Just ask the Flying Piggy Bank. It's all about the savings.

National brands will always cost more than comparable store brand goods. To compete effectively without lowering price, national brands need to advertise and promote heavily to assure awareness and stimulate purchase. This is especially true for products aimed at children -- breakfast cereal, for example. Also, national brands have the resources to innovate; that is, enhance existing products as well as developing new ones that ideally create new sub-categories.

Makers of private label goods have improved quality dramatically in recent years, while maintaining a price advantage over national brands. That is very attractive to budget-conscious consumers in tough times.

Some big-time national brands already are private label makers. My hunch is that will increase if private label continues to gain share.

And why not? With My Essentials at Bottom Dollar, loyal customers get the best quality at the lowest price. You never sacrifice quality for price when you purchase My Essentials brand products After all, when you buy private label products, you really do deposit after every store visit a piggy bank full of savings.