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True "generics" were sidelined by "store brands."
Now, are store brands the same as "generics" just with the store's house label on it? Depends on who you ask. I guess.
I've seen articles that say the lowest quality was "generic white label, black block print" products, and that "store/house brands" were a step up....but NOT the same as true "brand names." Yet some say store brands ARE the same as brand names just with the store name instead. The old they come off the same processing line and Heinz ketchup goes to the left, and Krogers or Wegmans or Ralphs goes to the right. Then you have Costco where its store brand is known for quality. So IS Costco's Kirkland brand the same as a "brand name?" I can definitely believe that. But even then it might depend on the product.
Most private label brands are produces by a small number of food processors near where the product is processed.
About 80% of the bar soap is made in one facility no matter the brand.
Over 95% of the marshmallows are made by one producer. Yes, that facility makes most of the name brands and nearly every generic.
Many of the Aldi cookies are produced by Dare. How can I be so sure? Compare the packaging in both brands, and both are "Made in Canada." Packaging equipment and fixtures are very expensive and places like Aldi don't spend money on something that is pretty irrelevant to the final customer.
My philosophy since 2005 ro so has been this. Buy the private label. If the product is acceptable, you are going to save a lot of money. If the store label is not good, you are probably out $2 ... unless you take it back to Aldi and use their "Double Back Guarantee."
Are their brands that i will buy? Certainly. I really like Hunt's Ketchup. In that case, I might buy the product even though the Winco Foods brand is 30 cents cheaper.
About 80% of the bar soap is made in one facility no matter the brand.
Over 95% of the marshmallows are made by one producer. Yes, that facility makes most of the name brands and nearly every generic.
Just to clarify that being made in the same facility/factory doesn't mean the ingredients or recipes are the same. The same facility may make Dial and Ivory -- or Palmolive and Ajax dish detergent -- but they're not the same. Are Motts and Musselman's and a private label applesauce THE EXACT SAME? I don't know.
Just to clarify that being made in the same facility/factory doesn't mean the ingredients or recipes are the same. The same facility may make Dial and Ivory -- or Palmolive and Ajax dish detergent -- but they're not the same. Are Motts and Musselman's applesauce THE EXACT SAME? I don't know.
Some are the same. Some may be the same. Some are not the same.
I just didn't want anyone to miss that just being made by the same company or in the same facility doesn't make competing products the same. That's all.
I'd like to know the difference between Springdale milk and Kroger milk. Kroger makes Springdale milk. They sell it side by side at a difference of about 50 cents a gallon.
True "generics" were sidelined by "store brands."
Now, are store brands the same as "generics" just with the store's house label on it? Depends on who you ask. I guess.
I've seen articles that say the lowest quality was "generic white label, black block print" products, and that "store/house brands" were a step up....but NOT the same as true "brand names." Yet some say store brands ARE the same as brand names just with the store name instead. The old they come off the same processing line and Heinz ketchup goes to the left, and Krogers or Wegmans or Ralphs goes to the right. Then you have Costco where its store brand is known for quality. So IS Costco's Kirkland brand the same as a "brand name?" I can definitely believe that. But even then it might depend on the product.
Is any store brand the same as Reynold's Wrap, Kerry Gold butter, Rao's Marinara Sauce or Le Sueur Sweet Peas?
I'm not really a true "generics" shopper. But I will buy some store brands, IF I don't think there's a quality difference: canned beans, canned/frozen vegetables, spring water, roasted/raw nuts. That's all I can think of off the top of my head.
Before the pandemic I shopped a lot at Trader Joe's. And most things there are store brands. I also tend to buy ethnic foods (kimchi, dolmades, turmeric, any number of things) and they're not usually store brands. And I usually buy my spices at ethnic stores or online for waaaaay less money anyway.
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To the OP's post about "worthless" generics:
Dollar Tree tape. Dollar Tree aluminum foil. DT and store brand plastic wrap. Walmart Great Value cocktail sauce.
And then there are items which I don't know if they're worthless but I'd never buy because I don't trust the quality of ingredients....like Walmart great Value cheddar cheese. Let's see that or Cabot's.....or even Kraft. It's no contest.
I'm just like you in that if I don't perceive a quality difference, I will choose the store brand over the nationally advertised brand.
But if you've been following this thread, you already know of one product where I won't touch the store brands.
Kerrygold butter comes from cows that eat grass rather than grain. That makes a big difference. No American butter brand I know of uses milk from grass-fed cows. Most of the American butters taste the same, whether nationally advertised brand or private label, but Plugra — so named because it has a higher butterfat content — is better for baking.
