Checks with major supermarket chains here - including Sheng Siong, NTUC FairPrice and Cold Storage - found that sales of housebrand items have gone up by up to 50 per cent in recent months. -- ST PHOTO: TERENCE TAN
HOUSEBRANDS are flying off the shelves at record pace as the recession bites deep, and even better-off households are also turning to them.
The most popular items: Rice, bread, cooking oil, toilet paper and facial tissue. Other items in demand include sugar, frozen poultry and cereals.
Checks with major supermarket chains here - including Sheng Siong, NTUC FairPrice and Cold Storage - found that sales of housebrand items have gone up by up to 50 per cent in recent months.
A significant number of buyers come from the higher-income households. Interviews with supermarkets were backed up by a Nielsen survey of 1,000 households released on Monday.
The survey, conducted from June to November last year, showed that more were were switching to the cheaper alternatives.
From June to November last year, 91 per cent of those surveyed bought housebrand products about nine times, spending about $4.50 on such products per trip, compared to 89 per cent of them who bought such products seven times per week the previous year.
The report also revealed that 19 per cent more middle-income households - with a combined income of at least $6,000 - bought housebrands in the six-month period compared to the six months before that. This group registered the biggest jump.
