Can you tell off-brand products from the brand name ones?!
Can you tell off-brand products from the brand name ones?
And what I mean by this is, if you are shopping and a store brand of peanut butter is right beside the Jif, but it's in the same shaped can and the same color coded lid for creamy and crunchy, can you be fairly safe in assuming that Jif is in there with a generic or store brand label? I don't mind some generic brands, but there are some foods I'd just as soon pay a little more to get the name brand on the label. But if the same product is in the container right beside it but with a less expensive label on it, then I'll get the off-brand. Thanks.
Answers:
It definitely depends on the food itself and what it's being used for, like some have said above.
For peanut butter in a sandwich, hands down name brand (my finacee concurs). For peanut butter in cooking, like if I'm making fudge or something, then I will use off brand. [One side note about name vs. off - why do you think when Peter Pan peanut butter was recalled, Walmart took it's Great Value peanut butter off the shelves, too? Yup. You guessed it.]
For chocolate sandwich cookies, only Oreos will do. Those knockoff cookies don't have the same taste, not to mention I like DoubleStuf all the way, and the off brands don't have enough creme in them!
For cereal, I buy the stuff that comes in bags. Tastes just like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Pebbles and Corn Pops to me. The Honey Nut Cheerios, not so much, but still good enough to eat and save money!
For block or sliced cheese, off brand is fine. Same for bottled water (I've only seen flavored, carbonated water in a Walmart brand so that's an easy choice.) Same for uncooked pastas, soup/gravy/taco seasoning mixes (where you add water/milk) and orange juice.
Source(s):
22 years of eating and 6 years of doing the grocery shopping (on a budget no less!)
okay where do u think the offbrands get their products or groceries or whatever they are called it all comes from the same place it just has a diff. brand on it.
so when you pay more for a certain kind of brand ur just buying the name..
yeah i can't really tell the difference but there is some things that i'd rather get name brand like you such as Saltines the off brand kinds are gross!!!! but most of the time the quality is the same and the price is better!
there are many things i will by generic. But one that i cant is cereal i can not stand store brand cereal it is nasty and does not taste the same.
I have often wondered the same thing about peanut butter. Now there are some things that I just have to have in the Brand name, like Pop Tarts..the store brands just aren't the same. I am not sure about peanut butter, but I had a friend who once worked packaging milk for a big brand name company and said that the same milk was put into every carton or jug and then different labels were put on them...so it makes you wonder about the peanut butter, could be done just as easily.
There are some products that you can't really tell, especially getting the generics of butter or canned vegetables. But in the case of pop, you can definitely tell a difference. I made the mistake of going cheap and getting Dr. Thunder from Wal-Mart instead of Dr. Pepper, and it was the worst tasting pop I've had in my life. At a quarter a can, you really do get what you pay for.