Recently I’ve seen a lot of brand name/generic type discussions- usually around specific product types- laundry detergent, drugs, batteries, etc…
I am sitting here drinking a “Big K Citrus Drop Zero Calorie” diet soda and got to thinking that I like it as much if not more than Diet Mountain Dew, which is what it’s clearly knocking off.
So I got to wondering which products are objectively superior to the name brand equivalents. Not “better bang for the buck”, but actually better in whatever ways that count. Nor am I looking for equal products either- there are lots that are for all intents and purposes the same as the name brand.
This Kroger brand soda is an example - by my lights, it’s all around better, and I’ll be buying it instead of Diet Mountain Dew when I happen to go to Kroger. IIRC Target makes a dishwasher detergent tab that’s better than the equivalent Cascade or Finish product. Those are the sorts of things I’m curious about.
Kellogs brand granola breakfast cereal is more expensive and is coated in some kind of thing I dislike. Store brands were cheaper and didn’t have the coating.
Trader Joe’s has tons of house brand stuff that’s better than most name brand stuff. For example, their nuts and dried fruit are the best and pretty inexpensive. I use their walnuts in my breakfast every day.
Aldi sells a lot of items their own brand that are as good as, or better than, brand names. Their mayonnaise is great, for one small example… My husband was a Brand Name Queen and insisted only on ‘the real thing’. I told him a lot of store label food came from the same factories as the food he sees on the teevee commercial. No dice. Swore he ‘could tell’.
I haven’t run across many Aldi things that are actually better than the name-brands they’re competing with/modeling themselves after.
That’s just it- there are lots of “just as good” products out there, and even more “better value” products. But how many are actually better- like you’d pay more for the house brand vs. the name brand because the house brand is actually superior?
It depends on just which name-brand product you consider “equivalent”. For instance, Aldi’s house-brand tea, Benner’s, isn’t as good as Twinings or Stash, but it is better, by a fair margin, than Lipton or Tetlea. In addition to being much cheaper than any other tea you’ll find.
For some other products, I’m not sure if there even is an “equivalent” name brand. Where else does one buy 85% dark chocolate, for instance? Most name brands, at least what you find on the shelf, seem to top out at 75%.
‘Objectively better’ is going to be tricky for a lot of stuff; Vitamin pills may be objectively better in their content or balance or fulfilment of RDA, detergent can be objectively better in performing the task of cleaning, but food being ‘better’ equates pretty much to ‘I like it better’, which is subjective.
I like supermarket brand yeast extract* better than Marmite.
*(any of them - the supermarket own brands are all the same as each other because they are made on the same production line as each other)
My husband used to work at a Campbell’s plant (that one was closed in 2013), and reported seeing store-brand items being produced at that plant right along with the name brands.
Generally I’m aiming at what it’s trying to position itself against. Some things even have a “Compare to ” labeling on it. In Aldi’s case, there’s usually a name brand with very similar packaging.
I’ve found Kroger’s “Private Selection” label to offer equal or better food compared to name brands. HemisFares pasta sauce, notably the sausage and fennel ragu with Barolo wine which is distributed by Kroger, is in my opinion one of the best commercially available jarred sauces (too bad I haven’t been able to find that particular one for about a year now).
Well, let’s not set the bar too high by comparing with Oscar Mayer … Pretty sure I shit out a better hot dog. (OK, Nathan’s is decent, as is Hebrew National when it comes to national brands.)
I prefer Kirkland mayo to Hellmann’s. (Though I’ll take Duke’s over either.)
Wal-Mart’s store brand seems to be hit or miss–of the ones I tried the ones I find to as good or better to the name brand:
Oreo cookie knock-offs
Glacier Ranch tortilla chips (Doritos Cool Ranch knock off)
ginger ale and root beer
cola (Coca Cola/Pepsi knock off)
dry pasta they sell for $1.00 a box
Their canned pasta I don’t care for–Chef Boyardee and Spaghetti-Os are better. I prefer the Kraft mac and cheese as well.
As a cerealaholic, I wasn’t going to skip breakfast to lose weight, so I switched to all-whole-grain cereal. Unsweetened Mini-Wheats had the most whole grains without going the “tree bark and hay” or Colon Blow routes.
I tried some generics and found I prefer Pick&Save/MetroMarket’s store brand to Kellogg’s, and it’s half the price.If I want a treat, they have flavored ones, too (with a ton of sugar of course, but that’s why it’s a treat).
