[nwatson]

> The problem with this is that it's built in the backs of brands who were at one point well recognized brands on Amazon. Amazon took their sales data, determined it was a good market to move into, created specifications and reached out to their hundreds of sellers for a "private label opportunity".

I believe Costco (Kirkland brand) and likely Amazon also contract with one of the major brands (e.g., Tide detergent) to make a store-label parallel product with perhaps slightly different formulation, but often the exact same formulation. The name brand saves on their marketing costs and sells at higher margin, Costco gets a great product they can sell to customers for less than the competition, and customers willing to trust the Costco "Kirkland" brand save a lot of money ... it's a three-way win.

From https://www.wideopeneats.com/store-brand-vs-name-brand-why-k... ...

    >> It’s a common misconception that the generic is made from a cheaper brand.
    >> Sometimes the generic is made overseas with inferior products, but a lot
    >> of Kirkland Signature products are actually the exact same product as the
    >> name brand product.  ...  Sometimes, they’re even manufactured in the
    >> same facility!

I've bought a few Amazon-brand products, e.g., USB cables, backpacks. The Amazon Basic backpack is quite good quality, seems very similar to the Targus brand backpack designs, and handles some decent abuse.

EDIT: backpack experience

[dv_dt]

The thing I suspect about Costco Kirkland brands is that even if the same maker makes the item, Costco often elects to upgrade the quality in some way. Especially in ways where the maker could do, but doesn't for market reasons on their general line of goods. In a similar way, a lot of supermarket generic goods have some sort of minor downgrade in the quality of ingredients to differentiate with the original makers product.