I’ve got a feeling that they’re all distributed by the same company. I’ve found that Publix, Giant and Shoppers brand tomato juice are all better than Campbell’s
Or maybe it’s not that hard to make good tomato juice.
Store brands are sometimes simply white-labeled name brands, though I don’t know how often this is. For example, in the meat department, I’ve watched them shelve store-brand chicken from both Sanderson Farms and Tyson boxes.
Spartan Stores, a Grand Rapids-based grocer recently bought out Nash Finch from Minnesota, had their store brands, and I loved their sandwich cookies. Much better than Oreos, even if they did occasionally change manufacturer. Now all the Spartan Brands have been replaced with the Nash Finch “Our Family” in the stores that used to carry Spartan Brand stuff, and they don’t make sandwich cookies. A real loss for me.
Aldi coffee is surprisingly solid for the price as well. Barissimo is the brand name I recall…
I don’t know if Wal-Mart’s personal care/pharmacy products are BETTER than the name-brand equivalents, but in many cases, they’re equivalent and much cheaper. I mean, why buy name-brand Advil if you can buy Equate ibuprofen for 1/3 the cost?
Another vote for WalMart. Their generic medications are identical to the brand names, at much reduced prices. And their canned soda brand is excellent. And I just made some of their coffee, and I like it quite a bit.
A lot of store brand items are from the exact same production lines as the name-brand, just with a different label.
One difference I noticed, when I was looking for ricotta for a recipe that explicitly said to avoid ricotta with stabilizers/thickeners added. The store brand was the version without any additives while the name-brands all had some.
I’ve never seen “better”, but I’ve seen “equal quality and no reason not to buy it if it’s cheaper.”
I thought of one… Kroger’s Private Selection hot dogs are stellar- both the regular all-beef and the brisket ones. Better than Oscar Mayer, Ball Park and most other brands.
H-E-B (popular store chain in Texas) sells a couple of fantastic pasta sauces under one of their in-house labels. The one with black olives and capers is better than any sauce I’ve had, anywhere. The spicy red pepper version is outstanding, too.