Are the cheaper instore brands as good as the commercial ones

[georgevan]

for instance I. was shopping for cooking oil and the instore brand was $1 cheaper but the same type of oil. I find the same thing with many different items like Metamucil for instance.

 

[Andy M.]

I find store brands hit or miss for quality. Some are fine, some are awful. Costco's store brand, Kirkland Signature, is the best store brand for consistent great quality.

 

[FrankZ]

That is a pretty broad question.

As far as spices go, I knew a guy that worked at a huge spice operation (the other one, not McCormick) and he said they put the same spice in all the bottles then put the different labels on them depending on who it was going to, name brand and store.

Do with that what you will.

 

[larry_stewart]

I remember years ago I visited the Anderson's Pretzel Factory in Pennsylvania. At the end of the tour, they hd a wall with bags/ wrappers of all the brands they provided pretzels for. One of which was Shoprite. I always bought Shoprite hard pretzels cause they tasted good and were 1/2 the price. It was only that day that I realized it was the same thing.

That being said, I think there are certain things where the Name brand just seems / or legitimately is better.

 

[taxlady]

As others have said, it depends on what and which store. Lots of stuff is identical. Some is not worth buying. Some is actually better. President's Choice is a store brand in the Canadian Loblaw's family of stores. Some of their chocolate is better than name brand. They used to have some "Pecan Chews" that were similar to "Turtles", but I thought they were better. They have some imported French chocolate (I started buying it because there is no soy lecithin in it.). It is a really delightful chocolate. I won't say everything under the President's Choice label is better, but it's usually at least good.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

In a few instances, thev store brand is actually better. One example, IMO, is Kirkland canned tuna. It is chunkier, with more tuna than liquid. Store brand frozen veggies are usually pretty good as well. Other items, such as Great Value hot dogs, just aren't s good as the better name brands, GFS hot dogs, pepperoni, and luncheon meats are top notch. I really like thier spices, herbs, and tomato products too.

It just depends on the food types. As was stated by Larry Stewert, many store brands are the same product as name brands, simply labled as a store brand with a different label pasted on, and reduced [rice

Seeeeya; Cgief Longwind of the North

 

[skilletlicker]

Bon Voyage Mr. Bezos. No need to hurry back.

For a dozen years, the brick-and-mortar grocery store I've mainly used is Kroger.

• I like some of the "Private Selection" products a lot
• "Simple Truth" not so much
• "Home Sense" mostly okay
• "Amazon Basics" pretty good but I'm weaning myself from Amazon altogether.

But these are all based on the individual products that I have tried. My opinion; some suck, some don't. The more you know about a thing, the more you can trust your own opinion and experience. For stuff you don't know about, start with recommendations from folks you respect.

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

Amazon Fresh has their own in house brand for food. It is called Happy Belly. I have found that most of it is the same quality as the national brands. I did not like their Happy Belly potato chips. They were too salty and overly crisp, more like kettle chips. Their wide pan bread is actually Oroweat. Oroweat packages their bread in a cellophane wrapper and puts it into their own plastic bags, or their contract company's bags.

I wonder what their house brand for toilet paper is called?

 

[caseydog]

I find store brands hit or miss for quality. Some are fine, some are awful. Costco's store brand, Kirkland Signature, is the best store brand for consistent great quality.

Agree! Kirkland products are pretty consistently good. The spices are great! They have California central valley garlic, both dried and diced in a jar. i find that garlic to be better than the fresh stuff I can buy at my supermarket.

CD

 

[caseydog]

That is a pretty broad question.

As far as spices go, I knew a guy that worked at a huge spice operation (the other one, not McCormick) and he said they put the same spice in all the bottles then put the different labels on them depending on who it was going to, name brand and store.

Do with that what you will.

I have been inside a McCormick warehouse, and found pretty much the same thing.

CD

 

[caseydog]

For a dozen years, the brick-and-mortar grocery store I've mainly used is Kroger.

