I was sitting by the pool, yesterday with my friend, Nancy. I had Walker with me, and she had her little boy, Christian with her. Our daughters (who are best friends) were at Spanish Camp together. Anyway, we were eating lunch, and the thought occurred to me--Stauffer's Whales baked snack crackers are sooooo much better than Goldfish. Now, I know that Stauffer's is a brand name, but for the sake of this blog, let's just say they are generic. I mean they did come after Goldfish, right? I had bought a large container of Goldfish for a party at Riley's preschool a few weeks ago, so I didn't bother buying the Whales. We continued to eat the leftover Goldfish. Just the other day, we went back to eating Whales and I am so glad we did. They taste so much better (cheesier, saltier, and crunchier) and they are sooooo much cheaper. Around our house, we try to stick to a budget, so I do my grocery shopping at WalMart and buy a lot of Great Value and Sam's Choice items. By the way, do you remember when generic items were packaged with black/white labels? Growing up, I hated that aisle of the grocery store. Anyway, I have noticed that some generic items are just not as good, however, for baking/cooking purposes, I usually buy GV. For instance Wheat Thins are much crunchier and better than GV wheat crackers and Ritz crackers are much better than GV snack crackers ("circle crackers" according to Riley).
Tim insists that certain items be name brand:
ketchup - Hunt's
potato chips - Ruffles
sports drink - Gatorade
hot dogs - Juicy Jumbos/Ball Park Franks
shave gel - Edge
soap - Irish Spring
ice cream - Breyer's, vanilla bean
I insist that other items be name brand:
laundry detergent - Cheer
dishwashing detergent - Sunlight
toilet tissue - Angel Soft
granola bars - Nature Valley
Now on the flip side of this, there are certain generic items that I like better than name brands:
Whales
vanilla wafers (we like the ones from Dollar Tree of all places; they stay fresh longer, and they are good)
fudge cookies by GV (they look like Oreos, but have fudge filling...mmmm!)
baby wipes (for some reason lately, I have had trouble with Huggies and Pampers wipes not wanting to separate; Parent's Choice has been great)
I guess it is all in your preference, how you grew up, what your mom bought, etc. Tim, would say, "It's the same thing, they just make the package a little more aesthetically pleasing." -- Hey! Wait a minute. Not with Whales and Goldfish!
4 comments:
Hi Anna,
I got to your blog from Tesney's. I hope you don't mind a stranger stopping by to comment from time to time.
I have become addicted to generic products. There was a time in my life when I wouldn't dare by anything generic (that's before I was buying things with my own cash.) Thanks to my husband, my love of saving money, and losing my generic snobbiness, I am now a "store brand" queen. I recently had a post on my blog about my husband's necessity to have Tide detergent and Lever 2000 soap. He always wants to buys whatever is cheapest except for those 2 things. We also cannot live without Mr. Clean magic erasers. You have to try those if you haven't already. We do most of our shopping at Kroger and "Big K" brand is a Robbins household favorite. You're right about your list, though. Sometimes, you just can't go generic.
Sorry for such a long post...
You know I love me some Sam's Choice. I even like the SC "wheat thins" better than the name brand. They taste better to me. I, like Heather, have to have Tide laundry detergent & Lever 2000 soap. Other name brands I prefer: Campbell's chicken noodle soup, Parkay margarine (it does bake better than cheapos), and Velveeta shells & cheese. Generics I prefer: Malt O Meal cinnamon toast cereal (even more cinnamon/sugar coating than Cinnamon Toast Crunch), Great Value cream soups, and Whales! I love them so much more than Goldfish, too.
I have to have certain brands too...
Diet COKE, Charmin Tissue, Pop-Tarts, all Cereal
There is just something about these brands that I must have.
I generally use generic too, but I do like Coke, Lever 2000, bread, Lipton tea, and Premium saltine crackers.
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