Walking into a supermarket can be intimidating; items greet you as you walk in, and they all are designed to try to grab your attention. Hopefully, you bring a list with the items you need to purchase, otherwise you can count on a lot of impulse buys--every supermarkets' goal. It's why they put the candy bars in the checkout aisle; do you have enough discipline to turn down the Reese's or the Snickers that has been staring at you for the past 5 minutes while you wait to check out?

As you walk down aisle after aisle, there are hundreds of different brands which would seemingly come from hundreds of different companies. Ironically, most of the brands you see in your local supermarket come from one of 10 companies. To illustrate my point, I will list the 10 companies along with some of their most notable brands. Nestle: Juicy Juice, Nesquik, Edy's ice cream, DiGiorno, Hot Pockets, Crunch Bars; Coca-Cola: Sprite, Minute Maid, PowerAde, Fuze, Vitamin Water, Dasani; PepsiCo: Lays, Tropicana, Gatorade, Quaker, Tostitos, Aquafina; Unilever: Lipton, Ben & Jerry's, Hellmann's, Vaseline, St. Ives; General Mills: Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Cheerios, Yoplait, Pillsbury; Kraft: Cool Whip, JELL-O, Macaroni & Cheese, Oscar Mayer, Maxwell House ; Kellogg's: Eggo, Froot Loops, Mini Wheats, Pop Tarts; Mars: M&M's, Combos, Snickers, Uncle Ben's, Skittles; Mondelez: Oreo, Honey Maid, Chips Ahoy, Ritz, Triscuit; Procter & Gamble: Bounty, Swiffer, Tide, Dawn, Charmin, Old Spice.

These companies make the products that we see every day in the supermarket and, for some, they can be a wise investment to help build the foundation for your retirement portfolio. If we are in a recession or the stock market is rapidly declining, we don't stop buying food or cleaning supplies; food and cleaning supplies are a necessity to our health and well-being. It can be comforting to see that despite hard economic times, folks are still buying the products made by the companies that you own.

Ethan Wade, Financial Advisor

Ethan Wade Senior Vice President at Brighton Securities in Rochester NY

(This article contains the current opinions of the author but not necessarily those of Brighton Securities Corp. The author's opinions are subject to change without notice. This blog post is for informational purposes only. Forecasts, estimates, and certain information contained herein should not be considered as investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security, strategy or investment product. References to specific securities and their issuers are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended and should not be interpreted as recommendations to purchase or sell such securities).