Name Brands vs. Store Brands

[FraidKnot]

I know some people who would never stoop to buying a store brand over a name brand, regardless of their financial situation and the price. I find this rather funny.

For example, if you're buying canned beans, does it really make any difference if they are Bush's Best or the store brand? Chances are, they came from the same place. If I'm buying canned tomato sauce because good fresh tomatoes aren't available I've found no difference between the store brand and the name brand. Same thing with dried pasta. Same thing with frozen vegetables. The only difference I've ever found is name brands have a nationally (in the U.S., at least) advertised name on them. They generally cost more unless they are on sale and you have a double-coupon.

Things like toilet paper and paper towels aren't food-related so I'm not talking about those items.

How say you? Are you a name brand only shopper or do you buy store brands?

Fraidy

 

[htc]

For the most part, I don't care. But, I have found occassions where I may not like a particular generic brand as much as I do a big brand name or another generic brand. For me, I'll try it, but if I don't like it I won't buy it again. For example, ketchup. I find that I don't like the Del Monte brand. But some store brands are ok. For my Asian sauces and canned foods, I'm very picky. I buy the brands I like over and over. Not often do I try a new brand.

Oh, I saw a show America's Test Kitchen, they did a taste test on tomato sauce and to some, I guess they can tell the difference. It was a blind test.

 

[FraidKnot]

Well of course if you tried it and don't care for it, don't buy it again. But do you know anyone who won't even try? I do.

 

[Barb L.]

I usually buy store brand vegetables, except for a few, like frozen corn. Some are better than others. I season them up anyway - butter s/p !

 

[boufa06]

Personally, I prefer the store brands. Where I live, they are of very good quality and significantly cheaper (often as much as 50%) than name brands. My only exception is tomato paste for which I prefer a name brand because it is less sour than the rest. I am often amazed that people go for name brands at ridiculous prices. I know that this is purely because of the "stooping down" effect that has epidemic proportions here.

As an indication of anti-stooping down mentality, consider the following:

A few years back, a new (but well-established in Germany as well as other EU countries) supermarket chain opened in this country. Their products are excellent, most of them coming from Germany, and their prices unbeatable most likely due to the large volume deals they are able to secure. After suffering from very little acceptance locally, they found the ultimate solution to reach respectability, ie. raise their prices by 30%. This finally put them firmly into the local map!!!

 

[Gretchen]

The chances are good that the store brand is canned by the "big" brand anyway. I buy what is on sale for what I need.
I love to find things like Muir Glen tomatoes on sale, but will rarely buy them full price.
Store brand tuna may not be as good.

 

[FraidKnot]

It's funny, isn't it, how many people view buying a less expensive brand of something means they are "stooping down" (that's what I call it, anyway). Like one is lowering oneself by saving some money. I don't understand it.

Example here: John and I were working at the Stone Arch art show about - gosh, has it been almost 4 years ago? We got done setting up for the show and went to a restaurant across the street from the park to have something to eat. We ordered the mushroom-swiss burger (delicious, I might add!). It was a $15 hamburger with fries. I happened to comment on my way out that it was tasty but was a really expensive burger. A woman (dressed to the nines) overheard me and said something snide, like "Well of course, you get what you pay for." Heh, it was a burger and fries. Not McD's but nothing spectacular.

So okay, I'm a smart-a** I'm pretty darned sure she wasn't going to walk across the street and spend $10,000 on one of John's paintings. So I said over my shoulder, "Yeah, and if you're an idiot you get overcharged every time."

That same show, the next day, we were invited by one of his repeat patrons for dinner. She has several of his works hanging in her condo and we were invited to have drinks after the show. We had cheese and crackers and sliced baguette on her gated 2nd floor terrace entrance which overlooks the Mississippi River. She then suddenly wheeled a grill out of nowhere and asked "Who wants cheese on their burgers?" Then she promptly announced one of her guests was the grill master and had him grill hamburger! So we had cheeseburgers , cooked to order, some sort of potato dish prepared by one of her guests (not fries!) more wine and lots of laughter. We talked about her Disney print of Mickey; apparently her ex's father did it. Cool! She had Mickey and Minnie Mouse salt & pepper shakers on her dining room table.

But so much for snobbery. The rich eat cheeseburgers, too. And appreciate Disney characters.

Fraidy

 

[thumpershere2]

Whats ever on sale. Or the cheaper brand unless I know that that brand isn't very good.

 

[Katie H]

I usually buy whatever is least expensive. I'm a bargain shopper and use coupons whenever I can, so I can frequently get very good deals. Since all companies have to follow at least the minimum FDA requirements, I have no problem with store brands.

One difference between name brands and store brands is, obviously, cost in advertising. Print and TV ads don't come cheap. Quality is another issue. Canned green beans, for example, will be more uniform in size in a name brand. In off/store brands, the cans might contain beans of many sizes and cuts. Doesn't bother me.

Since I'm rarely influenced by advertising, I see no need to pay for it. I'd rather have two cans of what I view as a quite acceptable product than one that has a "name."

 

[Michael in FtW]

I don't care what brand something is if it is good quality! A name brand doesn't mean something is better than some off-brand ... it just means it's usually going to cost more because of their advertising costs. I generally find less expensive brands are just as good as more expensive "name" brands.

