The U.S. Supreme Court did end up ruling for the baker’s right to not bake the gay cake (after CO totally screwed him all the way). But then a trans lawyer immediately embroiled him in another lawsuit over a trans cake. I think that eventually resulted in the baker’s favor but sheesh 10+ years of litigation over 2 cakes is pretty insane huh.
Great piece but you missed a fairly significant component - Costco enforces very strict QC controls on their white label suppliers in a way WalMart can't or won't. So beyond just convenience and cleanliness, people tend to have brand loyalty to the Kirkland products themselves. Have you ever seen an Instagram channel dedicated to the latest bag of Great Value frozen veggies? Me neither. But Costco adherents wear their Kirkland swag proudly and unironically
You’re at least mostly correct - Walmart has a couple that people are pretty loyal about, like Ol’ Roy dog food (it’s the best selling one in the world if I recall), the EV1 clothes (with Ellen Degenres), and Ozark Trail seems to have carved out a budget-brand camping / outdoorsman niche with generally accepted quality. And I guess Sam’s Choice is actually somewhat well regarded as far as food quality goes - this surprises me but eh, there’s always a relative upmarket brand I guess. But things like Hyper Tough… well, that one is mostly a misnomer.
The U.S. Supreme Court did end up ruling for the baker’s right to not bake the gay cake (after CO totally screwed him all the way). But then a trans lawyer immediately embroiled him in another lawsuit over a trans cake. I think that eventually resulted in the baker’s favor but sheesh 10+ years of litigation over 2 cakes is pretty insane huh.
Lawfare can really ruin ya
Great piece but you missed a fairly significant component - Costco enforces very strict QC controls on their white label suppliers in a way WalMart can't or won't. So beyond just convenience and cleanliness, people tend to have brand loyalty to the Kirkland products themselves. Have you ever seen an Instagram channel dedicated to the latest bag of Great Value frozen veggies? Me neither. But Costco adherents wear their Kirkland swag proudly and unironically
You’re at least mostly correct - Walmart has a couple that people are pretty loyal about, like Ol’ Roy dog food (it’s the best selling one in the world if I recall), the EV1 clothes (with Ellen Degenres), and Ozark Trail seems to have carved out a budget-brand camping / outdoorsman niche with generally accepted quality. And I guess Sam’s Choice is actually somewhat well regarded as far as food quality goes - this surprises me but eh, there’s always a relative upmarket brand I guess. But things like Hyper Tough… well, that one is mostly a misnomer.