I’ve told this one before, but one of the great lines about the savings – and the stigma – of buying store-brand products comes from the old Rosanne sitcom.
Rosie is leading a home-ec field trip to the grocery store. She tells the girls about saving with store brands as she reaches for some Brand-X corn flakes. Her daughter is mortified. “But we don’t buy that…we use the good stuff!” Says Rosanne: “We use the BOX of good stuff. I fill it with this. It’s only SECOND best for MY family!”
Funny thing is, a lot of people don’t consider the store brand as second best anymore. If you’ve got bills to pay (you do, right?) then saving up to 36% on the generic label is pretty attractive! (According to Consumer Affairs magazine.)
Consumer Reports says that 65% of people buy store brands whenever they can. And 63% of those folks “were completely or very satisfied with the quality; only 5 percent expressed even a hint of dissatisfaction.”
All store brands are not created equal, however. Consumer Reports also surveyed items at 68 stores, and found that 49 stores earned average or above scores. Who does the store brand thing best? The overall winner was Trader Joe’s, followed by
- Wegmans
- Publix
- Costco
- Raley’s
- Whole Foods Market, and
- Harris Teeter
So what do YOU think? Do you use a lot of store brands? Like a lot of the folks in the survey, I also use them whenever I can. Who do YOU think does them best? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page, and have a great weekend!