We shop mostly at Giant Eagle in the Cleveland area.
I’ve found their store brand of toilet paper to be much preferred over ANY name brand! Actually, most of their store-brand items (not their low-end Valu-Time store brand) are equal or superior to NAME brands.
As for name-brand must-have…Miracle Whip
Why? I just bought Valu Time(cheaper than store brand) and it tastes the same to me. Is it really different?
I’ll add:
Spaghetti Sauce: Buy it at Farmer Jack. America’s Choice is their store brand and I think you’ll see their Spaghetti Sauce can hold up with the Brand Names.
Store brand’s fine: Ammonia
Store brand preferred: Trader Joe’s Mayo, Wegmans Solid White Tuna
Only name brand: Heinz Ketchup
Store brands: Freezer bags
Name brands: Plastic wrap and aluminum foil. Store brand al foil isn’t strong enough for some of the things I use it for. Actually, I only need the extra-wide al foil to be brand name; the normal-sized can be store.
Store brands: Rice, noodles, dried pasta, low sodium chicken broth
Brand name: Packaged cookies, hot chocolate, ice cream, OJ
Store brands: Most household cleaning items
Brand name: Most laundry cleaning items
We’ve had good luck with most store brand items but one-frozen crinkle-cut French fries. In my experience, you just have to buy Ore-Ida or resign yourself to a sub-par French fry experience.
Name brand only products
Beer! 
Believe it or not, I have seen “generic” beer. No shit, it had a white label and just said “BEER” on the label. Might be ok for watering plants, I 'spose.
I disagree with these two. I actually prefer the store brand soda. For example, Safeway and Nob Hill (Raley’s) brand diet colas are awesome.
Also, I have tried many store-brand cereal and they are always just as good. For example, Raley’s “Honey Nut Squared” (Honey Nut Chex) is great, so is their raisin bran. I have also done everything from store-brand corn flakes, cocoa puffs, froot loops, cheerios, etc. and they have always been just as good or better.
I have heard that often times, products like this are actually the same exact product manufactured in the facility, but just put in different boxes. Can anyone confirm this?
That should say:
The Safeway lemon cookies are damn good - and cheap. Safeway ice cream is excellent also.
Nothing but Hellmans mayo and Heinz ketchup will do. I didn’t even know any store sold generic mayo. As for ketchup, I think I read a New Yorker article on how all attempts to refine ketchup flavors to compete with Heinz had failed. Heinz has it perfect.
I’ll add popcorn to the list of items where I need a name brand. Safeway popcorn always burns for me. Name brands never do.
For me, it depends on the store, really. Walmart’s Sams brand is really good in a lot of things. Equal medicines and toiltries are really great. But there are limits. Nothing beats a Bounty paper towel, for example. And anything other than Hunts ketchup is an abomination. On the other hand, some things don’t matter a whit. Mustard is mustard.
Store-brand trashbags never seem to be very good.
The beer referred to above originated in a ‘Plain Wrap’ roll-out that included all sorts of third-rate goods branded with nothing but the generic product designation, with a blue stripe on white. I haven’t seen any of these in a long time so I’m surprised the beer still exists. I agree it can’t be very good. But then, what do I know? The closest thing to beer I’ve bought recently was a 12-pack of canned 0.5 near-beer. I’m a little particular about my wine or gin, but obviously I don’t care much about beer anymore.
This reminds me: I work just south of LAX, and for the past two days I’ve seen a plain white 737 parked near the corner of Imperial Highway and Sepulveda Boulevard. There is a blue stripe right along the windows, but beyond that, no markings besides its registration number. I keep thinking the word “AIRLINE” or maybe even “AIRPLANE” should be painted in bold black letters where the airline name ought to go.
Cossack! Salad mustard on a pastrami sandwich is too unspeakable for words.
:eek:
I shop at Winco. I almost always buy store/generic. They have, bag your own, bulk
foods. One prime example is buying spices. In pkgs. they cost 8-10 times more than
bulk. Why pay several times the price just for packaging? Soda is half the price and
you taste buds won’t know the difference after a few glasses/bottles. Most prepared
foods are extremely expensive when compared w/ buying the basics and preparing
them yourself and the convenience factor is often an illusion. If you make tons of
money and don’t mind throwing it away, good for you. I’d rather be a careful shopper
and have the money saved for other purposes.
Breyer’s all the way. Store brand ice cream is almost false advertising.
Nearly everything else I buy is store-brand unless its a specialty item, like balsamic vinegar or such, but even now I see store brands of that too. One category I refuse to buy name-brand or store-brand are spices. Show me the bulk foods aisle please. (I miss Larry’s Markets particulary for that.)
Never seen a generic Pringles - any reasons why? Even Lays didnt come out with their version until recently. Strong patents? Small market share?
Didn’t notice this on preview.
Surprisingly, oatmeal. I cook oatmeal in the microwave, and the generic is not cut evenly enough and often boils over in the process of cooking the necessary 2 minutes. Quaker is acceptable, but McCann’s Irish Oatmeal is really the way to go. Perfect results every time.
Oh, no, I agree completely! I would never ruin mustard with a pastrami sandwich.
The only two that I can think of are Jiff peanut butter and Helmans Mayo.
without fail, whenever I have bought Spartan brand raisins, I have gotten very dried, gritty, nasty raisins. I buy Sun-maid now at Costco, probably pay about the same per oz price, and get tasty raisins.
Because a better package might be worth it, in the case of a product that gradually deteriorates on exposure to the air. I suppose you can get around that by having a ready supply of spice containers, but then you have to go to the trouble to do that, and to fill them when you bring the spices home. And in any case that doesn’t address the issue of prolonged exposure at the store.
You can save a lot of money by buying in bulk, but there’s almost always a tradeoff.