We quickly learned that anything shipped in here post-Katrina was better than nothing.
Mostly.
Learned to be glad to have any brand of anything. I guess the worst, not that it was a truly big deal, was the boxes of brown sugar. There was nothing short of napalm that would have blasted them from their brick-like composition.
With that preamble, I'm wondering what store-brands you have tested and found to be as good as or maybe even better or at least acceptable.
I like to spend money; one of my favorite indoor sports. On the other hand, I do truly hate to waste it. For example, I've found that my crispy rice cereal for a quick breakfast is one dollar cheaper than the name brand and is quite as charming if I have time to listen to my cereal bowl.
What have you found on store brands that is as good as? or truly awful? Polly
<Polly...@cableone.net> wrote:
>We quickly learned that anything shipped in here post-Katrina was better >than nothing.
> Mostly.
> Learned to be glad to have any brand of anything. I guess the worst, >not that it was a truly big deal, was the boxes of brown sugar. There was >nothing short of napalm that would have blasted them from their brick-like >composition.
> With that preamble, I'm wondering what store-brands you have tested and >found to be as good as or maybe even better or at least acceptable.
> I like to spend money; one of my favorite indoor sports. On the other >hand, I do truly hate to waste it. For example, I've found that my crispy >rice cereal for a quick breakfast is one dollar cheaper than the name brand >and is quite as charming if I have time to listen to my cereal bowl.
> What have you found on store brands that is as good as? or truly awful? >Polly
Kirkland (Costco) brand anything. I may have found one thing that I
didn't care for. It wasn't that it wasn't an excellent product, just
that I didn't care for the seasoning. Don't remember what the frozen
product was.
Janet US
> We quickly learned that anything shipped in here post-Katrina was better
> than nothing.
> Mostly.
> Learned to be glad to have any brand of anything. I guess the
> worst, not that it was a truly big deal, was the boxes of brown sugar.
> There was nothing short of napalm that would have blasted them from
> their brick-like composition.
> With that preamble, I'm wondering what store-brands you have tested
> and found to be as good as or maybe even better or at least acceptable.
> I like to spend money; one of my favorite indoor sports. On the
> other hand, I do truly hate to waste it. For example, I've found that
> my crispy rice cereal for a quick breakfast is one dollar cheaper than
> the name brand and is quite as charming if I have time to listen to my
> cereal bowl.
> What have you found on store brands that is as good as? or truly
> awful? Polly
The President's Choice store brands, carried here by Zehr's, Loblaws and No Frills, are quite good. I used to occasionally buy Frosted Flakes and found the PC product much better, as are their version some of the other brand name cereals. They also have a line of sauces and dipping sauces that are quite good.
With that preamble, I'm wondering what store-brands you have tested and
found to be as good as or maybe even better or at least acceptable.
I like to spend money; one of my favorite indoor sports. On the other
hand, I do truly hate to waste it. For example, I've found that my crispy
rice cereal for a quick breakfast is one dollar cheaper than the name brand
and is quite as charming if I have time to listen to my cereal bowl.
What have you found on store brands that is as good as? or truly awful?
Polly
**************
I'm not about spending money. I'll pinch a penny until it cries ;) But yes, I want to get quality for that penny. In my experience store brand cereal is just as good as the more expensive name brands. I buy store brand corn flakes, not just to eat as cereal. Crushed, it makes a nice crispy coating for baked chicken :) It's much cheaper than buying a box of Kellogg's Corn Flake Crumbs! I buy the store brand toasted oats cereal, too. I've found store brand canned soups to be exactly the same as Campbell's. Same thing with canned beans and the like. (I buy a lot of these things at the dollar store.)
Publix premium whole wheat bread is great. I can't see paying $3 (guestimate) for a loaf of bread when I can get better (store brand) for $1.63 a loaf. (I don't eat much bread so I buy a few loaves and stash it in the freezer.) Publix brand natural peanut butter is fantastic. Ingredients: peanuts, salt. (Unfortunately, the price of PB has skyrocketed, regardless of brands. Wish I'd stocked up!) A few times a year I buy a half gallon of Publix coffee ice cream. Good stuff! (It's also a true half-gallon container.) Oh, and Publix canned cat food is the same thing as Fancy Feast but costs much less per can. (Persia can't tell the difference.) On the non-food side, I buy store brand paper towels at the dollar store (it comes in select-a-size rolls). I'm sure there's more, I just can't think of anything else at the moment.
