Most of them? Generics are frequently the same thing from the same manufacturer with cheaper packaging and no/very little marketing. There are very few things I’ve ever tried that were noticeably better in the name brand.
Unless it’s Kroger, never buy Kroger brand.
Interesting. Outside of chips, I’ve had a lot of luck with Private Selection (Kroger’s no name brand). I’ve had quality issues with Food Lion and Walmart’s perishables, but not as often with Kroger. Kroger’s non perishables don’t seem to be much different than Walmart’s though.
Private Selection isn’t bad, I was referring to Kroger brand as in it actually says Kroger, which is a suffering I wish on no one. It’s also worth noting that Private Selection is a substantial bump in price over plain Kroger brand.
Still pretty cheap, but yeah. I’ve had little from the Kroger line that I’d buy again, so that’s fair enough.
Eh, Oreo’s are better than hydrox, at least the chocolate ones.
As far as I know Hydrox isn’t a generic, it was the original brand. Oreo was an imitation and came later, but store brands/generic even later
You are 100% correct. This commenter seems to have confused “generic” with “competition”.
That’s a placebo affect. Most generics are stuff that don’t meet the standards of the name brand, but is still fine to sell. Kind of a form of downcycling.
I don’t know that placebo is the right word (or if you just pulled that info out of your ass) but even if it was, if people consume the generic and just feel like it was the same, then who cares? It’s not like people are buying Kirkland chemotherapy, it’s some cookies or lotion or whatever, and our feelings about those things are totally subjective anyway.
And even with medicine - not sure about cancer treatments, but headaches cured fine with generic ibuprofen vs more expensive Nurofen™ or similar
Maybe there are a few examples of this, but in general this is just a blatant lie.
Any drugs. If you’re not familiar with medications, just look at the active ingredients. They’re most likely the same or very similar dosages.
Also, sleep aids are usually just diphenhydramine, aka Benadryl.
I’m not a doctor or a pharmacist. But just because it has the same ingredients doesn’t mean it is the same. The way the medication is packaged, what fillers it has, etc. may have an impact on the way it works. Anecdotally I’ve heard of people having a different reaction to namebrand and generic because of some of these factors.
Good point, and worth keeping in mind! At the same time, the generics are often so much cheaper it’s worth a try. I take Claratin daily for allergies and the Costco version is literally 10% the cost of name brand. It’s astounding how much of a markup basic OTC drugs can have.
Yeah there are less controls around generic prescription drugs than their name brand counterparts.
The article goes into how oversight over generic drugs is really low.
This is common knowledge.
This is why a lot of insurances only cover the brand name ones if there is a problem with the generic.
Vitamins and health supplements too. My mom works at a pretty big brand name one of them and they literally package the exact same stuff for a generic brand that’s half the price.
Potato.
I told Latvian cousin to buy store brand potato. He laugh, I laugh. There is no store.
Why buy potato with name?
Potato already have name: Potato.
I once buy brand name potato.
I kid, I am poor and store no have potato.
What is store, comrade?
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I’d say the other way around. The store brand version has nearly always been fine, in my experience. I’d instead use the store brand and make a list of cases where the store brand isn’t okay. At least in my experience, it’s pretty limited. What I can recall having bad experiences with, off-the-cuff:
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Soup. I have had some pretty disappointing store brand canned soups.
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Things with motors, like small kitchen appliances, blenders and the like. I’ve had a bunch of generic ones of those fail before.
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Sodas. These aren’t exactly the same. Some people particularly prefer the taste of one root beer or whatever, and it might be that they prefer a name brand. That being said, there are also people who prefer store brands, so…shrugs
There are also a few cases where I’ve run into a particular brand that doesn’t have a store clone, and where I really like the name-brand product.
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Pretzels. I particularly like Dot’s. I haven’t seen a store brand clone of Dot’s.
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Sardines. Bit of a niche, but I once went on some website with some guy that was absolutely rabid about sardines, reviewed them, wrote huge amounts about them. My dad always liked eating canned sardines on crackers. Tried a couple different brands, and yeah, there is a difference, but the big one is that stores in the US don’t normally have heavily-smoked sardines (well, okay, sprats) in oil. I started eating Latvian “Riga Gold” sprats in oil, and they’re just amazing. I don’t like a lot of foods I’ve tried from Eastern Europe, but man, they hit it out of the ballpark on that. I don’t think that we have a US-based comparable manufacturer.
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Red Windsor cheese. It’s not all that fancy, just cheddar with some port wine marbled in, but I really like the taste. Same thing on this – I don’t think that there are any companies in the US that make the stuff, so it’s name brand or nothing.
If someone did clone any of the last three, though, I’d give 'em a try.
Store brand ketchup is always awful.
Mac and cheese is another with significant variety in flavor between brands.
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Really as long as they are labeled correctly and not like dairy treat vs ice cream it’s probably fine
labeled correctly and not like dairy treat vs ice cream
I mean, that is labeled correctly…
Something to do with milk fat percentages. And since it’s (relatively) expensive, once you go cheap enough they stop using it and legally can’t call it ice cream. There’s not enough cream to meet the legal definition
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Yeah, for me just about any consumable I buy store brand for. They’re pretty much equal the name brand (if not sometimes better). There are some exceptions, but as long as they’re the same product, they’re probably produced in the same factory even.
