# When buying the cheapest is ok. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 7, 2015, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198 "2015-01-07T05:38:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Pabitel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Pabitel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pabitel)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/81 "2015-01-12T17:45:10Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > White rice, sugar, **flour** , corn starch, and baking soda. I can tell NO difference among the expensive brands and the cheapest brand in the store. For most of your list this is true. For a lot of things, like making a roux or breading chicken, generic flour is fine. But if you are baking there is absolutely a difference in flours. Gluten content, grind and hardness can all make an extreme difference in the final product. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/82 "2015-01-13T02:54:42Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > Whoa, there, Richie Rich. Get yourself over to the dollar store and exchange a hundred pennies for 20oz of Koops or whatever. However, this only applies to yellow mustard. Alas! No Koops in Thailand. > [@D4S3R](#): > > Though parachutes, condoms, mountain climbing equipment, syringes and hookers all might conceivably fall into the one-use disposable category, I would have to say no for all of them. > [@boffking](#): > > I’m pretty sure you can use most mountain climbing equipment more than once. And parachutes. Even hookers, judging from the number of legendary ones who have a regular clientele over here. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/83 "2015-01-13T04:31:17Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > For whatever reason, my store brand sugar is coarser than the name brand. > > They may not do it intentionally, but they can vary steps in the process which ends up producing different results. It could be that they run the line faster to produce the cheaper sugar or something like that. So maybe things aren’t stirred as long or heated as long to save money and it ends up producing larger granules. It IS coarser. I found this out years ago. Store brand is fine for my coffee and baking but if I’m rolling or sprinkling a cookie I want a better brand with a finer texture.The store brand always has chunks too. Big fat hard chunks. This is the Kroger store brand. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/84 "2015-01-14T02:18:41Z")
I’ve often found that store-brand or other cheap-ass brands of canned fruits and vegetables are noticeably lower quality. They tend of have irregularly shaped and sized pieces, often aren’t quite ripe (or whatever else it takes to make them chewable) and often stemmy. The major brands are consistently much better. ---
**Author:** ![DingoelGringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@DingoelGringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DingoelGringo)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/85 "2015-01-14T02:26:25Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Apologies for questioning the premise (so early in the thread!) but absolute cheapest, or just cheapest among the choices at a respectable vendor? > > I buy the cheapest tires…but I go to a reputable tire store, so I know they aren’t selling utter crap. Just…kinda sorta crap. I could probably go to Tijuana, or a junkyard, or get the cheapest possible… > > When Sears has a “Good, Better, Best” lineup of products, I nearly always go for the “Good” – the cheapest of the three. > > For clothing, I go to outlet shops and surplus shops, because I really don’t care what kind of shirt I wear. For clothing, I push toward the absolute cheapest. (Any cheaper and I’d be buying fabric and sewing my own.) If you want cheap on tires, just go to any junk yard and ask them for tires with your same rims and buy them for $ 10.00 installed. ---
**Author:** ![DingoelGringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@DingoelGringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DingoelGringo)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/86 "2015-01-14T02:27:51Z")
> [@Jamicat](#): > > Yes but, they have a different tolerance of bug parts per million. 😃 How many bug parts per million do you find ideal? ---
**Author:** ![DingoelGringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@DingoelGringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DingoelGringo)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/87 "2015-01-14T02:31:24Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Nowadays, sewing your own clothing is more expensive than buying it ready-made, unless you’re wanting something custom-made or can get your fabric and notions cheap (i.e. thrift store or garage sale) or free. > > As for the price of a cordless drill, wouldn’t it cost less than, say, $20 to rent one? Probably not. 6 days of rental is the price of a high quality tool. I bought a lot of used rental tools during the time i was in business. ---
**Author:** ![Lorene89095](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@Lorene89095](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorene89095)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/88 "2015-01-14T15:15:05Z")
> [@keturah](#): > > There are very few sugar refineries in the US, and I assure you that they do not vary crystal size when they pack product. You may have gotten (somehow) the type of sugar used to sprinkle over cookies or cakes for effect… I don’t know the specific name for it… ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/89 "2015-01-14T15:25:13Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > I’ve often found that store-brand or other cheap-ass brands of canned fruits and vegetables are noticeably lower quality. They tend of have irregularly shaped and sized pieces, often aren’t quite ripe (or whatever else it takes to make them chewable) and often stemmy. The major brands are consistently much better. Then there’s [low-price tuna](http://englishrussia.com/2007/03/20/atlantic-herring-is-going-wild/)… In Russia, tuna eat you! ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/90 "2015-01-14T15:34:05Z")
