when shopping generic(store brands) vs national brands (dishwasher, microwave, cleaner)
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For example: I was shopping for dishwasher soap and there was a generic brand for half the price of a nationally known brand. Is the nationally known brand better for the price or what? Same with many items in a grocery store. I bought a store brand popping corn(pop corn) and it turned out better than other popular brands. I hope this makes sense. But I can't see spending twice the amount on something that might not be better.
We try to stick to store brands whenever we can, and evaluate on a case by case basis. Usually we're ok, but on the occasion the store brand just doesn't cut it, we go back to the name brand.
...and there was a generic brand for half the price of a nationally known brand.
Is the nationally known brand better for the price or what?
Same with many items in a grocery store. I bought a store brand...
My experience is that the grocery STORE brand of an X is as good as the national brand of that X.
In most cases it's because they are all made on the same production line. LINK
Those big chains have too much at stake to play games with it all.
The "off brands" of things however tend to be more iffy both generally
and from one purchase cycle to another "last time this stuff worked great... this time it's crap")
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian_M
..to my budget it's like eating for free for 3 months of the year. That's a hard thing not to notice.
For me it's about not messing with coupons to get the same net price on an item.
Last edited by MrRational; 07-28-2017 at 04:05 PM..
I shop primarily Aldi (store) who sell pretty much ONLY their brand. You'll occasionally see a big advertising brand, but it's the exception and not the rule. Why? Because it cuts easily 25% of my weekly grocery bill, one that was as much store-brand as possible with Kroger/King Soopers/Fred Meyer (not sure who else they own). The products are as good as, or better than, pretty much anything else you can buy.
As you mentioned, popcorn comes to mind. The Aldi stuff is, hands down, the best microwave popcorn I've had. Not only does it taste great, but there are very few unpopped kernels.
I found it funny to look at the 2 different store brands and "major" brand products side by side. Center cut bacon is the one that stands out there. All 3 packages looked EXACTLY the same, and 2 of them even shared the same packaging info/hotline number. I mean, if you just glanced at the packaging you'd never know which was which.
I have yet to find a "worse" store brand vs major brand. Different, yes... but not worse. Even so, to my budget it's like eating for free for 3 months of the year. That's a hard thing not to notice.
For example: I was shopping for dishwasher soap and there was a generic brand for half the price of a nationally known brand. Is the nationally known brand better for the price or what? Same with many items in a grocery store. I bought a store brand popping corn(pop corn) and it turned out better than other popular brands. I hope this makes sense. But I can't see spending twice the amount on something that might not be better.
Just look at Procter & Gamble. They use about 20% of their revenues for advertising and another 20% are profits. That explains why name brands often cost double the price.
Name brand manufacturers are far less focused on the production itself. Store brand products are mostly produced by less known manufacturers that don't have to please shareholders with profit margins of 20%. They are forced by large retail corporations to invest into the production process to achieve the position of cost leadership. It's cheaper to produce in state-of-the-art factories than in somewhat outdated ones.
There are constantly quality tests for dishwasher detergents. There seem to be always a few store brand detergents that are in front of well known name brand ones.
In the last test for non-compact laundry detergents, the Lidl one was rated best. The name brands Ariel and Lenor (both are from P&G) were rated worst. Why should I pay premium prices for low quality laundry detergent? That doesn't make sense at all.
But not every product from P&G is bad. The compact laundry detergent Ariel was rated second, but in front was the one from Aldi.
Depends, the best all purpose cleaner I have used is the dollar store brand Awesome.
Frozen french fries' on the other hand are a crap shoot, more like frozen itty bitty pieces of french fries if they are store brand. That seems to be the case with anything frozen or canned that is store brand. I think in that case you are actually getting the seconds that are too undersized for the brand name. Undoubtedly they can/freezeand label them for many different stores.
It's not the store brand but there is pickle brand where I shop much cheaper than the national brands, they are actually better IMO.
I care for an elderly relative and sometimes she drives me nuts with this stuff, she insists on good cheese. For me that means deli cheese and that's what I buy. For her that means nothing but processed Kraft singles. I bought the cheaper brand once and you'd swear the world was coming to an end. There is absolutely no difference, they both suck equally.
I recently bought Aldi's sweetened condensed milk for a key lime dessert recipe that I have made often. I noticed right away that the texture of the sweetened condensed milk was not the same as Eagle Brand, it was too thin. Sure enough the dessert did not set up right. So to save a buck by buying a store brand I ended up wasting my time and money on a failed dessert.
Other ingredients in that dessert were wasted, including two pounds of key limes and a pint of heavy cream.
Several years ago I had purchased Kroger brand sweetened condensed milk and it was grainy and thin, not thick and smooth like Eagle Brand.
Both Aldi and Kroger offer money back guarantees on their store brand products but that doesn't help when you are preparing a dessert that you need to serve.
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