Do you buy store brands?

[OntFamily]

As an employee of a national brand manufacturer, I can advise that even if the national brand co. makes the store brand product, the quality of the store brand product can be much lower.

Many national brand companies already sell products under multiple brand names (different quality levels appeal to different market segments). So, it is no problem having a lesser quality for store brand manufactuered product, and a higher quality for the national branded companies product(s).

 

[mickeymouse70]

I buy generic or no name brand. example flavorite or Walmart brand. There is nothing wrong with buying no name brands.

If I can save money I will be defiantely doing so. anyway to save money with a family of 5, I have 3 kids including to teenagers, DS 14, DD almost 13, DD almost 8. they are always eating.

I also buy lower priced laundry soap, etc. it works the same. the best thing that we do is compare ingredients they usually are the same or pretty close. IMHO

 

[frannn]

I try to get name brand if its on sale. I will try store brand. If it is good, I will stock up when it is on sale. I'm not very picky though, so my standards may not be as high as everyone elses, LOL! Most of the time, the name brands are the ones that are on sale, and there are so many different popular brands that my supermarket carries. I can usually find a good quality item of most foods on sale every week. Our store's cheapest generic is called "No Frills". I don't buy that stuff because I am scared to.

 

[Alice28]

frannn---LOL at the "No Frills"....I would be scared to buy that too! I like a frill or two, ya know?

 

[C.Ann]

I decided to pull a sly one on my grown DD and her DH.. (You know - like kind of a "blind taste test" but they didn't KNOW they were participating.. )

Anyhow, they both INSIST that they HAVE to have Hershey's Chocolate Milk Syrup and NOTHING else will do because it tastes "awful".... Okey dokey.......

About a week ago, when I used up the last of the Hershey's, I SAVED the bottle, washed it thoroughly, refilled it with no name chocolate syrup and sat back and waited....

Last night they finally came over - and each made a glass of chocolate milk with the "Hershey's"... Hmmmmm... They gulped it right down and never said a word...

Could it be "mind over matter" in some instances?? Me thinks so..

Now where did I put all those catsup, mustard, and salad dressing bottles?????? LOL

 

[phamton]

There are only 2 name brands I buy: Charmin toliet tissue and Miracle Whip salad dressing. For everything else from soap to cereal, I buy the cheapest, sometimes that is the generic other times it might be another name brand on sale.

 

[DiznEeyore]

We do a *lot* of store brands here, as well as shopping at Aldi. I'm pretty open to trying generics, so we are continually adding new products to our "repertoire", LOL!! Foods, paper products, OTC meds, etc.

One thing I *never* thought I'd "go generic" on is my beloved Dr. Pepper. I had tried a couple store brands, but they were YUCKY! But, on the recommendation of someone on another MB, I tried WalMart's version (Dr. Thunder, LOL! ) and it's actually very good. And at a quarter for a 20 oz. bottle, it's waaaay cheaper than name-brand.

 

[NancyIL]

I shop a lot at Sam's Club. While most of the food sold there is name brand, many non-food items are the store brand, Members Mark, and the quality is excellent.

 

[DisneyFan09]

Originally posted by DiznEeyore
We do a *lot* of store brands here, as well as shopping at Aldi. I'm pretty open to trying generics, so we are continually adding new products to our "repertoire", LOL!! Foods, paper products, OTC meds, etc.

One thing I *never* thought I'd "go generic" on is my beloved Dr. Pepper. I had tried a couple store brands, but they were YUCKY! But, on the recommendation of someone on another MB, I tried WalMart's version (Dr. Thunder, LOL! ) and it's actually very good. And at a quarter for a 20 oz. bottle, it's waaaay cheaper than name-brand.

I'm a Diet Dr. Pepper junkie, it's the only pop I ever drink. I'd love to try Diet Dr. Thunder but I haven't gotten my nerve up. Have you tried it?

 

[Lisa F]

To me, budgeting is finding the cheapest way to buy the things I like. As others have said, sometimes the store brand is as good (or better) than the name brand. Often, though, I DO detect a difference so I just stock up when things are on sale for a price that is less than the equivalent store brand (people think I am weird for buying 16 jars of peanut butter in a week but at buy one, get one free skippy is cheaper than the equivalent store, and skippy is the only brand I like! I won't even by Jif, but I digress). A while back we discovered that the kirkland "brand" of tuna at Costco is actually BETTER tasting than the stuff we bought at the supermarket. It does say that it is made by bumble bee but in this case I believe that they are actually using superior product, not inferior. We bought chocolate graham crackers once and compared store to name brand and there was a visual, as well as taste, difference in the two. The store brand was a much lighter brown and didn't taste as good in a blind taste test (yes, we're strange!)

