Times are tight. Companies like Kellogg’s and Wal-Mart are doing well. These are companies that everyone, including the wealthy, flock to when every nickel is precious. Which got us thinking. What are the best brands in America that connote thrift, modesty and that all-American, Victory Garden spirit? Brands we associateMORE HERE

There is an effort to bring back BNs, those British cookies with faces. The Bring Back BN site on Bebo says: “Remember those lovely curvey squared biscuits with the faces on called BN? Do you miss them? If so then this is your opportunity to help get them back inMORE HERE

Different brands get their mystique from where they are distributed. Shasta, the drinks brand, was born as a regional water company on the West Coast. The brand started as Mount Shasta Mineral Springs Company; according to the Shasta Museum it was founded in Dec. 6, 1889. The company also operatedMORE HERE

Another regional dairy brand is disappearing. The Fort Collins, Colorado Poudre Valley Creamery dairy brands will no longer be on the shelves, according to reporter Pat Ferrier of the Fort Collins Coloradoan. Meadow Gold Dairy’s parent company bought the brand in 2000, but has discontinued it because of low demand,MORE HERE

What a waste! This once-great American grocery company is now a shadow of its former self. The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company still lives on in the Northeast, thankfully. It’s really a group of grocery store brands, including Waldbaum’s, Food Emporium, Super Fresh, Pathmark and A&P. Yes, it’s stillMORE HERE

Since the advent of hormone free milk, new national brands of milk have been established. That’s great. And it proves there is a market for national brands. But there are some great milk brands that should have survived. Brands that would be PERFECT for marketing this new wave of milk.MORE HERE

BrandlandUSA reader and freelance writer Lee Gimpel informs us that the Abingdon, Virginia grocery chain Food City has brought back some regional grocery brands including Kern’s Bread, a regional brand from Knoxville, Tennessee. It’s a smart strategy for regional grocery store chains. These chains are in desperate need of wellMORE HERE

We all have the one food, or one brand, we really want from our childhood that is no longer around. Reader Fred McClennan asks BrandlandUSA about boned chicken that was sold in a jar, and if we have any ideas what the brand was, and where to find it. Certainly,MORE HERE

CHERRY HILL, N.J. – While big brands have taken over most grocery shelves, there are some classics that still manage to make it on major grocery store shelves. Take the case of Serv-A-Gravy, a product of the Serv-Agen Corporation of Cherry Hill, N.J. Made right outside of Camden and Philadelphia, it’sMORE HERE

Way cool brand on the shelves at Albertson’s. It’s a 15 oz. can of ConAgra’s Ranch Style Brand Beans. The SKU has been on the shelves of American supermarkets since 1935. Here here for ConAgra, keeping an old friend on the shelves! The product is labeled Con Agra Foods Inc.,MORE HERE