Do you pay the extra money for Name Brands?

[DaveInPgh]

Manufacturers pays a lot of money for advertising, and of course that cost gets past on to the consumer. And it works! People buy the products that they could otherwise get at a fraction of the cost, and in most cases (in my opinion) at the same quality.

Example: Kellogg's 8.4 oz Disney Finding Dory cereal is $2.99 at Walmart. A cost of 35.6 cents per ounce.



Instead, you could buy a 20.5 oz box of Great Value Magic Treasures for the same $2.99. That is only 14.6 cents per ounce.



Is the Kellogg's and Disney brands really worth that much more to you?

In my opinion, it is just plain Goofy to pay more for something because of the name on the box.

[GoodSteward]

Not us, but I do buy a few things name brand if the store brand is that bad. For instance, I refuse to buy store brand ketchup. lol It's only a few cents, and man some of that cheap stuff is awful. I do buy store brand mustard and mayo. I know others perfer name brand on those. I do a mix of name brand and store brand, but mostly store brand anymore.

Some store brand cereal isn't very good, like save-a-lot's brand. Walmart and MaltoMeal are both good, though

[DaveInPgh]

I agree that there are exceptions regarding store brand quality. Being a Pittsburgh guy, I grew up eating Heinz ketchup. We actually don't even buy condiments for our house. My DW doesn't eat like any of the condiments, and my child will only eat ketchup occasionally.

When I was losing weight, I learned to do without because it was just added calories I did not need. Some might laugh thinking that the calories in condiments aren't that high, but they all add up. When you are limited to 1480 calories a day, you don't want to waste a single one on something you can do without.

In any case, I am going OT a bit here.

In regards to name brands, I still buy some when they are on sale and the price is better than the store brand.

[rennigade]

Speaking of cereal...interesting fact about corn flakes. It was invested around 1900 by John Kellogg. This is how dumb people were just 100 years ago. Why were corn flakes invested??? Im not sure how many people actually know this.

Regarding your question...I cant really think of any food at the moment im brand loyal to. A lot depends on if the store brand is cheaper than the name brand or vice versa. Im game for either or.

[disneysteve]

My answer is a solid no... and yes.

There are many items for which we are not brand loyal and always buy the store brand unless we catch a really good sale on the brand name that makes it cheaper.

There are numerous items for which we are brand loyal and always buy the same brand regardless of price.

Just as two different brand names of products aren't exactly the same (e.g. Coke and Pepsi), the same is true for brand name and store brand products. Sometimes the store brand is fine. Sometimes we even like the store brand better. Sometimes the store brand is just plain lousy.

So the bottom line is we are almost always willing to at least try the store brand once. If we don't like it, we go back to the brand name. If we do like it, we stick with it.

[snafu]

I cook and bake with store brand when it won't make a noticeable difference. We don't use sweet or cute type cereals but there are strong preferences for hot cereal brands. I get tripped up on frozen vegetables, some store brands like Kirkland [Costco] are usually acceptable, some store brands are unacceptable, many seem poorly handled because freezer burn is obvious.

I'm now so bewildered by yogurt choices, it's constantly hit or miss, name brand, store brand or Greek with too much sugar. In past decades oranges were identified by name and origin. Now they are stacked in bins and I'm left to figure it out! I think I'm buying grown in Mexico product but pay American prices. Are zipper skins a product of Japan, China, Israel or eastern
Europe? Are apples this season or last season's held firm with repeated spray?

[disneysteve]

I cook and bake with store brand when it won't make a noticeable difference.

there are strong preferences for hot cereal brands.

I get tripped up on frozen vegetables, some store brands like Kirkland [Costco] are usually acceptable, some store brands are unacceptable

I agree that it often depends on how the product is being used. For example, we never buy brand name sugar. Why pay the price for Domino's when the store brand works (and tastes) exactly the same? As for hot cereal, that's another one where I always buy store brand oatmeal. I can detect zero difference (except the price) between that and Quaker. As for frozen veggies, I agree with you there. Most of the store brands are clearly inferior, but I will still buy them if using them in a more involved recipe, but not if eating them straight.

[DaveInPgh]

Speaking of cereal...interesting fact about corn flakes. It was invested around 1900 by John Kellogg. This is how dumb people were just 100 years ago. Why were corn flakes invested??? Im not sure how many people actually know this.

Considering his stance on the subject and that his marriage was supposedly never consummated, perhaps it was his wife that invented Frosted Flakes!

[DaveInPgh]

As for hot cereal, that's another one where I always buy store brand oatmeal. I can detect zero difference (except the price) between that and Quaker.

I have bought and enjoyed Aldi's store brand (Millville) oatmeal, but had to throw away another store brand oatmeal because it was that bad. I grew up in a household where we didn't throw away food, and it is a practice I try to maintain in our home as well. Sometimes I just say the heck with it and toss something out that no one is eating.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I'm loyal to some dairy brands. I look for yogurt, cottage cheese, ice cream, and sour cream that are made without emulsifiers, thickeners, starches, or gelatin. I always make sure to read the labels even of my preferred brands because sometimes a good product's ingredients change, that is add the kind of ingredients I don't want. Ice creams especially do that. I became sensitive to carrageenan and that is in a lot of dairy products. On the other hand, I do look at new brands that come on the market in case they might be suitable.

[clatoden99]

When I was young, there was a clear division with packaged goods -- brand name products were good quality, while store brand products always felt like imitations that basically performed the same task, but never as well. And they came in ugly packaging. Today, most store and generic brands offer at least one version that is equal to branded products in quality at significantly lower cost, although they also usually offer much cheaper, poorer quality versions, too. As a result, major brands today need to continually innovate just to stay in business, let alone maintain their marketshare and any status they may have as an industry leader. That's why you will probably never see an end to commercials announcing big breakthroughs in fabric softeners, cold medicines, batteries, tampons, crackers, drain cleaners, and such, despite aisles full of great ones already in every grocery store.

[bjl584]

There are certain things that I do buy the name brand. Certain food, in my opinion, taste better if you get the name brand.

[disneysteve]

I've actually found a number of cases where the store brand was higher quality/healthier than the name brand. For example, less sugar, fruit pack in juice instead of syrup, etc.

We have found Wegman's and Target's store brands to be consistently good.

[DaveInPgh]

And they came in ugly packaging.

Yes, the packaging was always "generic" years ago. You still see it today with some store brands, but many others use eye catching packaging now.

[DaveInPgh]

There are certain things that I do buy the name brand. Certain food, in my opinion, taste better if you get the name brand.

Any examples for us?