> On Thu, 2 Aug 2012 22:59:31 -0500, "Polly Esther"
>> What have you found on store brands that is as good as? or truly awful?
> Kirkland (Costco) brand anything. I may have found one thing that I
> didn't care for. It wasn't that it wasn't an excellent product, just
> that I didn't care for the seasoning. Don't remember what the frozen
> product was.
You're right. I don't even think of them as 'store brand' but of
course, they are. I buy a lot of their products and I don't remember
having a bad experience.
<rjynlynos...@vverizon.net> wrote:
>On 8/3/2012 12:47 AM, Janet Bostwick wrote:
>> On Thu, 2 Aug 2012 22:59:31 -0500, "Polly Esther"
>>> What have you found on store brands that is as good as? or truly awful?
>> Kirkland (Costco) brand anything. I may have found one thing that I
>> didn't care for. It wasn't that it wasn't an excellent product, just
>> that I didn't care for the seasoning. Don't remember what the frozen
>> product was.
>You're right. I don't even think of them as 'store brand' but of
>course, they are. I buy a lot of their products and I don't remember
>having a bad experience.
>nancy
Did you ever get to try their ice cream bars? They were available
maybe 10 years ago. We still look in the ice cream case in hopes
they've brought them back. Those ice cream bars beat the socks off of
Dove , etc. Shame that they discontinued them.
Janet US
> On Fri, 03 Aug 2012 09:45:46 -0400, Nancy Young
>> You're right. I don't even think of them as 'store brand' but of
>> course, they are. I buy a lot of their products and I don't remember
>> having a bad experience.
> Did you ever get to try their ice cream bars? They were available
> maybe 10 years ago. We still look in the ice cream case in hopes
> they've brought them back. Those ice cream bars beat the socks off of
> Dove , etc. Shame that they discontinued them.
No, I never did try them. When there's a coupon for the Haagen Dasz
bars, I buy those, but otherwise I don't buy ice cream there. Oh,
same deal with the Edy's fruit bars/coupon.
As far as frozen food goes, I buy their raw shrimp and I like their
panko shrimp, too. I don't really have freezer space for any big
boxes.
<rjynlynos...@vverizon.net> wrote:
>On 8/3/2012 12:47 AM, Janet Bostwick wrote:
>> On Thu, 2 Aug 2012 22:59:31 -0500, "Polly Esther"
>>> What have you found on store brands that is as good as? or truly awful?
>> Kirkland (Costco) brand anything. I may have found one thing that I
>> didn't care for. It wasn't that it wasn't an excellent product, just
>> that I didn't care for the seasoning. Don't remember what the frozen
>> product was.
>You're right. I don't even think of them as 'store brand' but of
>course, they are. I buy a lot of their products and I don't remember
>having a bad experience.
The "Best Yet" brand from Grand Union is as good if not better than
the big national brands.
http://privatelabelmag.com/issues/pl-nov-2010/packaging-design.cfm And Walmart's "Equate" and "Great Value" brand products are
significantly better than the big national brand counterparts.
In article <a810l6Fnu...@mid.individual.net>, "Polly Esther" <Polly...@cableone.net> wrote:
> What have you found on store brands that is as good as? or truly awful?
Here in Southern California, the Kroger chain is called "Ralphs".
Sporadically available is a Ralph's "Private Selection" hot dog that is astonishingly good - enough for me to write the company and praise them the first time I stumbled upon them. If the filling isn't quite as good as, say, a Hebrew National hot dog, the delightfully crunchy casing makes the product unique, as far as I can tell, among non-butcher-shop hotdogs.
I'm generally happy with store brands, with the exception of soap products.
But most of us don't eat those, so it's irrelevant to the newsgroup.
Brooklyn1 <Gravesend1> wrote:
> On Fri, 03 Aug 2012 09:45:46 -0400, Nancy Young
> <rjynlynos...@vverizon.net> wrote:
>> On 8/3/2012 12:47 AM, Janet Bostwick wrote:
>>> On Thu, 2 Aug 2012 22:59:31 -0500, "Polly Esther"
>>>> What have you found on store brands that is as good as? or
>>>> truly awful?
>>> Kirkland (Costco) brand anything. I may have found one thing that I
>>> didn't care for. It wasn't that it wasn't an excellent product,
>>> just that I didn't care for the seasoning. Don't remember what the
>>> frozen product was.
>> You're right. I don't even think of them as 'store brand' but of
>> course, they are. I buy a lot of their products and I don't remember
>> having a bad experience.
