I have a pair of walking shoes made by Rugged Exposure that I bought at Big 5 on their sell-out rack. They were under $20 yet it seems they were custom made for my extra-wide feet. From the moment I tried them on they were perfect. Not a hint of the new shoe blues to be found. Now, 6 months later, they still look and feel great. Any other pair would not only have shown wear but would have stretched out on the outer sides by now. I hope I can find more Rugged Exposures when I need them.
I’m a fan of most store-brand breakfast cereals. In general the sugary store brands are very similar in quality to the sugary brand-name cereals. You run into more problems with the non-sugary ones. Store-brand Cheerios are good but less dense than the General Mills variety. Store-brand frosted (okay, so that’s sugary) shredded wheat is fine – more dense than the Kellogg’s kind but less dense than the Post kind. You can go with the store brand of most cereals happily. However, I avoid generic Grape-Nuts. Usually called “wheat and barley” or some such. It’s just not the same at all, and it’s worth spending extra to get brand-name Grape-Nuts.
I have extremely dry skin, and discovering Eucerin was like a godsend. I’ve since learned the Eckerd-brand “concentrated therapeutic moisturizer: compare to Eucerin ™” is just as good, and half the price.
Does Hyundai count as an off-brand? My Elantra is great.
My AMD-based system is ten times as reliable as my old Pentiums. Put that down to XP, though.
Ginger ale is weird in that the cheap generic stuff is always better than Schwepps or Canada Dry. SFW generic is 99 cents a six-pack, and it’s tasty.
Aspirin does nothing for my sinus headaches, but Excedrin always does the trick. CVS has a generic version that’s just as good, for about 60% of the cost.
I think the No Name Brand (in the yellow box) of frozen waffles is by far superior tastewise to the Eggos kind. Plus they don’t contain hydrogenated fats.
At Trader Joe’s there is a generic cheesecake that comes in sort of a pizza type carton and all it says on the box is “cheesecake”. It is fantastic…just like the kind I remember in NYC, only better!
I only buy store brand box macaroni and cheese. (Yeah, I know it’s disgusting any way you slice it, but…) I don’t think that the “blue box” brand doesn’t taste as good, and I trick mine up with onion and spices anyway, so why pay twice as much? I do likewise with spaghetti sauce, preferring a small locally available brand to any of the national names.
I agree with store brand ginger ales, I also find that store brand lemon-lime is just as good as 7Up, and not as sticky-sweet as Sprite.
My two most comfortable and favorite pairs of shoes are from Payless. $12.99, baby.
And I don’t know if it’s an “off brand” but Sun Soy isn’t the brand leader for soy milk, but it’s much better, IMO, than Silk or 8th Generation.
In Ireland I think Tesco’s economy chocolate (with or without hazelnuts) is better than any other chocolate I can get here unless I want to go seriously expensive. I guess as a foreigner I lack that essential Cadbury’s appreciation gene.
Aldi brand hot dogs are far superior to Oscar Meyer or other name brands (I just try not to think of the ingredients)
Also, Ilike their diet cola, but my wife can’t stand it and she always gets mad at me when I buy it because you can only return the cans at Aldi.
I also used to love their spaghetti rings with meatballs. Not better than Spaghettios, but on par with them.
I got two really good pairs of Classic Gold pants at Target for $10 apiece. Black jeans and Khakis, size 44 waist, and if I spill chemicals on them at work, no big deal.
The best frozen pizza is Meijer brand, self-rising crust, 4 cheese pizza. Crispy on the bottom, softer and chewier on top, and when Meijer does it’s Meijer brand sales, you can grab 4 for $10. Easily beats out DiGiorno’s, Tombstone, California Pizza Kitchen, etc. Too bad Meijer is a mainly Michigan thing from what I’ve seen.
I think the Safeway “Thin Wheats” taste way better than the name brand “Wheat Thins.” (Wheat Thins are crisper, though.)
Albertson’s carries a vodka called “Six” that I assume is a store brand (yet says nothing about Albertson’s on it.) It’s in a semi-Absolut-shaped bottle and the little shelf tag says “compare to Absolut.” It’s usually on sale for around $9.99 and in my opinion is far superior to Absolut, which does not agree with me for some reason.