OTOH, I find Great Value heavy duty aluminum foil every bit as durable as Reynolds Wrap, and it's definitely far cheaper. (Their 18-inch-wide rolls have double the square footage to boot: 75 vs. 37.5. I use those to line my smoker grill.) Plastic wrap is far more variable in quality, with Saran Wrap (not Saran Cling Plus, which is Dow's rebranding of its less-expensive product, which used to be called Handi-Wrap) at the top of the heap; however, I've found both Aldi's Boulder and especially Great Value to be comparable, certainly close enough in performance to lead me to choose those over the significantly more expensive Saran Wrap.
I wouldn't buy either foil or plastic wrap at Dollar Tree, but I do buy household cleaning products from the "LA's Totally Awesome" line the chain sells. Those I have found to be excellent performers, especially its all-purpose cleaner (used undiluted, it's really effective on tough grime), but I wonder whether their chemical formulas may not be harsh, given that I usually sneeze whenever I use their laundry stain remover.
Something else I do buy at Dollar Tree whenever I can find it: Heinz 57 and A1 steak sauces. They sell both of these in 5-ounce bottles for $1. Buy two and you have the equivalent of a 10-ounce bottle of these sauces, which will run you at least $3.50 at your local supermarket and no less than $3 ($2.99) on sale. This is a clear no-brainer.
WRT cheese, just about any commercially produced block Cheddar is "worth it" in terms of product quality. What goes into most dairy products you find at your supermarket is produced and processed under identical conditions in plants that all meet USDA standards. (This doesn't apply to cheese, but most dairy products have a six-digit number that tells you where they were produced. One large cooperative, Kansas City-based Dairy Farmers of America, produces dairy products under several different brands, including Borden, Breakstone's, Hotel Bar, and Keller's; the plants that make them are scattered all over the country, and I'll wager that many of them also produce private-label dairy products.)
Where Cheddar varies is in the taste and texture, and that's a product of the grasses the cows eat, which in turn determines the character of the milk they produce. Kraft and Great Value IMO are no different in quality or taste; Wisconsin Cheddar from commercial producers doesn't taste that much different from undifferentiated commercial Cheddar IMO, though Cheddar from individual Wisconsin farms, as with similarly produced Cheddar in other states, can be excellent. Overall, both New York State and Vermont Cheddars have distinctive flavor profiles (and a flaky crumbliness in the case of New York State Cheddar) that set them above the herd; the Cabot cooperative was born in Vermont but acquired by New York-based Agway back in the 1990s; the combined company took the Cabot name (and gained certification as a B Corporation) and now produces cheese from both Vermont and New York, and its New York Cheddar is as outstanding as its Vermont Cheddar.
But the best commercial Cheddar I've ever had is Tillamook, which comes from a dairy farmer cooperative in Oregon. It has a real bite to it. It used to be available in a number of Philadelphia-area supermarkets, but the co-op pulled back on its distribution. The only place you'll find Tillamook in Philadelphia is at Target stores.
Edited to add a historical correction: Store brands have been around much longer than generics, which appeared on the scene in the 1970s unless you were a low-income household that got food from the USDA's commodity surplus distribution program in the 1960s (this includes the "government cheese" a rock band sang about; those blocks of American cheese actually weren't all that bad). The largest supermarket chain in the country, A&P, relied on store brands for the overwhelming majority of its sales throughout its halcyon years (1930s-1960s), and the company even owned the plants where the products were made. BTW, A&P inspired the same sort of opposition in its day that Walmart has more recently, with states passing laws intended to either restrict the ability of chains to open stores or limit their ability to undersell local competition.
Last edited by MarketStEl; 09-08-2020 at 03:50 AM..
I got a little lost, sorry.....
So are you saying Walmart's Great Value cheese is the same "quality" as Cabot....but not the same "taste?"
Walmart's cheese looks rubbery to me. I can't recall about taste really. But I can't imagine GV cheese of the same type tastes the same as Cabot or your Tillamook. I wouldn't even think it's the same as Kraft. Just doesn't look the same to me.
Mostly I buy extra sharp. AndGV is not even an option. Cheese snob that I am.
I got a little lost, sorry.....
So are you saying Walmart's Great Value cheese is the same "quality" as Cabot....but not the same "taste?"
Walmart's cheese looks rubbery to me. I can't recall about taste really. But I can't imagine GV cheese of the same type tastes the same as Cabot or your Tillamook. I wouldn't even think it's the same as Kraft. Just doesn't look the same to me.
Mostly I buy extra sharp. AndGV is not even an option. Cheese snob that I am.
No, I'm saying that it's the taste that varies the most. By "quality" I was referring to the freshness (or suchlike) of the milk and rennet that went into making the cheese. I see you were referring to something different — consistency, texture, character. There are differences there — nobody would confuse commercial Cheddar aged for 60 days (the government-required minimum) from the better varieties that have been aged for longer or made from different milks, and the firmness and crumbliness of New York State and Vermont Cheddar, to name two prized varieties, also differ; Vermont Cheddar is creamier than the others.
