Cleaning supply sales up in nonfood - Food Merchandising for Non-Food Retailers supplement

Discount Store News, July 4, 1988

One manager says, "we buy as much as we can of it on promotion and then we just stack it out."

Many chains also have a wide selection of household cleaners available under their own store labels.

K mart, in fact, has just created its own private label version of a Murphy's Oil Soap. "It sold so well for us," said one source, "that we realized we could turn it often enough to make it pay as a private label."

K mart often promotes its private label cleaners in its ads. One recent roto featured the K mart oil soap at a 44% savings, 32 oz. for $1.27 versus the regular price of $2.27. They've also advertised their own 19-oz. spray disinfectant for $1.42, for what the ad said was a "50% savings."

Their dollar day sale circulars almost always include their own private label cleaners. Last spring, the ad featured their own 20-oz. Bathroom Cleaner for $1 as well as their own Fabric Softener in sheets or concentrate for $1.

Many drug chains also have their own private label cleaners, especially on commodity items like bleaches, ammonias and window cleaners. A source for Pennsylvania-based Rite Aid said they got into it as a way of "offering value" to their consumers.

"It also gives us a chance to feature three of four private label cleaners on one end," said one Rite Aid manager in Pennsylvania.

A Peoples source in Alexandria, Va., where the chain is headquartered, said that having cleaners in the line "rounded out" their private label program and gave them a chance to do a whole Sunday circular on private label.

"In those ads, we feature all kinds of consumables," he said, "everything form cannister snacks to dish detergents to fabric softeners."

Many nonfood chains also have a policy of only featuring the national brands when they are on deal. The rest of the time they'll keep some of the nationals, like Tide, Clorox, Dawn, Wisk, etc., in their regular cleaning department but they won't give them off-shelf exposure.

A typical strategy is to put one or two facings of a Dawn or Dove next to one or two facings of their private label item. The private label is usually 20% to 30% less than the national brand so the chains can offer their customers a significant savings while still making margins of between 20% and 40%.

However when chains do buy cleaners on promotion, which most chains say they do between 90% and 95% of the time, they give them ample off-shelf exposure. "We do very well with cleaners," said one buyer. "When we buy on deal, we can be competitive with food stores and still take 18% to 20% margins. Everyday, we seldom make less than a 30% margin."

Other sources say they are attracted to cleaners because food stores are not promotionally active in this category as they are with certain foods like tuna and mayonnaise or with certain HBA items like toothpaste and shampoos.

"The food stores don't promote the cleaning category that much," says Jim Marx of Pankow Sales in Chicago. "Instead of cutting the price a lot, they depend on rebates or coupons to generate sales in this category."