I am definitely not embarrassed in any way to buy store brand products. Why should I be embarrassed for saving money? Store brand pantry items are almost always as good as name brand items, such as canned goods, pasta, pasta sauce, baking supplies, and snacks such as pretzels and potato chips. The only brand I prefer over store brand is Dawn dish soap. I use much less of it, making it more economical than purchasing the store brand.
I do buy the store brand for a lot of products. Especially canned goods. I think the store products are similar to brand name products but usually are half the price. Other items I won’t buy store brand… like Ketchup, Mustard and other condiments. I feel that for these items the brand name products are so much better. However, for a lot of staple goods such as milk, eggs and bread I always buy the store brand.
We belong to the so-called loyalists to brands like for laundry soap, we buy Tide, for cheese it used to be Kraft but when it was out of stock for a time, we shifted to Eden. There is a store brand here called Bonus which items are much cheaper because the SM supermarket just repacks it for the benefit of the poor. But as I said, we are loyalists so we seldom buy Bonus items unless our favorite brand is not available.
Sure, I have no problem with that at all. They cost less and they're often just as good, though that depends on the product, I suppose. I'd still rather save a few bucks than get, say, lasagna noodles that are just slightly better, but cost two dollars more for a box. Attaching stigma to the brands you buy seems really silly to me, and shouldn't have a bearing on a thrifty spender's habits. Also don't see the point of buying more expensive brands just for the sake of buying more expensive stuff. Okay, you have lots of money. You could have more by purchasing cheaper things.
Yes, I do buy store brand products because they are cheaper, like their tissue paper for example. I do acknowledge the fact that some store brand products suck, but there are also some decent ones. Come to think of it, I ought to try more store brand products to gauge their taste or quality.
I find that store brand products are better quality than before and carry less stigma about buying them. Either that or I just don't care anymore and will buy the cheaper product to save money. I find for condiments like ketchup, mustard, and relish that there isn't a whole of taste difference so I'll buy the store brand unless the brand name is on sale. I'll also buy store brand acetaminophen and ibuprofen. I like the Kirkland brand. I just saw a consumer report that said Kirkland batteries are just as good as Duracell and offer better value.
I have bought store brand before. If the product is a good enough quality I will buy it over name brand. Like for instance we have bought family dollar brand of asprins and they work just as well as name brand. As far as snacks go it all depends. I won't buy cheap store brand snacks sometimes because the flavor is often times off.
I agree with you Nwitt about the mac and cheese for I bought a store brand mac and cheese and it was no where near Kraft mac and cheese. Other store brand I buy is even better than the name brands I usually buy. Oh well guess I'll buy Kraft mac and cheese when it goes on sale at CVS I guess!
A lot of the time store bought brands are awful quality, and I feel like you really are better of buying a well known brand that you are more familiar with. Sometimes I will buy store bought brands of items, but there are only certain items. Most of the time though, I feel like store bought brands of food taste absolutely awful and are of low nutritional value.
I try to buy off brand as much as possible, since in most cases, they are just as good as the brand name stuff. In fact there are some off brand items I actually like better than the brand name stuff. For example, Save-A-Lot carries their own brand of BBQ sauce called Bauman's Best, which is really good. It has a better flavor than your basic Kraft bbq sauce, plus the bottle is like 3x larger and it's only about $1.50 for it. It has pineapple juice in it, as well as a hint of cayenne, which gives it a nice fruity flavor with a touch of heat. Other items such as canned goods at Save-A-Lot, are also much cheaper than paying for name brand stuff. Things like Ketchup and Mustard I will get at Dollar Tree instead of spending like $3-$4 a piece for the brand name versions. There are some items though that I was disappointed in the quality of the off brand versions vs. the brand name versions. Pickles for example - the Dollar Tree variety are way too mushy and vinegary, and taste old and processed when compared to something like Vlassic pickles which are crisp and fresher tasting. Some of the Save-A-Lot or Dollar Tree off brand versions of butter spread or mayo were also rather bad. The butter spread had a fake artificial taste to it that was so bad I could barely finish up the tub. And the mayo was just greasy and sort of semi translucent, with little flavor.
