Because I know the guy, and he isn’t going to make anything. I’ve also made dishes for my husband to bring to work parties, and made much of the food when we’ve hosted parties at our place, plus I know that many of the wives of his coworkers have done similarly (or the workers themselves, depending on their cooking skill), so I’m not expecting anything dramatically different. I was talking about the incident that fits the sole, very particular person that pinged my “generic soda” issue, mentioning something that could be done cheaply if money alone were the problem, and it’s not in his case.
Policy among my group of friends is as follows:
David buys the drinks. This has been so for a long, long time, because he’s Pepsiphobic and starts foaming at the mouth in the absence of his Coke. Everything except the Coke is whichever-brand-was-on-offer. He’s been accused of having blood in his Cocacolastream.
When we started getting people who demanded such alien beverages as “caffeine-free diet lemon Coke,” they were informed that “if you want to drink something with a name longer than two words, you have to bring it yourself. If you run out, that’s your problem, don’t complain to the rest of us.”
Those who BTOD don’t have to pay they share of drinks - unless they take so much as a sip from the common pool 
And the OP’s coworkers were just being impolite because they could.
Your coworkers were rude, no question. However, if I routinely bought the store brand for myself, I would have bought the name brand stuff for the party. Just because I might think nothing of substituting the cheaper stuff for myself doesn’t mean others feel the same way. Soda people- specifically cola people- tend to be overly protective of their brand. Coke people hate Pepsi, Pepsi people hate RC Cola, etc. Personally I don’t drink sodas so I’d be drinking water regardless, but I would have treated the office folks to the good stuff.
(Part of the reason is that I’m (potentially irrationally) fearful of anyone thinking I’m cheap. If money is an issue, I’ll privately do without to enable me to appear to the rest of the world that I’m flush.)
Your co-workers are ridiculous, spoiled, and rude.
It depends on what soft drinks are usually brought to your potlucks. You said that you haven’t paid attention to what others have brought in the past… but I’ll assume here that it wasn’t store brand generic soft drinks. If someone had brought generic, when everyone else brings name brand, I’d just think you were cheap. And yes, I might mention it.
Perhaps you should insist they take the whole bottle, rectally.
I don’t drink much pop, so it doesn’t make a difference to me. I certainly wouldn’t give anyone a hard time about it though. Pop schmop. It all rots your teeth.
At a recent family event, I got sick of beer and switched to soda. Someone brought generic.
I wish I remembered the ‘brand’ because their version of Dr. Pepper was so good! My mom and I were like “wow, I think this tastes better than the real stuff!”
It’s tacky to comment on someone’s choice like that - especially when it’s obviously because someone needs to save money! It was very rude and I would have wanted to shake up one of the cans and spray everyone with it and tell them off.
I drink diet soda but I keep “regular” soda around the house for guests (in cans). I have two friends that’ll drink anything, two friends who refuse Coke because they want Pepsi and two who refuse Pepsi because they want Coke.
I don’t really find it rude because they didn’t really come to my house just to drink soda, but I find it mind-boggling that they care enough about the difference between Coke and Pepsi to refuse one or the other. They are both high-quality sugar water, guys! Just drink!
(my one friend will actually refuse soda at a restaurant and opt for water if they don’t serve Pepsi. I don’t get this either.)
I would have smiled and drunk water.
The reason, for me at least, is that I’m a diet cola drinker. Now, I’ll grant you that all sugary Sprite/7-UP type pops taste pretty much the same, but not so with diet colas. And the generic brands are invariably vile. But that isn’t your fault or your problem, it’s my picky tastes coing into play. So rather than subject myself to a drink I don’t want, or you to embarrassment, I’d drink something else. No harm done.
In most cases I do find that there is a big difference in taste between generic store brands and the name-brands, especially in the cola department. A cheap store-brand cola is a terrible thing, drinkable on in situations where all other options have either been exhausted or are even worse – like orange soda. shudder One thing I don’t mind in generic though is ginger ale. The differences there seem not to be nearly as great, tending towards a slight difference in sweetness and/or “sharpness.” On the whole though, ginger ale is pretty good from just about any company. (There is a difference though between ginger ale and those imported ginger beers, though, which tend to be a little sweeter and more gingery.)
Complaining about that which you get or free however is definitely rude, though.
Skipper?
Well, I can see it two ways. Like Who_me? said, if in the past, everyone has brought regular versus generic store brand, it would look kind of - er - cheap not to.
I would never say a word about it, though - that’s just tacky.
However, that being said, I’ve been flat broke before - and if I had to buy generic, I’d buy generic. Next time, if you’re in the same situation, have a reply to these cretins ready - something that will make them feel REALLY guilty about saying anything at all.
See, I’m a bitch like that.
As have I, absolutely. If I had only X amount of money, however, my reaction would be to buy name-brand sodas and maybe there not be enough rather than to get an abundance of generics. Just my silly pride stickin’ out.
Yes, your coworkers were rude. But you should not have brought generic pop. As someone who grew up drinking the stuff, I can say without any doubt that the taste is dramatically different from Pepsi, Coke, or Dr. Pepper. As someone who is both cheap and generally buys the store brand of most products, I’ll never buy nor drink store brand pop.
Furthermore, name brand pop doesn’t really cost all that much more. Sure, the percentage difference is big, but the actual cost is pretty negligible. For example, if you go to Wal-Mart of get a sale at another store, it costs around $1.25 for a two liter. Sometimes you can even find deals where it’s only .90 or so for a two liter. Generic pop may cost around .50 for a two liter. Yes, that’s a savings of fifty percent or more, but in terms of real money you are only saving a few dollars if you are purchasing multiple bottles.
For yourself, buy what you want. When you are shopping for others, however, you can’t cheap out. If you are too broke to afford to spend a few more dollars on name brand pop, then perhaps you’re too broke to be asked to share the burden of these potluck meals.
No. It is condescending to him if you expect her to be better at it. For example, if we expect that he could fix the car, but she couldn’t, that would be condescending to her.
And, upon further review, you are being condescending in general by going out of your way to suggest his wife might be doing all those other chores – wherein there is a suggestion in the background that he isn’t. Jeesh!
Yep, pretty much. I don’t drink soda, so it wouldn’t matter to me what you brought anyway, but complaining about it is childish and out of bounds. If they want something else, they can jolly well pay for it and bring it themselves.
I disagree. My husband and I both work, and we share household responsibilities. For someone to say that I should have to make potato salad for my husband’s work, simply because I am the wife, would be condescending, because of the implication that, being the female, I should be expected to perform this duty for my husband, when I have just as many work and home responsibilities as my husband does.
And I don’t see the implication that, just because his wife is doing those duties, he is not. All I see is the statement that she might be busy, and thus not in a better position to make potato salad.
Complaining about it is just rude and tacky. If you’re so very concerned about the quality of your bubbly sugar water, then volunteer to bring the drinks yourself. It’s one thing to be dissatisfied with it; it’s totally different to actually complain.
Isn’t the whole point of a potluck that you just shut up and eat what’s offered?
No, that’s the point of a soup kitchen. And I say that as someone who has eaten as well as volunteered at them. The point of a potluck, to me at least, is that you bring something cool or special or at the very least good. Probably better than what you might serve to just yourself; I’m happy to eat ramen for lunch at work, but if I’m bringing something to share with 10 other people, I wouldn’t subject them to that.
Having said that, I would never complain about something someone else brought to a potluck.