(Millennium rant)Generic & Brand All items not just drugs

[Wduaqnug]

what you think? i usually buy brand food items, but not everything else except some exceptions. My wife screams at me and proving to me it's not same as brand name. For example kirkland detergent nothing compare to tide, their product is like liquid from toilet same color and doesnt get any stains off. At eckerd and cvs pharmacy i like to buy their brand since its like 50% cheaper. Prescription drugs are little bit more complicated for example several generic drugs like synthroid and other don't help most people and it been proven in research. Well add this thread to our spunky rant list

 

[Anubis]

i usially buy whats cheaper. few exceptions for when teh cheap stuff is crap. liek laundry deturgent

 

[Wduaqnug]

no one wanna discuss this topic





~ spunky is crying:|

 

[Mill]

It really depends on the item but I find brand name foods to be much higher quality than their generic counterparts. Medication I normally get generic if offered but have found that brand name has a higher potency.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I once saw a news story about brand names and store-branded products. They gave a potato chip example and showed that the same factory that made a name brand then repackaged their product as a store brand. It happens more often than you'd think.

The savings for the stores is that they don't have to advertise so they pass the savings on to you....or so they claim.

 

[amnesiac]

Most processed foods under store brands are identical to name brands.

Other consumer products may not be as good, however.

When it comes to medication I tend to go generic if it's a prescription, and name brand for OTC meds.

 

[Wduaqnug]

up

 

[rpc64]

Yeah with food the name brands are always much better. The only exception to this is Kroger. Their stuff is pretty good. But with medicine, if its over the counter stuff you have to get the name brand.

 

[Wduaqnug]

why brand name if its over counter, if generic stuff has same components

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: Wduaqnug
why brand name if its over counter, if generic stuff has same components

Quality. Generic brands are out to make a quick buck. They don't have a company name to uphold as much.

 

[tcsenter]

It was hard for me to consider generic or 'store branded' items because they were almost always terrible when I was growing up. My mother bought a lot of that stuff to save money. The peanut butter was like eating brick mortar or something, they must have used all the rejected stale peanuts. The cereal was alright, it wasn't equal to the national brands, but you could get used to it. Crackers, cheese, cookies, soda, prepared foods (mac and cheese), yuck! Even the canned vegetables came out of the can looking beat up and didn't taste nearly as fresh.

I'm sure some starving kid in Ethiopia would have been thankful for that stuff, which my mother kindly reminded me about all the time.

But today the 'store brands' like Kroger or Meijer or Walmart are pretty good, in most cases. There are still a few things that aren't as good as the national brands, like peanut butter.

 

[d33pt]

i've had good luck with kirkland products for the most part. their stuff is generally pretty high quality and comparable to the more expensive brands..

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
It was hard for me to consider generic or 'store branded' items because they were almost always terrible when I was growing up. My mother bought a lot of that stuff to save money. The peanut butter was like eating brick mortar or something, they must have used all the rejected stale peanuts. The cereal was alright, it wasn't equal to the national brands, but you could get used to it. Crackers, cheese, cookies, soda, prepared foods (mac and cheese), yuck! Even the canned vegetables came out of the can looking beat up and didn't taste nearly as fresh.

I'm sure some starving kid in Ethiopia would have been thankful for that stuff, which my mother kindly reminded me about all the time.

But today the 'store brands' like Kroger or Meijer or Walmart are pretty good, in most cases. There are still a few things that aren't as good as the national brands, like peanut butter.

I like Kroger branded things as well as Publix, Fooodland, and Souther Home. Walmart to me has TERRIBLE tasting generic products.

 

[jteef]

sams choice cola is acceptable to me. any other generic cola or carbonated /flavored drink has been disgusting. I buy sam choice american cheese because its a lot cheaper. I normally buy wonder bread, but my dad gets pissed when I don't get walmart brand. lately the walmart bread has been of better quality, but there is still a big difference. I get the walmart brand frozen boneless skinless chicken in the green bags. Thats about the extent of generic products I buy.

jt

 

[RU482]

generic or store brand items can be a crap shoot....I've actually found some items that are better as Store brands (meijer mac n cheese vs kraft, for example)
when it comes to prescription drugs, it's a little different. Not 100% sure about this, but I remember a 20/20 report from a long time ago that covered this subject. IIRC, a generic drug has a looser tolerance than a branded drug

 

[BatmanNate]

In most cases, people are just victims of marketing to the extent that associations with brand names are prevalent over common sense. Over the counter drugs like pain relievers and cold medication containe the exact same things as the brand name counterparts at a fraction of the cost, yet people still buy the brand name. Simple one ingredient food or chemical products are often similar. Just because you spend more doesn't always mean you get more, use your head.