> The "Best Yet" brand from Grand Union is as good if not better than
> the big national brands.
> http://privatelabelmag.com/issues/pl-nov-2010/packaging-design.cfm > And Walmart's "Equate" and "Great Value" brand products are
> significantly better than the big national brand counterparts.
I will agree that the Equate soluble fiber tablets have better ingredients and work better than expensive stuff like Benefiber.
Janet Bostwick <nos...@cableone.net> wrote:
> On Thu, 2 Aug 2012 22:59:31 -0500, "Polly Esther"
> <Polly...@cableone.net> wrote:
>> We quickly learned that anything shipped in here post-Katrina was
>> better than nothing.
>> Mostly.
>> Learned to be glad to have any brand of anything. I guess the
>> worst, not that it was a truly big deal, was the boxes of brown
>> sugar. There was nothing short of napalm that would have blasted
>> them from their brick-like composition.
>> With that preamble, I'm wondering what store-brands you have
>> tested and found to be as good as or maybe even better or at least
>> acceptable. I like to spend money; one of my favorite indoor
>> sports. On the other hand, I do truly hate to waste it. For
>> example, I've found that my crispy rice cereal for a quick breakfast
>> is one dollar cheaper than the name brand and is quite as charming
>> if I have time to listen to my cereal bowl. What have you found
>> on store brands that is as good as? or truly awful? Polly
> Kirkland (Costco) brand anything. I may have found one thing that I
> didn't care for. It wasn't that it wasn't an excellent product, just
> that I didn't care for the seasoning. Don't remember what the frozen
> product was.
> Janet US
Having bought a few prepared food items with the Kirkland brand, I think I would get better seasoned and more flavorful food in any random nursing home. But for many goods their quality is decent.
Polly Esther <Polly...@cableone.net> wrote:
> We quickly learned that anything shipped in here post-Katrina was
> better than nothing.
> Mostly.
> Learned to be glad to have any brand of anything. I guess the
> worst, not that it was a truly big deal, was the boxes of brown
> sugar. There was nothing short of napalm that would have blasted
> them from their brick-like composition.
> With that preamble, I'm wondering what store-brands you have
> tested and found to be as good as or maybe even better or at least
> acceptable. I like to spend money; one of my favorite indoor
> sports. On the other hand, I do truly hate to waste it. For example,
> I've found that my crispy rice cereal for a quick breakfast is one
> dollar cheaper than the name brand and is quite as charming if I have
> time to listen to my cereal bowl. What have you found on store
> brands that is as good as? or truly awful? Polly
I find no difference in most sugars. For example, Best Choice granulated white sugar is indistinguishable from Domino or C&H.
In general, Best Choice, a "house brand" which actually spans many grocery chains, has pretty decent quality. For those not familiar, it is actually the house brand of Associated Wholesale Grocers, a distribution giant. I don't know if BC has market penetration nationwide. They have some flaws... packaging for example. A spray bottle of bleach cleanser (knockoff of Clorox) might leak or stop spraying before the contents are used up. No prob, if that happens, I return it, and they give me a new, full one, for free. By the same token they don't waste as much on foo-foo packaging as name brands. Their paper goods are of decent to good quality, especially considering the price differential. The one time I was unhappy with something (don't even remember what it was) and contacted them about it, and they sent me a $5 coupon for any BC item.
On Thursday, August 2, 2012 11:59:31 PM UTC-4, Polly Esther wrote:
> We quickly learned that anything shipped in here post-Katrina was better
> than nothing.
> Mostly.
> Learned to be glad to have any brand of anything. I guess the worst,
> not that it was a truly big deal, was the boxes of brown sugar. There was
> nothing short of napalm that would have blasted them from their brick-like
> composition.
> With that preamble, I'm wondering what store-brands you have tested and
> found to be as good as or maybe even better or at least acceptable.
> I like to spend money; one of my favorite indoor sports. On the other
> hand, I do truly hate to waste it. For example, I've found that my crispy
> rice cereal for a quick breakfast is one dollar cheaper than the name brand
> and is quite as charming if I have time to listen to my cereal bowl.
> What have you found on store brands that is as good as? or truly awful?
> Polly
I will sometimes buy the housebrand of:
kitty litter
oatmeal
a.p. flour
cornstarch
raisins
sourcream
yogurt
frozen veggies
cranberry sauce
pasta ( some )
dish liquid
all-bran cereal
honey
milk
sugar
brown sugar
MAYBE choc. chips if they're for, say, a pot-luck or kids.