Store brands are a mixed bag. Some are excellent, some lousy. Some are fine, just different from the national brand. Here is an example- I like Miracle Whip for certain uses a few times a year. I don’t like its price, so I always buy the cheapest store brand. I recently bought some of the cheapest type at a Marsh supermarket. It did not taste much like Miracle Whip, as I was expecting. It tasted much better, in a less sweet, spicier kind of way. Anyway, I still hold to the idea that enough store brand items are just as good or better than the name brands to make trying them once to find out a good gamble. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/91 "2015-01-14T17:04:29Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > But I want to ask, when is it ok to just buy the cheapest? If you’re in a wine-growing region of France, chances are the carafe wine - the cheapest wine - in the local hotels and restaurants will be the local wine, the excess the vintners cannot sell under their own labels, and as such it’s often very good. In the U.K. for both food and drink a supermarket store’s own premier brand is often pretty good, because they have their name riding on it. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/92 "2015-01-14T17:17:51Z")
Basic office supplies like staples, paper clips, rubber bands, pencils, etc. work pretty well even if they are the cheapest. But with more complicated things like pens, staplers, hole punches, etc., the cheapest ones may be shoddy and practically unusable. ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/93 "2015-01-14T17:56:44Z")
Concur with the sugar differences: the upper midwest gets a lot of beet sugar, and it has a higher mineral content which can make sweet pickle brine turbid and jellies less clear. And with flour, if I make bread, it needs to be King Arthur, but it usually goes bad by the next time I make it. Gas–we don’t have any “Gas for Less” sort of stations in our town, but I notice a mileage difference among brands. Pencils–I worked at a place which bought the cheapest, and about one out of three was either warped, or the lead was not centered. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/94 "2015-01-14T18:21:03Z")
I often buy the store brand cereal because it can easily be $2 cheaper than name brand. I really like the “Everyday Essentials” frosted mini-wheats just as well as the genuine Frosted Mini-Wheats. ---
**Author:** ![vomit\_comet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/73ab20/32.png) [@vomit\_comet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vomit_comet)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/95 "2015-01-14T19:29:05Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I’d happily buy the cheapest syringes available. So long as they have FDA approval, they’re going to be good enough for me. > > Now, condoms, I might move back into the “middle” range of costs. Not the cheapest, but certainly not the “premier” costs either. (And, again, I’d look for FDA approval.) > > Some mountain-climbing equipment, I’d go for the cheapest. The basic ropes/lines. > > But…once more, this goes to my question earlier: absolute cheapest, or cheapest from a reputable store? I insist on a minimum of quality – UL approved, FDA approved, etc. That automatically rules out the absolute cheapest of products – the kind some grinning gap-toothed stranger weeth an outrageous accent swears was used only once by the Archduke Leopold (God rest his memory) when he fell off the Druesberg. Condoms, meh, saran wrap and a rubber band… now that’s cheap. Socks, definitely not, I can’t stand cheap socks. Tricks, cheap tricks are OK, sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/96 "2015-01-14T19:54:09Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > And the rest is from California. Yeah, but their rice has, like, only half the arsenic. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/97 "2015-01-14T20:19:23Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > I often buy the store brand cereal because it can easily be $2 cheaper than name brand. I really like the “Everyday Essentials” frosted mini-wheats just as well as the genuine Frosted Mini-Wheats. This. Yesterday, I stopped at the grocery store specifically to take advantage of a sale on cereal: Malt-o-Meal brand for $1.00 a box. The quality difference between MoM and their big brand counterparts is minimal, in my experience (and there are a couple of MoM varieties I prefer to the originals,) and the cost was about 20-25% of the name brands. With five kids in the house, that kind of savings is important! (Why yes, I do have 15 unopened boxes of cereal in the pantry. That’s totally not weird, right?) As for sugar, I had no clue, really, that so many places in the US commonly sell beet sugar versus cane. Here in the deep south, cane is the default - I don’t even know where I’d look to find beet sugar! And no, all flours are not created equal. For everyday bread making, I generally use fairly inexpensive brands, or even store brand AP flour, but if I’m doing any fancy baking with yeast, I pay more for a good bread flour with a consistent gluten level. And for biscuits or other quick rise breads, it’s White Lily all the way - it’s a lower-protein flour, and makes a noticeably lighter biscuit. (And I frequently substitute White Lily for cake flour - WL goes on sale often enough that I usually have a good supply for $.40/pound or less, while cake flour almost never goes on sale, and costs more than twice as much, and the difference in the final product is almost imperceptible.) ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/98 "2015-01-14T20:23:35Z")
> [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](#): > > Gas–we don’t have any “Gas for Less” sort of stations in our town, but I notice a mileage difference among brands. Unless you have pretty meticulous records to this effect, I’d call baloney on it. Gas is gas… with the sole common exception being the amount of ethanol blended in, which will lower the mileage proportionately. But most such claims are anecdotal and based on subjective memories and varying driving over varying parts of the year. Just sayin’. (ETA: the other less-common exception is fueling a vehicle that will adapt to higher octane gas. Put in premium, and the engine will develop a bit more horsepower and get better mileage due to timing and other adaptations. Put in regular, and it backs off, losing power and mileage.) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/99 "2015-01-14T20:39:14Z")
I swear by the 99 cent store cleansers. **Bon Ami** hasn’t advertised in decades, but it still moves product and works wonderfully. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/100 "2015-01-14T21:24:10Z")
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