PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP), Kraft Foods Group Inc (KRFT) and The Mystery of Groceries: Do All Brands Come From the Same Place?

Sure, you can try to grow sales by inventing other, newer, and better products to improve customers’ lives — but that’s hard work, and no sure thing at all. (Cough, “New Coke,” cough-cough, “Crystal Pepsi.”)

Often, if you want to keep sales and profits growing, the better and surer bet is to just go out and buy a known, good thing, rather than sink millions of dollars into trying to invent a better thing.

That’s what these companies have done, therefore. That’s what they’re still doing. And that’s why. the next time you head to the grocery store, no matter how much you buy, chances are good that your shopping dollars will all wind up in the bank accounts of only 10 companies.

The article The Mystery of Groceries: Do All Brands Come From the Same Place? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Rich Smith has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever and owns shares of Johnson & Johnson and PepsiCo.

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