I may be forgetting somethings - I figure what I save by doing this is to splurge on stuff like Tree of LIfe peanut butter and some imported cheeses, fresh fruit and vegs.
> What have you found on store brands that is as good as? or truly awful?
I buy many store brand items and they are just as good as the brand names. One exception at my regular store is their store brand cheese....yuk
If you have a Food Lion store, their "Hot Dog Chili Sauce" is pretty
tasty.....better than the brand names. It's also good just to eat without
the hotdogs. There's no meat in it but it does include beef fat.
Here's something disturbing for sodium watchers though and actually I might
not buy it anymore after noticing this:
One 10.5 oz can
18 servings per can WTH?
Sodium 80mg per serving
So that's 1440mg sodium for only a tiny can?
It tastes good but I should have known something was wrong.
On Fri, 3 Aug 2012 09:09:07 -0400, "jmcquown" <j_mcqu...@comcast.net>
wrote:
> In my experience store brand > cereal is just as good as the more expensive name brands. I buy store brand > corn flakes, not just to eat as cereal. Crushed, it makes a nice crispy > coating for baked chicken :) It's much cheaper than buying a box of > Kellogg's Corn Flake Crumbs!
Not a big cereal eater here... but I've discovered that ground up corn
chips (doesn't matter what brand or what type) make a very tasty
coating for baked chicken. As a result, I've made more baked chicken
lately than I have in decades (two whole times). :)
<tweeny90...@mypacks.net> wrote:
>On Thursday, August 2, 2012 11:59:31 PM UTC-4, Polly Esther wrote:
>> We quickly learned that anything shipped in here post-Katrina was better
>> than nothing.
>> Mostly.
>> Learned to be glad to have any brand of anything. I guess the worst,
>> not that it was a truly big deal, was the boxes of brown sugar. There was
>> nothing short of napalm that would have blasted them from their brick-like
>> composition.
>> With that preamble, I'm wondering what store-brands you have tested and
>> found to be as good as or maybe even better or at least acceptable.
>> I like to spend money; one of my favorite indoor sports. On the other
>> hand, I do truly hate to waste it. For example, I've found that my crispy
>> rice cereal for a quick breakfast is one dollar cheaper than the name brand
>> and is quite as charming if I have time to listen to my cereal bowl.
>> What have you found on store brands that is as good as? or truly awful?
>> Polly
>I will sometimes buy the housebrand of:
>kitty litter
>oatmeal
>a.p. flour
>cornstarch
>raisins
>sourcream
>yogurt
>frozen veggies
>cranberry sauce
>pasta ( some )
>dish liquid
>all-bran cereal
>honey
>milk
>sugar
>brown sugar
>MAYBE choc. chips if they're for, say, a pot-luck or kids.
>I may be forgetting somethings - >I figure what I save by doing this is to splurge on stuff.
All those housebrand items are fine, but not housebrand cat litter.
"Arthur Shapiro" <> I'm generally happy with store brands, with the exception of soap products.
> But most of us don't eat those, so it's irrelevant to the newsgroup.
> Art
Well, yes. Perhaps not relevant but interesting and usually part of our grocery shopping bill.
You know who would say it is not logical but after DH's by-pass surgeries, he was allergic to most bath soaps. ( Go figure.) We discovered that he was just fine with the cheapest soap we could find at the Dollar Store. No perfume, cream, additives, preservatives or magic claims, just soap. Polly
On Friday, August 3, 2012 4:58:48 AM UTC-7, Dave Smith wrote:
> On 02/08/2012 11:59 PM, Polly Esther wrote:
> > We quickly learned that anything shipped in here post-Katrina was better
> > than nothing.
> > Mostly.
> > Learned to be glad to have any brand of anything. I guess the
> > worst, not that it was a truly big deal, was the boxes of brown sugar.
> > There was nothing short of napalm that would have blasted them from
> > their brick-like composition.
> > With that preamble, I'm wondering what store-brands you have tested
> > and found to be as good as or maybe even better or at least acceptable.
> > I like to spend money; one of my favorite indoor sports. On the
> > other hand, I do truly hate to waste it. For example, I've found that
> > my crispy rice cereal for a quick breakfast is one dollar cheaper than
> > the name brand and is quite as charming if I have time to listen to my
> > cereal bowl.
