Americans are switching to store brands. Across all channels, consumers are buying more private label than ever before. Nielsen reports that private label sales have increased by 12% in supermarkets, drug chains and mass merchandisers since last summer. Total sales for the year reached $80 billion and unit market share rose to more than 22%.

The trend is going to continue, too. According to a new Roper survey, more than 60% of all shoppers now say that they purchase store brands frequently, up from 40% just three years ago. Eight out of 10 consumers say that store brands are as good or better than national brands and nearly 20% of shoppers expect to buy more private label in the year ahead.

For retailers, wholesalers, and their suppliers, the time to emphasize private label has never been so obvious. And the best way to get into private label is PLMA’s 2009 Private Label Trade Show. It is the only trade show devoted entirely to store brands. For almost 30 years, PLMA’s annual private label trade show has been the place where retailers and suppliers meet to build their private label business. It’s the industry’s event of the year.

With more than 2,000 exhibit booths, the show spans five halls of Chicago’s Rosemont Convention Center. Exhibitors come from more than 35 countries. Product categories include fresh, frozen and refrigerated foods, beverages, snacks, shelf-stable groceries and ingredients of all types. On the non-food side, there is household and kitchen, paper and plastics, health and beauty, GM and DIY. Everything today’s consumers want and it is all available under one roof at one show in one visit.

Buyers come from all over the world – supermarkets, supercenters, discounters, drugstores, mass merchandisers, convenience stores, importers, exporters, wholesalers of all kinds, even military exchanges – to source and learn about the latest trends.