There are those of us who swear by name brand items and those of us who never buy anything that isn’t a store brand. So who is right? Can you get just the same quality out of a store brand item as you can the name brands? Or are store brands usually second best?
Rather than give you a clear cut answer to this one, I am afraid that I have to say the two words you probably dread to hear: It depends. Most of the time, in fact I would say about 90 percent of the time, the store brand products really as equal or sometimes better than name brand. Many store brand products are made by the same manufacturers in the same factories as the name brand products, but they cost less because they don’t have fancy labels.
My best advice is to try the store brands at least once. You may find that you can save a lot of money that way. of course convincing stubborn family members that store brands aren’t second best can sometimes prove challenging. It is all what you are used to. I have the opposite problem. Since my kids are so used to store brands, when I do get a better deal on name brand products, they just don’t taste right to my kids.
Still my husband and I do have our favorites to which we are brand loyal. And I still have to catch myself mistakenly thinking that the name brand of something is better, when I don’t have any proof of that.
To reassure you, do some research on different products. Consumer Reports is an excellent source of information and product ratings. You might be surprised how often store brands wind up performing better than name brands. I’ve seen store brands come ahead in everything from laundry detergent to sunscreen to cookie mix.
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