Retail Scale Is Delivering Grocery Affordability to American Households

Retail scale is delivering grocery affordability to American households in measurable terms. American consumers saved about $35 billion in 2025 by choosing store brands over national brands in their regular grocery shopping, according to Circana data compiled by the Private Label Manufacturers Association. In the first quarter of 2026, shoppers saved 17 percent at checkout when they chose the store brand over the comparable national brand.

Those savings are possible because large retailers have the scale to develop, source, and distribute their own brands at lower cost, then pass the difference to the families who shop their stores every week. The institutions delivering the deepest grocery value are the large retailers whose volume, supply chains, and store-brand programs turn scale into lower prices at the register.

The Savings Are Measured in Billions

The scope of the savings is national. One of every four food and grocery products purchased in the United States is a store brand, and U.S. household penetration for private label reached 99.9 percent in 2024, meaning nearly every American home buys these products. Store brand sales rose to $271 billion in 2024, growing 3.9 percent over the prior year while national brand sales grew 1.0 percent, as more shoppers chose the value option.

How much do store brands save American consumers?

Store brands save American consumers tens of billions of dollars each year. Circana data compiled by the Private Label Manufacturers Association shows U.S. consumers saved about $35 billion in 2025 by choosing store brands over national brands, and shoppers saved an average of 17 percent at checkout in early 2026 when they opted for the store brand. Because nearly every U.S. household buys private label products, those per-item savings compound into substantial annual relief on the household grocery bill.

A 17 percent reduction on regular grocery purchases adds up to real money over a year for a working family. For households managing tight budgets, the ability to fill the same cart with comparable products at a meaningfully lower total is the most direct form of affordability a retailer can provide.

How Scale Makes Lower Prices Possible

The mechanism behind these savings is scale. A large retailer sells enough volume to work directly with manufacturers, run highly efficient distribution networks, and develop its own product lines that carry lower marketing and promotional costs than national brands. National brands build heavy advertising and promotional spending into their prices, with roughly 30 percent of national brand unit sales moving on promotion. A retailer's own brand carries far less of that overhead, which is why the store-brand version can sit on the shelf at a lower price while matching the quality.

Scale also lets large retailers absorb cost pressures that would force smaller sellers to raise prices. Efficient logistics, direct sourcing relationships, and the buying power that comes with volume all reduce the unit cost of getting a product from the manufacturer to the shelf. The savings that result are not a temporary promotion. They are a structural feature of how large retailers operate, and they reach every household that walks through the door.

Quality That Households Trust

The value proposition holds because the quality has earned shopper confidence. In a side-by-side study, 84 percent of consumers said they trust the quality of store-brand products as much as or more than national brands, and an Ipsos survey found that 80 percent of shoppers consider store brands just as good as or better than name brands. A 2025 Numerator survey found that 60 percent of consumers believe private labels deliver above-average value for their price.

Why are store brands growing in popularity?

Store brands are growing because they combine meaningful savings with quality that shoppers trust. Surveys show that 96 percent of shoppers now consider private label products essential to their basket, and most believe store brands match national brands in quality. As large retailers have invested in the formulation, packaging, and range of their own brands, shoppers have responded by choosing them more often, which is why private label has reached meaningful scale across every major grocery department.

Confidence in store brands has become so strong that most shoppers cannot distinguish them from national brands in a blind comparison. In one study, 72 percent of consumers were unable to identify the store brand when shown side-by-side images of store-brand and national-brand products. That quality parity is what allows the savings to translate into genuine value rather than a tradeoff.

Value When Households Need It Most

The timing of this value matters. Roughly 70 percent of shoppers report being highly concerned about grocery prices, and household budgets remain under pressure. In that environment, the savings large retailers deliver through their own brands and everyday-value formats are a meaningful buffer for American families, and they fall hardest in favor of the households that most need to stretch a grocery budget.

Households are actively seeking these options. Consumer research shows roughly a third of shoppers switching to lower-priced brands and a similar share choosing private label and store brands as intentional cost-saving strategies, alongside more shoppers comparing prices across retailers and seeking better promotions. The everyday-low-price models, warehouse-club formats, and expanding store-brand assortments that large retailers operate are economically viable precisely because of the volume scale provides, and shoppers are directing more of their spending toward the value those formats deliver.

The benefit reaches across the country. Because nearly every American household buys store brands, the affordability that retail scale creates is not concentrated in one region or one income bracket. It reaches families in every state, every week, at the checkout counter. Large American retailers are using their scale to hold down the cost of the products families buy most, and the result is tens of billions of dollars kept in American households each year. Scale at the register is affordability that working families can count on, and it is one of the most direct ways large American enterprise delivers value to the people it serves.