. . . but perhaps not notice. Market Pantry is changing its labels. I know, I know - sit down. Perhaps consult some smelling salts. Here's the old, blunt, generic ones:

The new one:

Better, but so much white space. It has a Duncan Hines vibe. The old logo, not the new one. (The old logo was supposed to look like a sign you'd see outside a restaurant; the new one, in keeping with Hines' origins, looks like a book. But no one remembers that he wrote guidebooks for hungry travelers. Odd.)

Anyway: from the looks of some products on the web, the Market Pantry brand is being deemphasized a bit, and the type of product gets a boost. MP in smaller type, HAM in larger type. This seems to suggest the MP brand doesn't mean anything to anyone, except "cheaper house brand." It's like the unattractive Cub signage: if was nicer, you'd suspect you were paying more for everything.

Every store has house brands, with different tiers; Cub's basic house brand screams GENERIC, and their upscaled brand, Culinary Circle, could be mistaken for something at a much more expensive store. But what's Meijer's house brand? Or Lucky's? Yes, two chains you might have heard about are coming to the Metro. Maybe.

Here's a comment:

Absolutely not! Less choice and diminished competition, that's the ticket.