Whatever Happened To Generic Stuff?

In the '70s there was a big boom in generic stuff, usually adorned with plain white packaging and plain black lettering. Cereal, pancake mix, I don't know about orange juice.

When it came to design, they definitely skimped on the cost. Maybe art and design expenses are where all the big expense is when it comes to products. I know I could use more of a stripped down approach when it comes to packaging electronics items, like battery rechargers. It's hard to get them opened.

But it seemed like as fast as generic-everything was on the market, within a couple years anyway, it was all gone. Then the closest thing to generic was the store brands. But even they don't just say "Raisin Bran" but come up with a name like "Always Save Raisin Bran."

I believe there was even a few records that did at least a take-off of the black/white generic craze. What they were, I don't know. Just plain old "Music," probably. Maybe someone out there has a large collection of generic packaging. It would've been a good idea. But I didn't think of it at the time. One thing, you don't expect it to go away.