I aggree and know from my own personal experiance that MOST name brand and generic brand is the same product, from name brand companies- My house hold uses quite a few generic products...my question here is how can some of these generics be the same, when they ARE in fact, not good tasting or not quality products. SOME of these generic products must have some sort of change to either water them down or change them to make them cheaper, because I have actually had three or four different things that taste or work nothing like the name brand things. Like I said, I do aggree with the fact that MOST grenerics are the exact same product as name brand, but it's hard for me to believe that it is ALL generic products.

I just went through an entire box of generic baggies...I know for a fact that they were crap! over Half of them would not zip close! I'd zip them "closed" and they would just ropen right away. I have never had that problem with actual ziplock brand bags, so my question here is...If these generic baggies that I hated and they did not work are in fact made right along with the name brand products, what in the heck brand are these made with, because I will avoid it!!!! In this case, I would rather pay the few extra cents on the name brand product, because if half of the box isn't going to work, I am just throwing my money away anyways!

__________________
Married to a great guy 8 years, DD1 6yrs., DD2 4yrs., Noah turns 1 in June, Twins- Isabell and Isaac born in Nov. 07...
One busy household!

Thank you Lucky Mom for your link to the Consumer Affairs article!!!:happy dance:

When this thread was started, articles like yours and in put from other mom's who know something about which generics are the same as brand names is what I was looking for us to share with each other. And I am amazed with how many of us moms are in some sort of business that deals with this issue. Knowledge is power and now we know of a lot of new ways to save money and buy the same product with a generic label on it. Yes, I too agree that some generics are just 'crap' but that is why we are here to share this information with each other. If I buy a product (generic or otherwise) that is a waste of my money and I share it online with all of you guys...well it makes my waste a little bit easier to swallow, because I know that some one out there is not going to waste their hard earn money the same way I did.n my soapbox:

Starlite, I love you Mr. Roger's advice...is it not amazing what you can find out on those educational shows that tells us how things are made ( "Unplugged", "How it is Made", "Stripped" ) I love all those kind of shows!!

I find most of the Walmart brand items to be as good of quality as the name brand stuff (e.g., cheese puffs, cereal, pop, juice, instant oatmeal, breakfast sausage, pain relievers, q-tips, shells and cheese, noodles/spaghetti, olives, mayo/ketchup/mustard, napkins, foil, just to name a few!)

I don't believe that ALL generic or store brand items are equal quality to the brand names. I've found that Meijers (a midwest grocery chain) has lousy quality and taste on many of their food items, and I no longer buy most of them. Additionally, Aldi canned veggies didn't score very high here, but I buy lots of other stuff they sell.

Very interesting about the Walmart peanut butter and bread!! I've been buying that for a few months now because it's so much cheaper than Skippy, and my DH's favorite bread is Wonder (ick! The kids and I eat Butternut whole wheat.) Now, if I can find an equal alternative to Tide HE detergent, I'd be a happy camper.

Just a word on the bread- this is one product that is not necessarily the same even though it's made at the same bakery.

My dh works for a major supplier of bread and he only gets certain kinds because it's not all the same. Different labels have different recipes some are exclusive to specific brands.

it's like the article posted here says "Consider quality and value. The fact that a national brand also makes store brands doesn't mean the products are identical. Quality also depends on the retailer's specifications. If a store brand wants to emphasize value, it might opt for lower-grade ingredients."

For cheap bread I would recommend seeing if you have a bread outlet near you. Most companies have depot's where the bread is shipped from and those depot's have an outlet store. You can buy day old things but you can also buy fresh things for much cheaper than in the grocery store.

I do agree many things are made the same though and do buy a lot of generic items.

__________________

Is anyone else cringing?

I don't think it's deceptive, it's just economics. The companies willing to pay for fancy labeling, television ads, and print ads get one label, the companies who cut out those non-essentials get another label. The you, the customer, pay for the difference, namely advertising. Someone with a degree in marketing could probably elaborate, but I'm guessing the manufacturers charge a certain price for the item plus packaging and labeling of the item, then the resellers set their price based on overhead.

I'm surprised that you say are a brand snob. I wonder if you'd feel the same way if you never saw any labels, never saw marketing, etc. If you were just served the food, you'd probably never know it. There are exceptions, for sure, but the majority of generics are just as good as name brand. If you came to mommysavers looking to live well for less and you are still a brand snob, you're kinda missing the point! Being a brand snob is the antithesis of saving money. I'm glad you're reading this thread so you might open yourself up to new money saving possibilities!

I know that Dearfoams makes slippers under the private labels for Target and Wal-Mart. A good majority of their irregular slippers (the ones cut/ sewn badly) were sold to the dollar stores.

I also used to work in a food packaging plant and we did some packaging of products for Aldi, and other generic brands. They used the same ingredients, just changed the weight of "powder" mix and noodles (ie:hamburger helper), and changed the packaging. That is the reason some products dont taste as good as name brand. JMHO. I will admit that even DH, DD, and I like the Aldi brand shells and cheese over the name brands. I buy mostly generic, but some things must be name brand. We also like the Dollar store mayo, comparable to Hellman's. I do not purchase hamburger helpers or mac and cheese with powder mix. Veggies, well I always drain and sometimes rinse these before nuking these, i do not cook them on the stove, ever. This is just my 2 cents worth on this subject.

The grocery budget is usually the easiest part of a budget to change. I save at least $10/week by buying mostly generic--name brand milk costs $1.00/gallon more than Aldi's. I save at least $480/year by doing so I'm glad it's not illegal. There are a few brands I buy brand specific--Heinz and Miracle Whip are acouple.

I haven't heard Aldi's in forever. We would shop there when I was a little girl. We would drive 45 miles to the nearest location and stock up for the month. Most of the time I still purchase the store brand; there are only a few things I purchase name brand. Thank you Lucky Mom for your link.