And, as has been noted - sometimes a dozen different brands come out of the same processing plant with a dozen or more different labels. Remember the recent e-coli spinach scare? And, there was something on TV a few weeks ago one of the Discovery channels I think, on "How It's Made" or some other not FoodNetwork show, that showed a plant that processed canned vegetables and put them into the warehouse until they got an order ... and then they ran them through the labeling process for the brand to fit the order.

I have never noticed any real difference in frozen vegetables.

I do notice a bigger difference in canned tomatoes and tomato sauces, but not so much between US brands. Depending on what I am making (Italian sauces mainly) I will splurge and make the extra trip to a store that carries Muir Glen or San Marsano brands - but I did find an odd brand of San Marsano tomatoes, don't remember the name but I remember what the can looked like, that was 1/2 the price and I thought a little sweeter (less acidic). But a lot of the differences in tomatoes comes not from processing as much as from the type of tomato, soil conditions, climate, and growing season. Kind of like grapes for wine and olives for oil.

 

[Robo410]

generally speaking, name brands are grade A produce, and store brands are grade B ...smaller, perhaps more broken whatever... sometimes this makes a difference in what I'm cooking, often it doesn't.

Other times the differnece is in the packing juices...I want tomatoes canned with basil not sugar for most recipes I'm making so I have to read the ingredients.

 

[JoAnn L.]

The only brand name we absolutely have to buy is "Heinz" catsup. This family will not use anything else. Once they gave my brother-in-law a whole case for Christmas as a joke. He said that it was the best gift he ever had.

 

[sparrowgrass]

I don't buy store brand pasta/noodles--I have never found any that didn't cook up gummy.

I don't buy any canned veggies, so can't comment on those, but I do buy store brand flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, powdered and canned milk, and can't tell any difference from name brands.

 

[Claire]

I have moved around a lot, and I tend to buy the generic store brand once. If it is great (Publix whole green beans are great, we've been known to buy a case of them and bring them back when we visit the south), great. If it is bad (for example, green beans that are stringy or have too much of the vine left on them, other beans that are mushy, stuff that is to salty), then I just don't buy them again. But I'm a child of my parents: I try the cheapest option first. When it doesn't work, I just don't do it again. We aren't buying diamonds here. When I was a kid in the military, we used to have what we called "GI Brand" food. It was cans that the label had been torn off and sold to the commissary at cut-rate prices. Sometimes it was a winner (the time Mom got tiny, then expensive, LaSoeur peas for next to nothing), and sometimes a loser (the time she picked up a case of frozen fried chicken cutlets that tasted so bad ... we still ate them. Mom finally hit on grinding them through a meat grinder, adding miracle whip, pickles, and onions and making chicken salad sandwiches. Nothing went to waste in those days.

 

[Claire]

I, too, am an advocate of name brand pasta. When you live in the south, Creamettes seem to hold up best. Otherwise I like Barilla. To be honest with you, there isn't that much difference between brands when cooking them up the first time. But with it just being the two of us, I tend to make a ton of pasta then eat it leftover a lot. Barilla seems to hold up best to reheating. I haven't had luck with store brands of pasta. But Mom just sent Hubby a new pasta machine, so there is more home-made in my future! Once upon a time we never bought store brand, but our pasta machines either died or were failures in recent years. I'm happy we're back on the home-made track!

 

[Gretchen]

When talking pasta as Claire is, I DO buy deCecco lasagna noodles--nice and thin. BUT when we were lucky enough to have a Hannaford's for a short time, their store brand lasagna was as good or better!! Just a word for you New Englanders!!

 

[Constance]

It depends on what I'm buying, and whether it's a store brand or some generic off brand. Someone mentioned spaghetti sauce...I tried an inexpensive generic brand (Three Sisters) just once, and it was terrible. I've bought generic green beans that had stems and pieces with bug bites on them...definately the scraps swept up off the floor.
On the other hand, some of the store brands and lesser known brands are just as good as the famous ones. You just have to experiment and find the ones you like. Allen's and Libby vegetables are quite good. Best Choice and Kroger brands are right up there with the best.
But Bush's really does have the best Chili Beans and baked beans. I always buy Brook's catsup for the table, while the store brand is fine for making BBQ sauce. Generic pasta is fine for slumgullion, but I use Barilla for pasta that is lightly dressed.
Flour is flour, and sugar is sugar...so I buy the cheap brands.
Packaged lunchmeats and sausages are one place I don't experiment much. On the other hand, a Hyde Park turkey is just as good as a Butterball, IMO.

What it comes down to, is that I save where I can without sacrificing flavor and nutrition.

 

[Shunka]

Like everyone else on here; I will buy the store brand unless I have tried it before and found it too lacking. There are a few things (mayo is one) that I only buy brand-name as the others just weren't anywhere near as good.

 

[sattie]

Well... I must be a bottom dweller!!! I will buy off brands as opposed to name brands. Heck, try it, if you don't like it, then never buy it again. I tried a store brand of garlic toast... boy that was nasty!!!!

I don't mind stooping to save a dollar.

 

[college_cook]

It depends on what I'm buying. For 95% of things, I'll get the store brand not only is it cheaper, but I still have my employee discount card from when I worked at Marsh and get an additional 10% off on Marsh brand items.

There are things that I, and I hink most people would be particular about. Olive oil, for example. I don't buy Marsh brand Olive oil. The cheapest Olive oil I usuakly get is Bertolli or another name brand I currently can't remember the name of. But for things like flour, sugar, canned items, it is as someone mentioned- the supermarket brands are produced, canned, and labeled in the same factories as the name brand product, generally speaking.