"The exact same milk"

Mark Evanier makes an interesting observation while grocery shopping in LA.

The other night, Carolyn and I were in an Albertsons Market and while passing the dairy case, I happened to notice something. This is their 2% milk but it was the same situation with all the different kinds of milk they were selling. As you may be able to see from the above photo I grabbed, you have your Albertsons house brand on the top shelf and a container of it is $3.99. On the shelf below, you have Foremost brand for $3.29.

I don't get this. They're the exact same milk.

I don't mean similar. I mean the same. The codes on the containers show they come from the exact same plant on the exact same day — and I don't think that plant has two grades of cows…

"Harry, make sure you don't get the milk mixed up. Remember that the milk from Bossie and Flossie goes into the $3.99 bottles and the milk from Bessie and Tessie goes into the $3.29 bottles. Bossie and Flossie give much better milk and we have to charge more for it!"

No, that's the exact same milk in the exact same containers. Only the label is different and for the Albertsons label, you pay 70 cents more.

I've mentioned this before. I see this almost every time I go to a market. The Whole Foods outlets around town here sell my favorite drinking water, Crystal Geyser, side-by-side with the Whole Foods house brand which is bottled for them by Crystal Geyser. Same facility, same water, same container, different label. In this case, the Crystal Geyser gallon is $1.49 and the same thing with the house brand label is 99 cents. Actually, the Albertsons/Foremost situation is the first time I've seen the house brand cost more but the point is that there's a shelf with a product…and then next to it or above it is the exact same thing with a different label and a higher price.