PRIVATE LABEL: BOXED IN

摘要

It's one of the great frustrations of the business: There are no true national brands in the home textiles world in the way that the house-wares industry has KitchenAid, Rubbermaid, Lenox and Calphalon. Google "best bedding brands" and one of the lead hits is Amazon's Top Rated Bedding Comforter Sets. Now, Amazon lists more tham 350,000 items under bedding comforter sets, so surely this will serve as a fine democratic gauge of American brand preferences in bedding. Alas, 19 of the 20 top-rated comforters set are "Sherpa Quilted Fleece Comforter Set." How's that for brand power? Major retailers have their stable of private label and captive brands, and they're pretty much locked in. That pretty much holds from the high end of the market (Only at Bloomingdale's!) to the low. Dollar General's new ceo, Todd Vasos, recently referred to private label as "a pillar of our inventory."