# Store Brands Hit 24% of US Grocery Units as National Labels Lose Pricing Power

*Private label widens unit-share lead as shoppers trade down on non-differentiated categories.*

By **Jenny Huang Goodman MPA MSc MHSA, Principal** — The Stash Edge, Hako Shikin LLC.
Published 2026-07-13.

Canonical: https://www.pops4.com/stash/articles/private-label-aggregate-2026-07-13t21-1
Subject: Private Label (aggregate)
Tags: private label, pricing strategy, grocery, cpg, retail positioning

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Store brands now account for **24%** of all grocery units sold in the United States, according to joint data from the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA) and Circana. The shift reflects a structural change in grocery buying behavior: shoppers are trading national brands for private label across categories where perceived quality gaps have narrowed and price differentials have widened.

The mechanism is straightforward. National brands have raised prices aggressively over the past three years, citing input costs and margin pressure. At the same time, retailers have invested in private-label formulation, packaging, and shelf placement. The result is a widening price spread—often **30-50%** between national and store brand—on functionally identical products in categories like pasta, canned goods, dairy, and cleaning supplies. Per PLMA, the unit-share gain is most pronounced in households earning under **$75,000** annually, where price sensitivity now overrides brand loyalty.

Why this matters for physical-product brands: the private-label surge is not a temporary inflation response. It is a permanent reset of the value equation. Once a shopper switches to store brand and finds no quality penalty, the national brand loses its pricing power. Loyalty becomes a tax the shopper refuses to pay. According to Circana, repeat purchase rates for private label have climbed in **18 of 22** tracked grocery categories since 2023, signaling that trial is converting to habit.

The steal for a small physical-product brand is to price against private label, not national brands. If you sell a consumable or replenishment good, benchmark your retail price against the store-brand equivalent in your category, then justify any premium with a single, defensible attribute: organic certification, a functional ingredient, made-in-USA labor, or a supply-chain story the retailer cannot replicate. Position yourself as the step-up from private label, not the step-down from a national brand.

Concretely: if the store brand olive oil is **$8.99** and the national brand is **$14.99**, price yours at **$10.99** and lead with cold-pressed or single-origin. If the store-brand cleaning spray is **$3.49**, price yours at **$4.99** and lead with plant-based or refill-ready. The markup must map to a visible, repeatable difference the shopper can explain to a friend. No vague "premium" claims. Name the thing.

For a solo founder or bootstrapped brand, this means tighter SKU discipline. Do not compete in categories where you cannot beat private label on a single dimension. Avoid parity plays in pasta, paper goods, or commodity snacks unless you control a unique input or process. Instead, target adjacencies where private label has not yet optimized: single-serve formats, multi-benefit formulations, or products that solve a secondary problem. The store brand wins on price and ubiquity; you win on specificity and a problem the store brand ignores.

The broader pattern: private label is now the baseline, not the fallback. National brands that cannot defend their price premium with patent, taste, or performance are losing unit share permanently. Small brands that price rationally and solve a narrow problem can capture the gap between store-brand adequacy and national-brand overreach. The window is the next **18-24 months**, before private label upgrades its own premium tiers and closes the daylight.

## The takeaway

Price against store brands, not national labels, and justify any premium with one defensible, visible attribute.

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## Publisher

**Hako Shikin LLC** — Virginia Beach, Virginia. Founded 1997. ASI 217876 · DUNS 18-204-6339.
Principal and author: **Jenny Huang Goodman MPA MSc MHSA**.

- Author: https://www.huanggoodman.com/about
- LLM context: https://www.pops4.com/stash/llms.txt
- MCP endpoint, for AI agents: https://mcp.pops4.com/mcp
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