Store Brands Or National Brands?
With today’s rising grocery prices, I think almost everybody is looking for ways to save money on their food bills. And although one of the most common hints for saving money is to buy generic and store brands instead of name brand products, people are often reluctant to buy them because they expect they will be trading quality or taste for the cheaper price. We have found that many generic items just aren’t as good as the name brand products, and after the first try I would never buy them again. In many cases, though, I do choose the generic alternatives because they are every bit as good as the more famous brands, and the savings are often substantial.
And then there are the generic products that surprisingly turn out to be even better than their brand name counterparts! My very favorite find is the store brand of baking cocoa that I buy at Shaw’s Supermarkets… this cocoa is rich and wonderful and is the best cocoa I have ever tasted. I’m not even sure how the price compares any more because I never buy anything else, but even if Shaw’s cocoa were twice the price of the national brands, it would still be my first choice.
Here are a few others where we think the store brand versions taste better than the national brands, and these are all from Price Chopper… their parmesan/romano cheese mixture, their natural peanut butter (just peanuts and salt, no other oils or ingredients), and their natural applesauce (apples, water, and vitamin C). But best of all is Price Chopper’s frozen corn, which tastes just like corn on the cob… none of the national brands taste anywhere near as good. For me, these five items just taste better, so the store brand has become my brand of choice.
Update: Something has happened to the Price Chopper frozen corn… it isn’t good any more. The package is the same although the price has increased. The corn no longer tastes like corn on the cob, and the kernels are very large and almost tasteless. There has also been a change in the parmesan/romano cheese mixture and now corn starch and other filler ingredients have been added… also the taste has changed. I would no longer recommend either the corn or the cheese to anyone. Too bad… they were both so good before.
Written by Shirley | Filed Under Frugality & Nutrition series, Personal, Simple Living
Comments
Comment by Nick Wright:
Hi there. Buying generic-brand items is a great way to save money.
We’ve found we like most of the Always Save brand items.
Also we love shopping at ALDI stores. They sell generic food items for much less than a “regular” grocery.
But since we’ve gone car-free, and there are no ALDIs in town we probably won’t be doing that much anymore.
What we do mostly instead now is buy in bulk through the local food co-op that we are members of.
Comment by Paula:
That Shaws cocoa is my favorite too. We have a Pricechopper nearby so I will have to try some of the other ones you mentioned. This is a great blog! I really really enjoy it.
Comment by Montgomery:
I second Aldi’s. Many of their items are better than the name brands available at regular grocery stores.
Comment by Mrs. Mordecai:
I pretty much always buy store brand. I guess my palate isn’t discriminating enough to tell the difference!
Comment by Kadeeae:
I’ve always bought a few store brands but am tending to do more of it lately. In my experience about 75% of it is the same quality and on occasion, better!
Didn’t know there are Aldi’s in the US . . . . wondering if they’re the same as here in the UK (German owned?)
Comment by Julie:
I usually buy store brands. One of my friends use to work for a company that sold salad dressing to Wal-Mart. She told me that the great value wal-mart brand is usually one of the top 3 best selling national brands, but with the wal-mart great value label on it. We have found this true on a lot of this, like the apple juice tastes exactly like motts!
Comment by MamaPyratekk:
I have found that many of the store or generic brands at the grocer I regularly shop at (Bi-Lo) are every bit as good and sometimes even better than the national brands. The only thing I’ve had from them that wasn’t all that good was a frozen pizza. My husband made sure he told me he wanted a frozen pizza and well, it was disappointing :(. Their store brand and generic brand (store brand is Southern Home and generic is called Clear Value) is good with every thing else though :)
Comment by K S:
I was told that the store Aldi’s which sells products with its store brand name on its products are the same companies that manufacture the name brand products. They use the same ingredients in the store brands as the main brands.
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