The Great White Discount

The private label revolution began in Europe in the 1970s, when the leading UK drug chain, Boots, began to market their lower priced, retailer-owned products with more premium packaging previously reserved for national brands. The radical departure from basic no-frills packaging paid off: products marketed under the Boots label now account for almost 50% of total sales. Three decades later, Carrefour, the world’s second largest retailer after Walmart (and France’s #1 supermarket chain) is attempting to respond to the current economic climate with their introduction of 400 products marketed under the Carrefour Discount brand, including food, household goods and personal care products. Carrefour executive Gilles Petit, announced that the “Carrefour Discount range is designe