Supermarket's own brands pros and cons

[Chris Hobson]

When I was a nipper my mum used to do her big weekly shop at a Spar supermarket in Hornsea. One week she decided to spurn Kellogs and bought the Spar brand cornflakes. These turned out to be similar to the flaked maize that were fed to sheep. That was back in the 1970s, nowadays supermarket brand stuff is as good and often better than branded stuff and usually about half the price. I have worked in a factory where identical products were put into different boxes depending on who was claiming to have made them. I have also had a bizarre conversation with a work colleague who wouldn't buy supermarket brands because he thought that the checkout girl would be judging him for being a cheapskate. I doubt that the checkout girls give a second's thought to the stuff that they are checking out, but if they did they might just as likely be judging him for paying twice as much for his stuff than he had to. There are exceptions. Bath bubbles, the Radox stuff is more expensive but is far more concentrated so it is better value. Being a vegetarian I sometimes buy Quorn products which are unique. Otherwise it is supermarket brands every time.
Agree or disagree?

 

[Inka]

I think some supermarket products are excellent, but there are a few things where I prefer branded eg Weetabix and All Bran. Neither of those taste the same when they’re not the originals.

Generally I buy non-branded for most things but buy a few branded items where I can taste the difference.

 

[Chris Hobson]

Asda's weetabix are good. Recently the Asda brand spready butter was out of stock and I bought Lurpak, can't tell the difference.

 

[Inka]

I don’t think I’ve ever had the Asda ones. I can’t put my finger on the difference but the unbranded ones I’ve tried seem to lack that Weetabix-y taste. Malt maybe?

Really fancying some Weetabix now

 

[Kaylz]

I buy branded bread, used to use Tesco's own but when the first lockdown came in nobody could get to the next town for it and I just simply don't like the Co-ops wholemeal, everything else is pretty much Lidl's or Morrison's own but I will buy branded things if they are on offer when I do a Morrison's order xx

 

[grovesy]

I buy a mix.

 

[Anitram]

Really fancying some Weetabix now

I have it for breakfast every day, which makes getting up in the mornings something I always look forward to. Only one, though, with chia seed, chopped strawberries and single cream. Around 20g carb.

Have substituted LIDL's or Sainsbury's own brand versions once or twice, as they are cheaper, but they seem less substantial to me. Prefer the real thing.

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Supermarket any day of the week, no taste difference and a lot cheaper on the pocket.

 

[Lucyr]

I usually buy own brand but there are some things where the brand name is better. E.g washing up liquid I only buy fairy platinum, pasta the supermarket own brand tastes much nicer than the supermarket basics own brand, tortilla wraps the brand name is better than the supermarket basics or upgraded own brand. For fruit, veg, meats etc I haven’t noticed a difference, but for quorn mince the quorn is better than supermarket brand.

 

[helli]

The Waitrose own brand Essentials range amuses me.
It includes essentials like Mozzarella and Parmesan. Very Waitrose

 

[Drummer]

Lidl's own brand stuff is excellent. I used to earn my living with my sense of taste and smell and have not yet lost it, so I can attest to their foods being good quality - though as I don't 'do' grain their bread and cereals might be the exceptions.
Their clothing and household goods are often a temptation - we have a filter coffee machine on every day and so far the really cheap Lidl ones have outlasted the more expensive ones by a good margin.

 

[nonethewiser]

With Inka when it comes to cereals, nowt tastes anything near to original Weetabix cornflakes, some products made in same factory but not to same spec.

Buy more supermarket brands than original simply due to cost, some are better than branded products.

 

[eggyg]

Mr Eggy will only have Heinz beans and Kelloggs cornflakes and I will only have Hellman’s Mayo, tried own brands and too runny. But Aldi butter, cheese, all types, are brilliant value and I much prefer Aldi’s mature cheddar to Pilgrims Choice, Mclellands et al. I have a friend who has been to our local Aldi once since it opened, 10 years ago maybe, and didn’t like it as it didn’t sell brands! I just wish Aldi did delivery or click and collect up in our town, I’m missing it. It’s costing a fortune doing a Tesco shop for everything.

 

[rebrascora]

I'm also a Lidl fan. I like Aldi too but maybe only shop there 3 or 4 times a year these days, particularly since diagnosis as I know all the Lidl products that I use for my low carb diet so I don't have to get my reading glasses out to examine the nutritional info and putting glasses on and off is very likely to dislodge my face mask, so just not worth the aggravation of shopping elsewhere at the moment. Some of Lidl products are easily as good as or better than the branded versions. In particular their tomato ketchup is identical to Heinz and half the price (not that I use ketchup any more) and their XXX cola is as good as it's branded Pepsi Max equivalent and a third of the price. What annoys me is when you find a Lidl product that you really like and then they suddenly discontinue it... which is much less likely to occur with a branded product of course. They used to do a gorgeous potato salad and just when I was completely hooked on it, they discontinued it.... probably just as well as I would be tempted if they still sold it now, but there have been a few items over the years that I really loved and then they stopped doing them.

 

[grovesy]

Mr Eggy will only have Heinz beans and Kelloggs cornflakes and I will only have Hellman’s Mayo, tried own brands and too runny. But Aldi butter, cheese, all types, are brilliant value and I much prefer Aldi’s mature cheddar to Pilgrims Choice, Mclellands et al. I have a friend who has been to our local Aldi once since it opened, 10 years ago maybe, and didn’t like it as it didn’t sell brands! I just wish Aldi did delivery or click and collect up in our town, I’m missing it. It’s costing a fortune doing a Tesco shop for everything.

We have not done but one branch here is trailing Click and Collect.

 

[trophywench]

I swear by Hellman's mayo too for the same reason - and have saved A Lot of waste by buying the plastic squeezy 'bottles' instead of the glass jars.

Over the years I've usually found OB cereals to be much harder than the branded ones - I usually enjoy the mixture of crunchy and soggy you get with brands instead of 100% crunchy with the OB. Weetabix though I have to have 100% soggy, so I always used to warm the milk up before adding the Weetabix, which I used to have one of every morning when I was at work - but that's a long time ago now so haven't bought any for years.

 

[trophywench]

I still eat Ketchup - approx 1.5 teaspoons of it on gammon once every week!

 

[chaoticcar]

I haven't forgiven Lidl for the protein roll discontinuation !!!

 

[Kaylz]

@rebrascora what makes it even more difficult for many is the latest email received from Lidl which states - "Please only touch what you intend to buy" which means they won't be helping along in my recovery so any treats I may want will just have to come from Morrison's seen as it's available online xx

 

[rebrascora]

@Kaylz I'm not on their email list but I believe they had a policy about that early in the first pandemic when if I remember rightly there was media attention about someone (I think it might have been a sports personality) being shamed for picking something up and then putting it back without buying it and being challenged by staff.... which is extremely surprising considering that Lidl staffing levels are so low, there is never anyone to ask when you need help let alone tell you off for handling the stock!
I would have thought that it was a good thing that they are reminding people not to handle items they are not going to buy. I am quite sure people in Morrison's or Tesco are no different to Lidl customers in that respect and at least Lidl are tackling the problem by pointing it out.