Kroger Frosted Flakes is poison

National Cup is a Tea generic that’s only $1 for 100 bags. I looked it up online and it’s made by tetly, so i assume the quality is good.

The wife and I have been almost 100% pleased with the store brand stuff at Publix; in fact, there’s quite a few items we think are better than the name brands. The savings can add up quickly, usually enough to cover the pricey deli order I rack up.

Throw in shopping at Sam’s for things like spaghetti (why buy a name brand?) and other staples and you can cut your grocery bill substantially, with minimal to no impact on quality.

I started doing this at Bloom for groceries, too. Their lowfat chocolate milk is the best tasting chocolate milk in the USA, and it’s 1% (unlike some of the name brands).

Thanks for all the good advice. I used to think about doing this, but hearing someone else suggest it might be what got me to actually do it.

The idea that generics are of lesser quality than branded goods is outdated. These days the main difference is the amount that the brands spend on packaging, advertising and distribution. One would be a fool to always prefer brands over generics for… what reason?

Sure some generics are of a lesser quality than some brands. But that’s not because they are generic. If you compare any set of things, some things will be better than others. And, some generics are BETTER than brands.

I’d say it depends on your usage of the product. Take paper towels, for example. If you use them mainly to cover your food in the microwave and don’t use them wet, the cheapest are fine.

If you are using them to soak up liquids, the cheap ones shred, don’t absorb much, and it takes three or four sheets to do the job of one Bounty sheet.

I’ve found that my usage pattern for paper towels (I rinse/reuse for counter wipeup) favors the expensive Bounty. I buy it at the warehouse club, so it’s cost-competitive with the generic supermarket brands. I’ve tried the warehouse club brands, they are a step or two up from the generics (and cheaper than Bounty), but not as good.

As for the endless toilet paper battles, it really depends on how sensitive your [insert body parts here] are to the cheaper stuff. Some folks really are fine with sandpaper, old leaves, or pages out of the Sears catalog, but some folks need fluffy TP and are willing to pay extra for it.

YMMV.

As far as generic food items go, it is difficult for me to decide which side to take. I understand the price differences, however many generic items are not consistently made from the same sources, packaging plants, or bottlers. If you had a bone to pick with a corporation (smithfields is mine) you would have no idea month to month if they were involved with the product! Basically the most efficient way for a consumer to vote is with their wallet, and generic products basically rob consumers of that vote.

Private labels (store labels) are always comparable in quality to national brands. True generics are usually slightly lower in quality because they are much cheaper.

A big savings area for generics over name brands is in breakfast cereals. Between the store brands, the generics and the low-end brands like Malt-o-meal, you can usually find some acceptable flavors and the savings are usually on the order of 30% and higher. For example I buy store brand “frosted flakes” for $2.39 vs. $3.59 for the brand name.

The biggest bang for your buck in generics is going to be the things your family uses the most. So while you might get some good deals on store-brand ketchup or mustard, that will only happen once every 2 or 3 months, but if you buy the store brand yogurt, eggs, milk, cheese, frozen vegetables and so on, that’s a weekly savings.

MVP in post #52 brought up a good point about medications though. For prescription medications is it worth it to give the generic a try? Even if the doctor allows the prescription to be replaced with a generic, that does not mean it is just as good.

I’ve heard that some generic products are even made in the same factories as the name-brand products, and just have different packaging. Really makes you think about how much money we pay for the brand and not the product.

We buy a lot of generic but I still need the name brand aluminum foil and Q-tips.

Also down here in Houston I’ve noticed that different stores have different quality levels of generic. Here HEB and Target have much better generic items than Kroger or Walmart so don’t give up on the generic just because you had one stores version.

We don’t tend to buy canned foods since most of the can liners contain BPA, preferring to buy fresh veggies/fruits instead.

In terms of grocery items, this thread seems very foreign to me, because I buy so few packaged products — like condiments, mac and cheese, canned vegetables, etc. Since all fresh food is generic, I suppose we do avoid name-brands. However, the few cans I do buy (like whole, plum tomatoes), I will spend more for a higher-quality product. There doesn’t seem to be much difference in the generic product and the Hunt’s product, but I favor the Italian San Marzano’s, because they include fewer broken tomatoes and have a higher pulp to juice ratio. To me, that’s a better value.

For those who want to trade notes on which brands/generics are the best quality, Cook’s Illustrated often does tastings of super-market varieties to see when it’s worth it to be a more expensive product.