I agree that there's been a move to split "Store Brand X" into "Store Basics X", "Store Brand X" and "Store Finest X", and that the "basic" product is often per

I agree that there's been a move to split "Store Brand X" into "Store Basics X", "Store Brand X" and "Store Finest X", and that the "basic" product is often perfectly good. However, for broader product categories, there's also a tendency for the most and least expensive products to be outliers, with the cheapest being barely enough to justify the label and the dearest being aimed at rich suckers. Hence the heuristic of getting the 2nd cheapest (especially if it's a one-off consumable, where savings won't accumulate); or, if splashing out, getting the 2nd most expensive. In my experience this definitely applies to things like wine and chocolate, where the scale is roughly: | Q| u| x a| x l| x x x x i| xx x t| y| |x +---------------------------------------------- Price