The Shelf Audit Files No. 02 — The Four Rungs

The first book in this series named the brands that are not ours any more. The question that came straight back was fair: fine — so which ones are still ours? This is the answer, and it comes with a tool.

Part One lays out the four-rung ladder that every brand in this aisle sits on, and why the rung that fools people is not the one you would expect. Part Two is the trust list: six brands on the top rung, what each costs per ounce, and the honest asterisks on three more that most lists print as independent when they are not.

The part we did not expect: the genuinely independent ones are usually the better value. You are not paying extra to keep it real.