Nor did I say that GV Cheddar tasted the same as any of those — it doesn't. But I can't tell the generic Walmart extra-sharp Cheddar apart from the same from Kraft or the ShopRite store brand in consistency, texture or flavor — and I buy the ShopRite store brand all the time for use in cooking. (Now, ShopRite probably has a better source for its cheeses than Walmart does, for you can find ShopRite New York State (white and yellow) and Vermont white Cheddar while Walmart has neither in its store-brand line but does carry Cabot.)
Serving to guests is another matter. For that, you'll find nothing less than Cabot on my cheese plate, and more likely some specialty item I picked up at DiBruno's, Whole Foods, the Fresh Market up in Chestnut Hill — or Aldi if I'm strapped for funds. (Their limited-run specialty cheeses include some very interesting items; they've had Cheddar soaked in Irish stout, some interesting goat cheese varieties, and so on; you'll find sites out there that keep an eye out for when there's a new specialty cheese at Aldi. Here's one site that lists what its author considers the beat cheeses you can get at Aldi (plus one stinker): note that the leadoff cheese, a New York State Cheddar which you can find there all the time — it's not seasonal — won a gold medal at the 2013 United States Cheese Championship.)
I think you mentioned Kirkland Signature, the Costco store brand, upthread. It's relevant here: Costco sells a vacuum-sealed-in-hard-plastic cheese board consisting of Manchego, drunken goat, and three other specialty cheeses that you could serve to guests with ease. My boyfriend gave me one of these for my birthday last year, and I loved it.
I'm something of a cheese snob too, so don't think I'm beating up on you over this; I agree with you far more than I disagree. But I do believe strongly that the relationship between price and quality is actually non-linear, or certainly less linear than most people assert, across a broad range of consumer goods and products. Taste and consistency both matter, but when I'm making cheese sauce or sprinkling shredded cheese into an omelet, I don't feel I need the absolute highest quality or best-tasting cheese for that task. Your local restaurant probably uses cheese of comparable quality in its omelets and cheese sauces, and it probably buys them in those huge bags you see in the "club price" section of your supermarket dairy case. And when I find quality products at lower prices, I don't care about image, positioning or marketing, I'll buy them wherever they're sold.
Aaaah (and I'm just having fun here) -- you can't tell the generic Walmart extra-sharp Cheddar apart from the same from Kraft or the ShopRite store brand in consistency, texture or flavor — yet for serving to guests you'll do nothing less than Cabot.
If there's no difference -- meaning one can't tell the difference in consistency, texture or flavor -- which are THE characteristics of cheese -- why not slice up the GV nice and purty on some fancy plates -- and let guests enjoy!
Since you enjoy cheese...isn't a good triple creme some of the best fromage you'll ever taste? Oh my goodness!
ETA: The DC area (well most locations in VA, ONE in Bethesda MD) has a gourmet market named Balducci's. (Other locations are in places including Westport, and Greenwich, CT and Scarsdale, NY). Well, I went into the one in MD and lost my mind in the cheese department....$300 dollars worth! Heck I've spent that much at Wegman's on cheese, charcuterie and accompanying nibbles for a getaway weekend.
Aaaah (and I'm just having fun here) -- you can't tell the generic Walmart extra-sharp Cheddar apart from the same from Kraft or the ShopRite store brand in consistency, texture or flavor — yet for serving to guests you'll do nothing less than Cabot.
If there's no difference -- meaning one can't tell the difference in consistency, texture or flavor -- which are THE characteristics of cheese -- why not slice up the GV nice and purty on some fancy plates -- and let guests enjoy!
Since you enjoy cheese...isn't a good triple creme some of the best fromage you'll ever taste? Oh my goodness!
ETA: The DC area (well most locations in VA, ONE in Bethesda MD) has a gourmet market named Balducci's. (Other locations are in places including Westport, and Greenwich, CT and Scarsdale, NY). Well, I went into the one in MD and lost my mind in the cheese department....$300 dollars worth! Heck I've spent that much at Wegman's on cheese, charcuterie and accompanying nibbles for a getaway weekend.
Good cheese is just soooo .......good.!
Agreed 100%.
But note that when I said I couldn't tell the difference between the Walmart store brand and Kraft or the ShopRite store brand, I didn't say I couldn't tell the difference between any of those three and Cabot.
If I'm using cheese as an ingredient in cooking, that difference is not so great as to justify spending more on the better cheese for eating by itself. (And if it's just me eating the cheese, I'll slice some ShopRite and put it on a cracker with peanut butter too. So there's how I manifest my cheese snobbery here. )
BTW, I should note that I do make a distinction between regular Kraft block cheese and Cracker Barrel, which is of better quality than the store brands.
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) -- you can't tell the generic Walmart extra-sharp Cheddar apart from the same from Kraft or the ShopRite store brand in consistency, texture or flavor — yet for serving to guests you'll do nothing less than Cabot.
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