Shopping Habits and Own Brands

dl8860 said:
Bit much to call Heinz greedy profiteering scumbags. They sell ketchup. It's not like they are an electric company with a monopoly or something. It's a free market, always has been and hopefully always will be. We are lucky to have choice in this country and can buy what we want.
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Heinz is a huge profit machine. And it really isn't better. I actually prefer tesco tomato soup vs heinz.
 
Oh yeah. Mcvities is another.
Tesco do some. Mega cheap choc digestives. I can't tell the difference... But the price? Yeah insane

28p/100g vs 71p/100g
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413x said:
Oh yeah. Mcvities is another.
Tesco do some. Mega cheap choc digestives. I can't tell the difference... But the price? Yeah insane
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I've not found anything as good as chocolate hob-nobs which is a rare treat. :(
 
I generally go with store own brands unless it is substantially worse than branded. Realistically, most of the matched products will have been produced in the same factories with minor recipe changes to keep the costs down in the own brands. For example there's a factory near here that makes bread for several different supermarkets and brands. Another example is an ice cream factory I worked in one summer, which made products for Safeways (as it was then), Del Monte, Sainsburys, Green & Blacks and other brands. While some recipes were very different for different products, matching items eg vanilla ice cream were the same recipe and ingredients but the branded one was double the price on the shelf.

A friend of mine worked in a cheese factory one summer, when they had been packing up some cheddar as an own brand basics range, she was shock when the conveyors belts were stopped, and the packaging was changed out for a premium M&S range and they started packing again. It was literally the exact same product but on the shelves was about 3 times the price in M&S!
 
I'll buy store named brands if I like them and if not I'll buy the named brands, for instance I get Branston Beans from Costco as they're the same price as store brand beans but I prefer them, I won't buy other ketchup than Stokes as I really like it and as I don't use loads I don't really care.
 
I dunno I think some off brand stuff tastes rubbish compared to branded things.

As I already mentioned. Crunchy Nut has no equal.


I do find the happy medium though is often the stores fancier own brand range. Like Sainsbury’s ‘Taste the difference’. It’s substantially better than their standard range and not quite as nice as Lurpak but close enough it’s the one we go for as you get more for your money. Same as the tea bags and other bits like that
 
Mostly stopped with named brands years ago unless I'm after a specific thing that I can't get from a store brand. The branded stuff is just an overpriced variant much of the time, and the way prices have increased rubs me the wrong way, the profit margins seem insane on some things. On the odd occasion I do get a named brand I can't say I've thought it is worth the premium.
 
Junglist said:
I dunno I think some off brand stuff tastes rubbish compared to branded things.

As I already mentioned. Crunchy Nut has no equal.


I do find the happy medium though is often the stores fancier own brand range. Like Sainsbury’s ‘Taste the difference’. It’s substantially better than their standard range and not quite as nice as Lurpak but close enough it’s the one we go for as you get more for your money. Same as the tea bags and other bits like that
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Oh yeah. For some reason tea tastes really different between brands. I went to pg tips for a while as they have bio degrade bags. But it was no where near as good as Yorkshire.
 
Since we now have a Lidl up the road from us, we hardly ever get branded stuff now, as the Lidl alternatives are often on par, or sometimes better - their hoola hoops for example, taste better and you get more in a pack as an added bonus.

It was odd at first, as you kind of view these off brand versions as something alien, after spending decades buying the named things - but these days, it's just second nature to get all the I house stuff, with the occasional branded thing when it's on offer.
 
I buy whatever i prefer provided i can justify its value, which has decreased due to price inflation or shrinkflation.

I bought a triple pack big bottles of Heinz ketchup for a tenner when inflation went mental as obviously everyone didn't want to pay £5.50 each. Onto last bottle now, and won't be returning to Heinz.

My food spending actually decreased as i started to become more critical and started making more at home. I make the effort to go to multiple stores now to get the best price only when i'm near, if not, then i don't make the purchase.

There are items i no longer buy, like Trek bars etc and crisps. I have managed to refrain from buying the odd cold can on the weekend and just take one out in a cool bag with icepack from a on-sale only multipack. I sometimes don't drink it either, so it still ends up being cheaper still.

I stopped eating cereal years ago, but am going to make some as i often mess about with flapjack recipes and one came out impressively like decent cereal and not some random dry oats.
 
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