Like all things, it really depends. I won't spend the money, no matter how cheap it is, on something I do not like. Period. If i can taste the difference (and there ARE differences) then I figure out a way to buy what I like economically. But, I will try anything once given the opportunity!

Lisa

 

[momof3disneyholics]

If I can get a good deal, I don't care what brand it is.

 

[CajunDixie]

Name Brand?? What's that?
Most of the time I buy WalMart brands or Aldi's. I also go to an Aunt Millie's outlet for all my bread, buns, muffins, and pitas. I also go to a little Amish owned place to get bulk items like brown sugar, white sugar, flour, pudding, candy, cheeses and whatever else they have on sale.

 

[WIcruizer]

Well, I don't do the grocery shopping but my DW buys lots of store brands. It's trial and error. Sometimes the cereal is exactly the same for half the price.

An interesting story... My DD did a science project last year where she took a store brand vs. the name brand for 10 different products and people had a blind test. NOT ONE store brand was chosen over 55% of the time. People actually preferred the store brand over the name brand for 7 of the 10 items. And this wasn't a small sample. Over 200 people took part. The most shocking to me was that people preferred a store brand cola over Coke and Pepsi. And many of these people SWORE they would tell the difference.

The power of marketing... So there are a few generics we don't like, but we use many, many store brands- especially after that experiment.

 

[DiznEeyore]

Originally posted by DisneyFan09
I'm a Diet Dr. Pepper junkie, it's the only pop I ever drink. I'd love to try Diet Dr. Thunder but I haven't gotten my nerve up. Have you tried it?

Nope -- I'm not a big diet pop fan, so I haven't tried it yet. LMK if you do!!

 

[pgjam]

No one mentioned over the counter drug items. I buy everything CVS or Rite-Aid brand (whatever store I'm in). I always check the ingred. first & they have always been exactly the same. I'd rather pay $5.99 for generic than $8.99 for excedrin any day. Pathmark always has a detergent & soda brands on sale each week so if you are not attached to a certain brand most of the times it is cheaper than their brand. I'd rather spend the money at Disney.
pgjam

 

[EthansMom]

We use lots of name brands, but use store brands for many items (esp. where we can save a lot of money without noticing a difference in quality). Some of the store brands we use: Sam's Club Member Choice paper towels & toilet paper is great, Sam's Club Smiles diapers are wonderful and cheapest to be had without a coupon, generic OTC medecines (aspirin to cough medecine, etc.) are exactly the same as non-generics. With my toddler son growing so fast, I often buy him the Target or Walmart brand clothes.

We also have tried to move away from using prepared foods and started making more foods from scratch -- the components are almost always cheaper than the box of pseudo-prepared food... and tastes better too! For instance, I'll make a homemade casserole instead of a Betty Crocker box version. In a lot of my recipes, I'll cut the amount of meat and add in a lot more fresh veggies -- cost less and better for us!

EthansMom

 

[propchick]

Wow, apparently I'm cheaper or poorer than most folks, lol. I pick up most of my packaged groceries at Big Lots. That always freaks people out, but what you're getting is overstocked and discontinued product lines for dirt cheap (in the few years I've been shopping there, I've only once seen a food product that was past its expiration date). I just picked up brand-name bread machine mixes for 79 cents in a yummy-sounding discontinued flavor, canned whole yellow Roma tomatoes from DelMonte for 33 cents a can, etc. (My biggest score last week was a 16 oz bottle of real, pure, maple syrup for $2.99!) The stock changes daily, so you don't always know what you're going to find, but that's half the fun!

The rest of my groceries are fresh foods, and I tend to pick those up at Albertson's, but only because they're 24 hour so I can stop by if I get out of work early. (Meaning 3 or 4 am, lol.)

I used to work at the world headquarters of an insanely huge internationaly known food manufacturer. Trust me -- 99% of the price difference between them and the generics is the cost of marketing. Think about it, you're paying them extra to advertise their own products to you!

 

[DiznEeyore]

Originally posted by propchick
I used to work at the world headquarters of an insanely huge internationaly known food manufacturer. Trust me -- 99% of the price difference between them and the generics is the cost of marketing. Think about it, you're paying them extra to advertise their own products to you!

Wow -- I never thought of it that way, but that is *so* true! That makes our generics seem even more of a deal! LOL

 

[always quiet]

I just picked up a bag of Walmarts version of Oreos...I believe they are called Twist and Shout. My kids have been raving about them and even say they are better than the oreos!! I've tasted them and I have to agree!!!

 

[cindala]

Yes, I definitely buy store brands. Sometimes they are even better than the regular brand!