 

[LoqT]

Originally posted by: Wduaqnug
what you think? i usually buy brand food items, but not everything else except some exceptions. My wife screams at me and proving to me it's not same as brand name. For example kirkland detergent nothing compare to tide, their product is like liquid from toilet same color and doesnt get any stains off. At eckerd and cvs pharmacy i like to buy their brand since its like 50% cheaper. Prescription drugs are little bit more complicated for example several generic drugs like synthroid and other don't help most people and it been proven in research. Well add this thread to our spunky rant list

Synthroid is actually a brand not a generic, there are two different brand names and Synthroid was the original. Levoxyl is the other. They are basically the same chemical derived in different ways. 70% of generic drugs are manufactured by the same labs that do their brand equivalents. Anyone who likes to buy nothing but brand prescription drugs has more of a problem with the placebo effect than they do with the failure of a generic. I'm pharmacy tech, I deal with this whole generic/brand garbage all day.

 

[Wduaqnug]

No kroger only pathmark and shoprite around here

 

[Ameesh]

costco branded kirkland items in my experience have all been very high quality.

 

[brtspears2]

Originally posted by: d33pt
i've had good luck with kirkland products for the most part. their stuff is generally pretty high quality and comparable to the more expensive brands..

Yup kirkland is pretty good. But some other store brands are quite questionable sometimes.

 

[Wduaqnug]

up

 

[radioouman]

I'm sure that this thread is important enough to keep bumping.... :disgust:

Anyway, I usuaully try the generic foods, and if they are decent I keep buying them. Since I am a former P&G employee, I still buy named brand laundry detergent and Jif peanut butter. If the taste is similiar to the name brand, or better, I buy it. (Yes there are some cereals that I've found that taste better than the name brand.)

I also look at the cost of using it as well. If I spend $1 on a generic item that I will only need to replace once a month, I don't mind spending $1.50 to get the name brand if it is better. However, if I spend $10 every week on a brand name item, and the generic costs $8, I'll buy the generic to save a little $$.

 

[DaFinn]

Most unbranded stuff is BS...

-Stuff

I tend to buy branded stuff, and have a piece of mind. Big name, warranty, support... all that matters. I rather buy 1 item to last me long time then 5 cheap items that break after awhile... Just look for good offers, and you don't even end up paying more!

-drugs

... no thanks!

-food?

Well, there I can be flexible...

-DaFinn

 

[BooneRebel]

I suggest comparing. By your normal 'name brand' as well as 2 or 3 off brands. If you can't tell a difference, or the difference is more than offset by the price gap, then go generic.

I'm a pretty frugal person and I generally look for the best bang for the buck, usually price per ounce on food goods. WalMart is pretty good about listing this info on their price tags.

Take American cheese for example. For processed cheese food, I don't know why it is so expensive. Kraft is pretty outrageous, nearly double the cost of the cheapest alternative. My wife insisted on buying Kraft because that was what she grew up with and all the other brands were 'nasty'. One day I bought one of each, 5 or 6 packages total. I staged a blind taste test with the label under the plate and a single slice of cheese on it. We tried each one and discussed the flavor, color, texture, etc. True, the worst one was 'really nasty' (it wasn't the cheapest, though!), not much better than yellow wax. But after she arranged them in order of her likes, she was suprised to lift up the plate & find that her favorite wasn't Kraft, in fact, Kraft had fallen to 3...

So, now, she doesn't make a big deal about getting Kraft. We've done similar comparisons on different things, some the generic varieties are really poor quality and we stick with the brand names; canned vegetables, for example. We tried a few generics and found rougher textures, stems, leaves, etc. in things that shouldn't have them, like green beans <shudder>. For the items that we can't tell a difference, we go for the extra 10-30% savings on the cheap variety. We've even found some generics that we like better than name brands.

My advice: Before you rule out generics, give them a try. You might learn something. And if you add up the savings over your lifetime your looking at a pretty hefty investment.

 

[StageLeft]

I often buy generic with exception to things like POP. I have to have the real thing (pepsi or coke products). In terms of drugs like ibuprofin or actetametaphin (whoo go skoorb on the spelling) I feel like a lesser human if I spend money on brand name since my brain tells me the generic is the same damn stuff.

I'll generally try generic at least once if the price is a good bit cheaper. I have to say that my favorite cottage cheese is the walmart brand fat free stuff. It's the cheapest there and the best I've ever tasted. It's like sex in my mouth :Q So it's not only cheap but tastey as well.