casemate was the same purpose of school and office supplies, but they found a better name for the brand in late 2016.
Additional brands
Homelines
- Better Homes and Gardens is a product line with designs inspired from the popular magazine of the same name.
- Hometrends products include small furniture, tableware and various home decor accessories, such as rugs and faux plants.
- Your zone is a home product line that tailors toward teenagers and college students.
- Mainstays Kids
Others
- Backyard Grill is a brand of grills, charcoal, and grilling accessories.
- The Office is a brand used for office supplies and stationery.
- Best Occasions is a brand used for party decorations and accessories, such as candles and hats.
- Clear American is used for carbonated and flavored water. Was previously known as Sam's Choice Clear American.
- ColorPlace is the brand used for paint and painting tools. ColorPlace paint is made by PPG.
- Douglas is the brand used for budget priced tires. Models include Xtra-Trac and Touring. Some models are made in a Goodyear plant.
- EverStart is the brand for automotive and lawn mower batteries. The brand is also used for battery related accessories, such as jumper cables. EverStart batteries are manufactured by Johnson Controls, Inc., (who also manufactures batteries for other store brands) primarily at plants in Saint Joseph, Missouri, and Fort Wayne, Indiana.
- Fire Side Gourmet is used for pre-cooked burgers and steaks, and was previously under the Sam's Choice label.
- Gold's Gym is used for athletic and exercise equipment such as weights. Named after and licensed from the chain of fitness centers.
- Home Bake Value is a brand that sells only bread.
- Holiday Time is used for Christmas items such as Christmas trees, decorations, and wrapping paper.
- Kid Connection is used primarily for children's toys, but was also used for children's clothing and shoes.
- Marketside is a brand of fresh foods usually found in Walmart's deli, produce, and bakery departments, such as salads, soups, breads, and sandwiches.
- Oak Leaf is a brand of low cost wines produced and bottled for Walmart selling at approximately $3 a bottle.
- ONN is a brand used for entry-level electronics (mice, speakers, cables, etc.).
- Blackweb is a brand used for computer and mobile phone accessories (keyboards, speakers, headphones, portable batteries etc.).
- Ozark Trail is a brand used for outdoor equipment and footwear. (The Walmart Home Office is located in the Ozark mountain region in northwest Arkansas.)
- Protege is a brand consisting of luggage and travel accessories.
- ReliOn is a brand of diabetes care products, including blood glucose and blood pressure monitors.
- SuperTech is Walmart's brand of motor oil. The brand is also used on other consumable automotive products, such as oil filters, windshield wiper fluid, and transmission fluid.
- Walmart Family Mobile is Walmart's exclusive cell phone (postpaid) service provided through the T-Mobile cellular network.
- World Table is the brand used for upscale salsa, pizza, chips, cookies, etc. which are manufactured exclusively for Walmart and fancier than the Great Value entry.
- Price First/Prix Budget is a brand of entry-level everyday products, similar to Great Value, but generally at the lowest price point.
- Our Finest/Notre Excellence is a brand for upscale chips, cookies, frozen dinners, etc. which are sold exclusively in Canada. This brand is comparable to World Table and is manufactured in Canada exclusively for Walmart Canada.
- AutoDrive is a brand of car care products, automotive detailing products, and interior accessories.
Former brands
- "Canopy" was a home product line that features coordinated solutions for rooms and other domestic goods. The brand was replaced by the Better Homes and Gardens line in late 2012.
- Durabrand was a brand used for home electronics such as televisions and DVD players. The brand was also used on various small kitchen appliances.
- ilo was another brand of home electronics, consisting of more upscale items such as televisions, small electronics and digital music players.
- "Metro 7" was an upscale brand of women's apparel, that was originally released in the fall of 2006, and eventually phased out.
- "Puritan" was a brand for men's basic clothing, including shirts, pants, undergarments, socks, ties, and some accessories. In late 2010, the brand was phased out completely and replaced by Faded Glory (with undergarments and socks and casual clothing) and George (with ties, shirts, and pants and formal clothing).
- "Promark" was a brand for tools in the '80s and early '90s. It was replaced by Popular Mechanics branding.
- "Casemate" was Walmart's school and office supplies brand in 2015. In late 2016 it was replace by Pen+Gear.
See also
- Big-box store
References
External links
- Official website
- Canopy Living website