Store brands now account for 24.7% of all grocery unit sales in the United States, according to Circana data cited by Food Navigator in July 2026. That figure marks a measurable gain over prior years and reflects a structural shift: private label is no longer the budget fallback but a primary choice for a widening segment of shoppers. National brands, meanwhile, are losing unit share even as they hold shelf position, squeezed by price sensitivity that shows no sign of reversing.
The mechanism is straightforward. Retailers control the entire value chain on private label—formulation, packaging, merchandising, margin. They can price below the branded equivalent while preserving profit, and they use that gap to pull buyers who once paid the brand premium without question. The gap widened during inflation; it has not closed. Shoppers who switched to store brands during price spikes found quality parity in many categories and stayed. The data confirms the behavior: private label unit share grew faster than dollar share, meaning volume shifted even as price remained the entry point.
The broader pattern matters for any physical product brand. When a retailer can replicate your product at 15% to 30% lower cost and place it at eye level next to yours, your brand must justify the delta with something the retailer cannot copy—story, differentiation, or a feature set the store brand will not invest in. If your product competes on price or basic function, you are now competing with the retailer's own margin interest. That is a losing position.
The steal for a small brand is to position *outside* the private label lane before the retailer decides to enter it. Identify the attribute your category has commoditized—organic, non-GMO, basic flavor—then move one step further. Add a format the store brand will not justify: single-origin, small-batch, a secondary benefit that requires a story. Market that story directly to the end user so the retailer sees demand they cannot satisfy with their own label. When the buyer walks in asking for your brand by name, the store keeps you on the shelf even as they expand private label around you.
Concretely: if you sell sauces, do not compete on organic tomato. Compete on fermented, regional, or a flavor profile that requires a paragraph to explain. If you sell snacks, do not fight on gluten-free. Fight on a functional benefit—protein source, a rare ingredient, a format innovation—that the private label team will not prioritize in year one. Price yourself 20% to 35% above the store brand, not 5%, so the retailer sees differentiation, not substitution. Use that margin to fund sampling, creator sends, and retailer demos that build named demand. The store brand wins on price and ubiquity. You win on specificity and the customer who will pay to avoid the generic.
The enduring lesson is that private label growth is not a threat to every brand—only to the ones competing in the lanes retailers have decided to own. The 24.7% figure will grow. The brands that survive will be the ones selling something the store cannot or will not replicate, to a customer who knows the difference and will ask for it by name.
The takeaway
If your product competes on price or basic function, you are now competing with the retailer's margin interest—position outside that lane or lose the shelf.
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