Creeping

Our local supermarket chain, HEB, is increasingly aggressive about its house brands. Name-brand foods are being pushed off the shelves. Whether it's salad dressing, sausage, or potato chips, the HEB brand is at eye-level in abundance and the name brand you want is in small quantities on lower shelves. In some categories the only brand available is one of theirs: Hill Country Fare, HEB, or Central Market.

Hill Country Fare is what might politely be called a "value" brand, meaning that it's mediocre. The HEB brand is just below the middle--you'd rather have Green Giant, but HEB won't kill you. The Central Market brand is good, but it's only available in specialized categories. Even if their brands were great, I would resent being deprived of choice.

If HEB feels that brand loyalty in a certain category isn't particlularly strong, they blatantly push the name brands off the shelf. You can only get Kingsford charcoal in the little bag they sell in convenience stores, but there are twenty shelf-feet of HEB charcoal in 25-pound bags. I know the difference in charcoal (binder and filler, meaning clay, meaning ash), and I'd rather get the good stuff. So should I switch to lump charcoal instead of briquets? The choice is Central Market brand in big bags, or B&B in little bags.

In a small town, HEB can stick it to its customers. The only alternative is the Wal-Mart superstore. They have the name brands, but they cater to what might be considered a non-foodie crowd, so the selection is strong in lard, weak in prosciutto. The meat is poor and adulterated; the vegetables are limp and limited. So you buy dry goods at Wal-Mart, then you buy meat and veggies at HEB. If you're nuts.

If an HEB mouthpiece were to address this situation, he or she would avow that they're all about giving us choice and value. Competition from house brands keeps the brand names on their toes. This is, of course, precisely the argument that Obama makes about government health insurance. You can look forward to having government health care shoved down your gullet.