I happen to enjoy a kind of canned fish (kippered herring) called "Kipper Snacks." The fish are smoked and then usually packed in a little bit of olive oil.

But how do you sell such a thing at Whole Foods?

Well, you bring on the adjectives!

• All Natural Smoked Wild Kippers. (Whoever heard of artificial fish?)
• "Omega-3, Naturally." (Don't call it "fat," but "Omega-3 Fatty Acids" sounds real nice.)
• Delicious protein source. (Yes... they're fish ...)
• Naturally Wood Smoked. (Yes, they're smoked fish ...)
• Easy-open, BPA Free container. (Gotta watch out for those BPA's!)
• Sustainably harvested from the clear cold waters of the Gulf of Maine. (That's where "fish" come from...)

... and then you sell the tin for about twice as much as a package of the same stuff, containing the same amount of stuff, would cost at any "plebeian" grocery store that is frequented by un-enlightened mortals.

Yup. A marketing standard. One always pays more for niche names. A stainless steel bolt costs almost 3 times as much if you buy it at a Marine Supply Store. Even things as simple as a commonplace chemical, like kerosene, or lacquer thinner cost way more if labeled as a specialty item and very often with no changes other than packaging. Gasoline is delivered to substations via the very same pipeline as all other gasoline. The only difference at the pump is some "secret ingredient" additive(s) often little more than a name having dubious effects.

On the reverse side of this issue it has been said that if IBM bought a sushi bar they would market it as "raw, dead fish" and while we're on the subject of "what's in a name?" never forget that the composer of the brilliant operas Aida, Requiem, Nabucco, Otello, and Falstaff (to name but a few) Giuseppe Verdi, would somehow seem less potent and authentic, not to mention less "Classical" had he been born in England or the US where he would have been known simply as Joe Green.

Interesting comments.

We get the same thing with one of my favourites, sardines. The on-line shop, Occado, offer 120g from Waitrose (an up-market brand) at £0.40 and 105g from Fish for Ever at £1.70!

I've always liked the Joe Green example, like Dick Bunch (Richard Strauss). Of course, in the Middle Ages and Renascence, everyone did translate their names. The French publisher Henri Estienne became Harry Stevens in his English books. I use the Gaelic form of my name on sites where the English is already taken.

That's why I never buy organic. I think it's just a scam to get you to pay twice as much as the thing is worth.

My daughter sometimes shops at Whole Foods - but she refers to it as "Whole Paycheque" (except she spells it "Paycheck")

My first summer job many years ago was in a food processing plant (Dulaney Foods, long since gone from the landscape). We froze vegetables, usually in those 6 1/2 oz. box sizes, sometimes in the larger size.

If the plant did not have buyers for some lots, we'd freeze them unlabeled in the boxes, because you can't let freshly-harvested beans sit around. Then, when an order came in, we'd take the racks of unlabeled boxes out of the storage freezer, run them though the packaging machine to wrap them in the paper label/wrappers on then, and ship them off.

Sometimes the label said this, sometimes it said that, sometimes it said the other, but it was always the same darn beans.

Ever since then, house brands have been my first choice unless I have a compelling reason to choose otherwise.

Sometimes the brand matters. Often, it's just a smokescreen.

I take it that "house brand" is what we call "own label" over here.

Actually most UK supermarkets have three ranges of own label food. One is called something like "Value" or "No frills". It comes in plain packaging and is pretty cheap. I always buy this if it is available. Then there is the regular line, which is only a little cheaper than branded. And often there is a special line called "Finest" or "Taste the Difference" which is really expensive. I'm sure they are all packed in the same place with the same damned beans! It's just a trick to get more money out of you.

My son works at a grocery store, one of the expensive chains. Gets all kinds of customers with their high brow complaints. They had a recall on a certain organic vegetable, it said there was possible glass in the product. So they had to pull them all and toss the product, not getting any new ones until the manufacturer had cleared up the problem. I'm guessing a processing machine had a broken glass panel or something and they didn't notice it, so they had to do a recall of some large quantity. But my son said various customers were beside their selves because they could not buy those organic frozen peas for like two weeks. Meanwhile they have about 20 different other frozen replacement choices. This product was brand new, and people all hopped on their bandwagon, and then held all kinds of blind faith awaiting this recall to be completed. My son just shakes his head.

Precisely.

Here's a tidbit. Don't know whether it applies on your side of the pond, but marketing seems to be marketing wherever you go . . . .

I was browsing through my local super market one day while a fellow was stocking the shelves with canned goods. He was a vendor employee, not a store employee, stocking his employer's brand, and we got chatting. After a few remarks about this and that and some joking and sympathizing, he said, "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but what the heck?

"One way to get a good idea who supplies the house brand is to look at what name brand gets the best shelf space (that is, most space at eye level easy to reach). Odds are they also supply the house brand; it's usually part of the deal."