Obviously, whatever personality type brings people to the Straight Dope gives them similar views on grocery shopping. Like everyone here, I buy mostly generics and some name brands. I especially use TJ’s, Whole Food’s and Target’s generics. WFs has great generic sodas. Their Cola is much more herbally than Coke or Pepsi if you like that. Plus no HFCS.
The only time I buy a brand name is when the brand name is on sale cheaper than the store brand or I can’t find a generic equivalent.
BTW does anyone know a generic equivalent for Crystal Light Natural Lemonade Drink Mix? I like the powder. Hauling 2 liter bottles, that are 99% water home strikes me as a huge waste of time and money.
I find I do a lot of my shopping at stores with Dollar in their name.
Target has two store brands, one w/ aspartame (bad for you) and the one I drink, Archer Farms which uses Splenda. It’s 2.49 for a box of 8 packets; I use 3 for a 2 liter bottle.
The mention of Target reminds me that I love their generic (Up & Up) brand for all-purpose bleach cleaning spray. I haven’t allowed myself to shop at Target for the past couple of weeks since I always end up spending way more than I planned to when I visit the store, but I do like their house brand and usually buy it if what I’ve gone to Target for is available in the house brand.
Thanks. I’ll have to swing by Target and check it out.
I am finding an increasing number of generic cold cereals that are indistinguishable from their name-brand equivalents. Not just corn flakes, but more complex things like Special K with strawberries and Lucky Charms*. If we can find a generic of yogurt-covered Cheerios, my wife will be very happy.
- I was right in the target demographic when Lucky Charms came out in the mid-sixties, OK? I still love 'em.
Never forget to check the price per ounce/pound/gallon/serving. Sometimes a “bargain” ain’t so cheap.
I do all my grocery shopping at HEB, I think they’re only in Texas, their store brand stuff is great. At least as good as the name brands, and their Central Market line is often better.
Walmart likes to do this, I notice a lot of the bigger jars/bottles/boxes of stuff are often more per ounce than the smaller ones.
Well, about the only thing that we do buy generic or store-brand are OTC medications and vitamins. I see no reason to buy brand-name Advil or Motrin when generic ibuprofen works equally as well.
However, with respect to just about every other grocery product, we buy name-brand. I’m a believer in Consumer Reports, and the name-brand product is almost always the top-rated product (with some notable exceptions). This includes everything from name-brand Cheerios to Tide detergent to Cascade Complete dishwasher detergent to Bounty paper towels.
Also, in my son’s Boy Scout troop, they generally only buy generic or store-brand foods, and it never seems as high quality as the name-brands. This includes everything from bacon to canned vegetables to cookies to orange juice.
On a related note, I remember an incident that happened to me back as a freshman in college. I was buying some bleach at a store, and recalled a comment that my high school chemistry teacher had made, which was that all bleach was simply a solution of aqueous sodium hypochlorite, and that there was no need to buy name brand, but that a generic would work just as well. So when went to buy bleach in college, I bought the store-brand…and the container leaked on the trip home, ruining a pair of jeans. That’s when I learned that the generic may contain the same product, but not necessarily the same packaging…and ever since then, I’ve bought Chlorox bleach, and have never had any further container leaks. YMMV.
Shrug, ice cream is one of the things for which I’ve never found a store brand I liked. You’ll get my Haagen Dazs or my Gold Label Frigo off my hands… only by putting a box of Farggi in them.
I tend to buy the same brand and variety again and again, but only after a market study which includes the white brands. Several of the stores whose house brands I usually like do get high grades from OCU (“Consumer Reports”).
A recent OCU study which had several store brands of milk among its highest rated and some of the most expensive ones at the very bottom caused a big ruckus and got re-reported by pretty much every newspaper in the country; our favorite milk brands (two store brands, one name brand) were among the top five.
I understand, but I’m not always out to purchase the very best. Or I might just disagree with Consumer Reports. If I find that a store brand suits my purpose sufficiently and I can save a buck, well, that’s a no-brainer! Also, I live in the land of Publix, which has excellent generics.
Almost always we get the store brands - except for chips, and soda. And cereal.
I’ve found that store brand Honey Nut Os are the same as Cheerios at half the price. CR is smoking something if they can tell the difference otherwise.
Paper towels, OTOH, must be brand name. The cheap ones are just that: cheap. You have to use twice as many, which negates any savings.
Kroger’s is good, but stay away from Walgreens!
Nasty.
I’ll buy the name brand if I have a coupon (which the stores here double), making it the same price as the less expensive store brand. But I don’t use many coupons as 90% are for stuff that, well, I just don’t use.
Walmart house brands, for me…usually.
- Cheerios are the worst of the round oat cereals that I have ever had. They don’t taste bad, but, none of the generic/house cereals have that left over grit…like wet sawdust that lingers, which is a characteristic of Cheerios.
- House brand sodas generally suck.
- Doritos have to be brand name.
- Some Good Value gelatin desserts are not as good as Jello brand.
- Good Value pickles: better than brand names.
- Some Good Value ice creams is as good as any, better than many.
- OTCs are as good as brand name.
- Cereals are a bit lesser quality, but not in-your-face kind of difference.
- GV cookies are kickbutt!
- Have to agree that house brand peanut butters are a shade lesser quality.
I’m done.
I buy generic for almost everything. But not:
Soda, because my preferred soda is Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi, which has no generic version that I’ve seen. The occasions when I have regular cola or grape soda or something, the generic is fine, unless it’s Walgreens cola which is nasty.
Mac & cheese, because I noticed a substantial difference in quality and the difference in price is pretty minimal.
Cleaning products, because they don’t work as well in my experience.
I buy whatever ice cream is cheaper, but the Safeway brand is very good, and I think I’d choose it if the prices are equal. Safeway waffles are fine also. However Safeway microwave popcorn is awful, burning in the bag more often then not. However the Safeway frozen vegetables seem to come from the end of the harvest, and are inferior to name brands.
My wife used to work in a vegetable cannery, and they private labeled a lot of their products for stores. So it all depends. And I agree about Costco.
Three words for you, pal:
Heinz® Tomato Ketchup
I gotta concur.
I won’t buy anything but Heinz.