Recently I’ve been buying the grocery store brand cereals. They’re half the price and I honestly find them tastier and made with better ingredients. Kellogg’s quality has gone down the drain and it’s really noticeable when you switch over.
The store by me has their own brand of pop-tart that’s got more icing and filling as well as being half the cost. They don’t have as many flavors, but they’re not shrinkflated to the point of being a sad cookie. Shout out to Meijer toaster pastries.
Personally I don’t care about brand names but about quality, as long as it’s not shit just buy the cheaper options. Mostly the brand stuff isn’t worth it, at least here in Czech republic but here’s whole different problem with us getting all the shittiest products from EU.
Birthday/Christmas cards
Nobody in this generation buys those. I’d guess nobody younger than boomers has a significant percentage buying them regularly.
I’m a zoomer and I both buy and love receiving those.
I guess you need to define “fine”. Most things are fine to buy but some name brand items are, in my opinion, worth spending more on.
For example, for me it’s certain condiments and spices. Red pepper flakes by a name brand such as McCormick just taste better and have a more potent flavor. Buying a generic brand is just “fine” - it gives a good kick to food - but it doesn’t nearly taste the same or is as flavorful as the name brand. In my opinion!
Lol, just a FYI about McCormick they also produce the generic spices on the exact same lines with the exact same spices as their own brand.
I worked on the ground pepper line, the ONLY difference between McCormick and the black white 4oz cans was the amount that was considered “acceptable”. Brand name was kicked off it was under filled below 3.75 while generic cans could be 3.5 oz and still considered acceptable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_discrimination
Price discrimination is a microeconomic pricing strategy where identical or largely similar goods or services are sold at different prices by the same provider in different market segments.[1][2][3] Price discrimination is distinguished from product differentiation by the more substantial difference in production cost for the differently priced products involved in the latter strategy.[3] Price differentiation essentially relies on the variation in the customers’ willingness to pay[2][3][4] and in the elasticity of their demand. For price discrimination to succeed, a firm must have market power, such as a dominant market share, product uniqueness, sole pricing power, etc.[5] All prices under price discrimination are higher than the equilibrium price in a perfectly competitive market. However, some prices under price discrimination may be lower than the price charged by a single-price monopolist. Price discrimination is utilised by the monopolist to recapture some deadweight loss.[6] This Pricing strategy enables firms to capture additional consumer surplus and maximize their profits while benefiting some consumers at lower prices. Price discrimination can take many forms and is prevalent in many industries, from education and telecommunications to healthcare.[7]
In a theoretical market with perfect information, perfect substitutes, and no transaction costs or prohibition on secondary exchange (or re-selling) to prevent arbitrage, price discrimination can only be a feature of monopoly and oligopoly markets,[19] where market power can be exercised (see ‘Price discrimination and monopoly power’ below for more in-depth explanation). Without market power when the price is differentiated higher than the market equilibrium consumers will move to buy from other producers selling at the market equilibrium.[20] Moreover, when the seller tries to sell the same good at differentiating prices, the buyer at the lower price can arbitrage by selling to the consumer buying at the higher price with a small discount from the higher price.[21]
You’re undermining their reliance on consumers not having perfect information there.
In Canada, No Name Brand. All the products are in non eye-catching packaging, and are quite cheap. They are quite popular with the college and university housing crowds.
Breakfast cereal 100%
I’d go out of my way to buy Malt-o-Meal cereals even if they weren’t cheaper. Marshmallow Mateys 4 Lyfe!
I don’t recommend the generic for mini wheats though. I tried it, and as someone who always seeks the store brand for stuff I was not impressed.
I actually like the generic mini wheats better. I much prefer the generic cinnamon toasts too. The name brands taste weird to me now, like they have too much iron in them or something. Tastes metallic to me.
I like store brand oat loops more than Cheerios. I feel like they are less powdery.
Store brand frozen vegetables and canned vegetables are fine, however I’ve found that there’s a huge difference in quality where canned beans are concerned. Generic refried beans are just awful, as are generic baked beans.
Green beans, also. Mostly, it’s the texture and how good a job was done removing all the stems.
Refried beans are one of those items that need to be a very specific brand (la costeña obviously). Other bean brands are ok but nothing ever comes close.
Most things but I just wouldn’t buy processed food branded or unbranded.
Noodles. Premade sauce in jars, that’s a different story, but the noodles themselves … I simply can’t taste any difference, so why should I pay five times as much for the same amount of noodles?
Same with rice. I usually buy a huge bag of no-name rice from a nearby overseas market every couple of months, which is a lot cheaper than buying the same amount of rice in small bags, and doubly so if said rice is a brand name grain.
I disagree, there is a huge difference for pasta. People tend to buy Barilla here which is both expensive and bad. There are other brands which are much better and sometimes even cheaper (e.g. Rummo).
But then again I find store bought sauces pretty uninspiring so it probably doesn’t matter which pasta you use for those. It really matters for making pasta dishes which rely using the starchy pasta water for creating a sauce (like carbonara).