• I like some of the "Private Selection" products a lot
• "Simple Truth" not so much
• "Home Sense" mostly okay
• "Amazon Basics" pretty good but I'm weaning myself from Amazon altogether.

But these are all based on the individual products that I have tried. My opinion; some suck, some don't. The more you know about a thing, the more you can trust your own opinion and experience. For stuff you don't know about, start with recommendations from folks you respect.

I love Simple truth organic milk. It tastes great, and has an incredible shelf life -- usually well over a month.

Private Selection has good products, particularly deli meats.

Kroger branded frozen vegetables are every bit as good as the name brands, IMO.

Kroger also has their own branded "lightly salted" potato chips, which fits into my very limited sodium diet, and they taste great. I would expect their other chips to be good, too.

CD

 

[Silversage]

Those store brands all come from other major manufacturers. Look at Mayonnaise. There are 3 major brands on your grocery shelf, plus the store brand. Kraft, Hellman's, and Duke's. One of those 3 probably made that store brand and put a store label on it. If it happens to come from your favorite supplier, you will find it "just as good". If you are a Duke's fan, but the store brand came from Kraft, you may find it unacceptable.

You just have to try them to find out.

 

[jennyema]

I find store brands generally of lesser quality. But I agree, it depends

 

[Cooking Goddess]

I've been shopping at Aldi for decades. Almost all of their store is private label made by a major food manufacturer. Back in the 1980's the quality was...well, I mostly shopped for milk and eggs, plus supplies for my Brownies troop. Eight year olds will eat anything.

Fast forward to 2000. When we moved to MA, there were no Aldi stores in New England. When they opened around 2005ish, I revisited their store. The quality of most of their products was vastly improved. And, if you buy something that doesn't meet your standards, you can return the item to the store for their Double Back guarantee: you get your money back, plus any one item equal or less in price from the store - and it doesn't have to be the same thing.

 

[bakechef]

I see it like this, INGREDIENTS, there is a much smaller gap in quality and store brands often work very well. Processed foods with protected recipes can be all over the place, sometimes worse, sometimes better. Oreos? I'll buy the name brand, I much prefer them to any store brand that I've tried.

There are also different grades of the same item that a lot of stores offer now, there can be a basic, bottom tier, a regular store brand that'll be marketed as a name brand equilivent, then there is a premium "private label" item that's meant to be an upgrade of national brands.

There are companies that manufacture just store brand items, and larger chains with more buying power can have their store brand items made to their specifications.

 

[dragnlaw]

Not to do with food, but it might, not positive but probable.

I do know that some companies (either used to or still do) package the exact same product under different labels, as in... Regular, High Grade, Premium Grade, Optimum Grade (or Platinum) however you want to call it. I'm saying their own product, not packaging for another company.

And it is all the exact same thing, molecule for molecule.

and no, I will not name names, just putting it out there.

 

[Vinylhanger]

We shop Safeway most of the time. Thier main store brand is usually as good or better than the regular stuff.

They had their own beer brand that was really good.

The Organic stuff doesn't seem any different than the regular stuff.

 

[Termy]

We have ALDIs, one thing is I impressed by their produce. They had cubanella peppers, nice big ones and I stuffed them with hot Italian sausage, cooked them in salsa. There is a three ingredient recipe forya

Looked like quality meat but not cheap, you would not save a bunch of money on meat.

We also have Save-A-Lot. Well, they got a brand of tomato sauce I buy, no sugar and I dunno why but the 8oz can is 29 cents, and the 58.5oz can is 59 cents. Now they have the meats, for one the prices are in line or a bit better, but they got specials that well, Tbones 3.89lb. When it is cookout season, twenty bucks worth of ribs might feed 8, which ain't bad.

Their mayo is as good as the best. They got real American cheese, not cheese food or food product or product or Hughes aircraft glue or anything - CHEESE. Most of the time they got a half good deal on eggs, worth buying, sometimes that goes on sale then we got a couple dozen. They got real butter, but they also got sales on it. I remember each of us going and getting the max and filling part of a freezer.

Those elcheapo places have evolved and now they are pretty good.

T