The Milk Name Game Costs Shoppers

What’s in a name? If the product is milk, up to 10 cents a gallon.

We recently priced milk at a Lucky supermarket in the San Gabriel Valley. On this day, a gallon of Lady Lee brand whole milk cost $2.73. A gallon of Farm Fresh milk cost $2.63.

What accounts for the price difference? Only the name. The milk inside the gallon jugs is exactly the same--processed by Lucky at the same milk plant from the same raw milk.

Lucky isn’t the only supermarket company to create a premium brand out of thin air. Vons turns out two brands--Jerseymaid and Westwood--from the same milk plant with the same milk. A gallon of Jerseymaid whole milk costs 8 cents more than a Westwood gallon.

Albertsons offers 2% low fat milk under the Janet Lee and Albertsons labels, both produced at a plant in Riverside. The price difference: 10 cents.

Why do grocers create two brands for identical items? To give consumers a choice, we’re told. Lucky spokeswoman Judy Decker told us that Lady Lee is a “premium label,� while Farm Fresh is a “value label.� She admitted that the milk is the same, but noted: “We’re not the only ones who do this.�

Representatives of Vons and Albertsons didn’t call us back, but industry sources told us that their brands are identical. Said state Food and Agriculture Department official David Ikari: “Typically, when you see different brands, the chains are using them as marketing tools.�

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Prize fighters: The letter--or we should say “certificate of guarantee�--promises one of five prizes. Just call an 800 number, the letter says, to find out how to get a new car, a Bahamian vacation, a television, a camcorder or $1,250 cash.

Over the last three years, three of every 10 adults have received a pitch like this one and responded to it, the National Consumers League says. And most of those people believe that they were lied to or ripped off, the league says.

Some prize offers require consumers to make a purchase before they can claim a prize. In one case, the league said, a consumer bought a $695 camera to get what turned out to be a junky tennis bracelet and pin as a prize.

Travel prizes have hitches too: To get free airline tickets, consumers must shell out for costly hotel rooms, or vice versa. We came across another variation: For a hefty $459 fee, one Florida outfit promised discount travel packages to as-yet undetermined locations.

John Barker, director of the league’s National Fraud Information Center, said some con artists may be using mailing lists that give consumer credit card numbers--a worrisome development. He said consumers shouldn’t disclose credit card information unless they’re making a purchase.

Barker said a Tarzana woman recently was charged $699 for Frisbees she didn’t order after she gave a promoter the expiration date on her credit card. She did not give her account number, said Barker, who speculated that the promoters already had her card number but needed the expiration date to put the order through.

Barker advised the woman to work with her bank to remove the charge. As for the Frisbees, he told her: “Expect a light box.�

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Travel outlook: The belt-tightening among business travelers is continuing, according to a survey appearing in the December issue of Frequent Flyer magazine.

The magazine asked its readers, mostly business managers and professionals who make more than two round-trip flights monthly, about their travel habits. It found:

* Thirty percent have replaced at least one airline trip with a car trip because of the rising cost of business fares.

* Business travelers are continuing to trade down in hotels, with 30% saying they stay at mid-price hotels or motels.

* More than 40% say they purchase discounted, advance-purchase coach tickets for business trips, a slight increase from last year. Only 6% said they flew first class.