I try hard to periodically test my notions about things that I believe, even those that are experientially based. So a couple of weeks ago, I had a scoop of store-brand vanilla ice cream; it was awful. It was so bad, in fact, that I used some chocolate sauce to drown the flavor. Now there is a number of brands that I find acceptable, but most store brands just don’t taste that good to me.
A few years ago, I had a bad cold, and I bought the generic equivalent version of Vicks NyQuil. It was the most vile-tasting thing I had ever consumed. Not that Nyquil is exactly yummy, but it isn’t bitter. (And I hate using NyQuil; I feel as though I were stoned for about four hours after I get up.)
There are generic equivalents to Cheerios cereal that are acceptable, but I do tend to buy the name brand because of an unfortunate incident of buying an oat cereal that approximated the taste of cardboard.
My wife is totally off the generics for dishwashing.
What items do YOU buy where only the brand name, not the generic equivalent, will do?
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Oh, and, off-topic, as I’m wont to be: What album cover does this remind you of?
Hmmm brand names – yes I agree re cereals alternatives just do not taste anything like kellogs. As for household cleaning products – I just use shop brand Wallmart?
Ketchup (gotta be Heinz); dish soap (gotta be Dawn); and…that’s about it, off the top of my head. But I’m lucky in that The Store takes its store brand very seriously. In a lot of cases, they’re not cheap knock-offs but rather literal re-labeling of the genuine article (such as our ice cream).
On NyQuil: I don’t bother with it in any form since it was reformulated to remove my beloved pseudoephedrine. And on vanilla ice cream: Since I’ve discovered vanilla bean ice cream, I can’t go back to “regular” vanilla. French vanilla is acceptable, but regular? Nope. Doesn’t matter which brand.
Soda. I prefer Pepsi to Coke, but I cannot drink store brand cola. It’s nasty.
I heard the other day that if you drop a shopping level that you can save 31% on your bill. For example, from branded goods to store’s own premium buy, or from own brand to economy. I don’t know if this is because they are cheaper or because you eat/use less!
I’ve just tried out this theory by buying store brand chocolate fingers instead of Cadbury’s. They are okay, but not as good.
Probably the biggest for me is Nutri-Grain bars. I tend to eat those at work when I get hungry. I have bought the generic store brands to save money before, but all of them are just awful.
By the way, I responded to your comment/question from a few days back. Finally catching up with things.
I believe everything composed made a bunch of sense. But, consider this,
suppose you composed a catchier post title?
I am not suggesting your content isn’t good., however suppose you added a headline that grabbed folk’s attention?
I mean Name Brand QUESTION is kinda vanilla. You could
look at Yahoo’s home page and note how they write news headlines
to get viewers interested. You might try adding a video
or a picture or two to get people interested about everything’ve got to say.
Just my opinion, it would make your blog a little livelier.