Coop is getting serious in the rice dispute and replacing “Ben’s Original” with “Tom’s Best” | The retailer and Mars were unable to reach an agreement in price discussions. As a result, Coop removed the US manufacturer’s products from its shelves. Now it is replacing them with their own brand.

18 comments

1. Small supermarket chain from a tiny country tries to tell a multinational conglomerate anything.

   Obviously they weren’t going to come to an agreement

2. «Wenn der Lieferant nicht nachweisen kann, wieso etwas teurer wird, sehen wir keinen Grund dazu, mehr zu bezahlen.»

   Interesting standpoint from a Coop executive. A lot of stuff became more expensive without any significant change or better quality. I guess they only see it like this when it affects themselves.

3. So just to be clear. They took a brand featuring a man of African heritage called “Uncle Ben’s” and changed the Ben to Tom.

   So now we have Uncle Tom’s rice.

   Do Europeans not understand what that means?

4. I’m disappointed that it wasn’t branded “Hans’ beste” or “Jurg’s liebstes”.

5. I hope they have a version with bags. Uncle Ben’s was the only one to offer it.

6. So Coop created a *new* and additional store brand for rice, despite they already have like three different store brands for rice (Prix Garantie, Qualite & Prix, Naturaplan)?

   Why is that? So that people don’t go and just buy one of the cheaper store brands like they could have done all along?

   Or is “Tom’s” simply a rebranding of the “Quality & Prix” store brand that has always been there?

7. You want a good rice go to the asian shop and buy 5kg bag that costs fraction and tastes much better

8. Same reason Migros removed “excelcat” cat food for a while, also owned by Mars.

9. This is what we’re posting now?

10. Why were you in Coop to begin with? Place is outlandishly expensive vs the competition.

11. Good. Given American lad attitudes to food safety I avoid their products anyway.

12. Not a rice expert, but I can’t differentiate between some migros budget round rice and more expensive alternatives, rice is rice (if it’s the same type). Maybe there’s a bit less dust, but you still have to wash it anyway

13. No biggie in not buying from US multinationals. I’d rather buy from local company and pay 20 cents more to support my community than a multinational corporation.

14. At least they didn’t call it Uncle Tom’s

15. I saw that last week and was wondering what it’s all about. Uncle Ben’s had a racist connotation so they changed it to Ben’s original. Did coop come up with Tom because of Uncle Tom’s cabin. Because that would be fucking hilarious.

16. Avoiding American products is always a win.

17. I can’t believe they deliberately referenced Uncle Tom.

    Probably just a lack of culture from some branding professionals, surely they didn’t mean to sound racist.

18. Wait, if I want to pay my uncle Ben’s rice 100.-/kg why is coop not letting me ?

    If there were no cheaper alternatives, fine, but since when supermarkets care about base prices since they recharge back to clients with markup ?

    Like, if they sold less of uncle bems because of.price hike, why not give it less place. I don’t get what is their incentive here