> > What have you found on store brands that is as good as? or truly
> > awful? Polly
> The President's Choice store brands, carried here by Zehr's, Loblaws and
> No Frills, are quite good. I used to occasionally buy Frosted Flakes
> and found the PC product much better, as are their version some of the
> other brand name cereals. They also have a line of sauces and dipping
> sauces that are quite good.
Jewel Tea in Chicago carried President's Choice products for years, I guess until Supervalu took over.
Loblaw's used to own National Tea in Chicago, until they suddenly shut it down in the 1970s. Their logos closely resembled each other for a while. (Turn the LLL on it's side and it became an nnn.)
l, not -l wrote:
> I checked when I stopped at the supermarket earlier today; the poor quality
> brand (not store brand) that some stores carry is ValueTime
Kalmia <tweeny90...@mypacks.net> wrote:
> On Thursday, August 2, 2012 11:59:31 PM UTC-4, Polly Esther wrote:
>> We quickly learned that anything shipped in here post-Katrina was
>> better
>> than nothing.
>> Mostly.
>> Learned to be glad to have any brand of anything. I guess the
>> worst,
>> not that it was a truly big deal, was the boxes of brown sugar.
>> There was
>> nothing short of napalm that would have blasted them from their
>> brick-like
>> composition.
>> With that preamble, I'm wondering what store-brands you have
>> tested and
>> found to be as good as or maybe even better or at least acceptable.
>> I like to spend money; one of my favorite indoor sports. On the
>> other
>> hand, I do truly hate to waste it. For example, I've found that my
>> crispy
>> rice cereal for a quick breakfast is one dollar cheaper than the
>> name brand
>> and is quite as charming if I have time to listen to my cereal bowl.
>> What have you found on store brands that is as good as? or truly
>> awful?
>> Polly
> I will sometimes buy the housebrand of:
> kitty litter
I don't think any litter is equal to Tidy Cats for odor control so the price differential for the store brand isn't worth it to me.
> dish liquid
Dawn only for me, because it contains more actual cleansers and degreasers than any other detergent, which is why it's used for wildlife oil spill cleanup. No other consumer store or name brand dish liquid that I know of can match it.
Otherwise I concur with most of that list other than the cereal, which I don't buy. It usually comes down to a function of price, where something in any of those given category is likely to be on sale. I'm not real big on brand loyalty unless well proven.
OTOH some name brand stuff can suck horribly. One that comes to mind is Farmland breakfast sausage in the 1 lb chubs. It only has a small differential in the fat content listed on the label compared to a name brand such as Jimmy Dean, but it cooks down to about half with the rest rendered as grease. Nasty stuff. I think they paid someone off to get such a favorable nutritional label.
> With that preamble, I'm wondering what store-brands you have tested > and
> found to be as good as or maybe even better or at least acceptable.
> I like to spend money; one of my favorite indoor sports. On the other
> hand, I do truly hate to waste it. For example, I've found that my > crispy
> rice cereal for a quick breakfast is one dollar cheaper than the name > brand
> and is quite as charming if I have time to listen to my cereal bowl.
> What have you found on store brands that is as good as? or truly > awful?
> Polly
> **************
> I'm not about spending money. I'll pinch a penny until it cries ;)
> But yes, I want to get quality for that penny. In my experience store > brand cereal is just as good as the more expensive name brands. I buy > store brand corn flakes, not just to eat as cereal. Crushed, it makes > a nice crispy coating for baked chicken :) It's much cheaper than > buying a box of Kellogg's Corn Flake Crumbs! I buy the store brand > toasted oats cereal, too. I've found store brand canned soups to be > exactly the same as Campbell's. Same thing with canned beans and the > like. (I buy a lot of these things at the dollar store.)
> Publix premium whole wheat bread is great. I can't see paying $3 > (guestimate) for a loaf of bread when I can get better (store brand) > for $1.63 a loaf. (I don't eat much bread so I buy a few loaves and > stash it in the freezer.) Publix brand natural peanut butter is > fantastic. Ingredients: peanuts, salt. (Unfortunately, the price of > PB has skyrocketed, regardless of brands. Wish I'd stocked up!) A > few times a year I buy a half gallon of Publix coffee ice cream. Good > stuff! (It's also a true half-gallon container.) Oh, and Publix > canned cat food is the same thing as Fancy Feast but costs much less > per can. (Persia can't tell the difference.) On the non-food side, I > buy store brand paper towels at the dollar store (it comes in > select-a-size rolls). I'm sure there's more, I just can't think of > anything else at the moment.
