House brands

AP reports the unsurprising news that as food prices rise, many consumers are switching to less expensive store brands.

It would be useful to compile a list of store-brand and generic foods that we have tried and liked as well or better than name brands, as well as any that are distinctly inferior.

I've reported elsewhere that I like Meijer's potato chips, especially the black pepper flavor, and Safeway tonic water. I've also been pretty happy with Safeway's O Organics line of Italian sodas, but they're not really any cheaper than name brands, unless they go on sale. Cost Plus World Market and Target (Archer Farms) also have store-brand Italian sodas that are very good.

I've liked most Archer Farms products, actually, but I don't know that they're significantly cheaper than name brands of the same things.

Others have reported on Costco's Kirkland line, especially the olive oil.

Of course, I do most of my shopping at smaller stores, which don't exactly have house brands in the same sense. But I love most of the soups, salads and sausages made in-house at Shop & Save and the Greek yogurt from Produce World. I'm also addicted to the Russian-style chopped-mushroom salad sold at Harvest Fresh (100 E. Rand Road,
Arlington Heights, 847/368-0138).

Aldi has several house brands: their "regular" brand, which can be under different names depending on what it is (e.g. mexican stuff is "casa mamita") the "Grandessa" gourmet brand, which is usually pretty good, and the "Fit and Active" whose health claims are dubious, but many of the products are very good (I particularly like the canned citrus salads and the corn chips) I've found some misses with the regular stuff, but the other two we use frequently.

I concur with what you've listed above, but am still lamenting the loss of the PC brand at Jewel.

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention the Meijer corn chips. Indistinguishable from Fritos, IMHO.

The Whole Foods 365 brands are uniformly of very good quality and price, particularly the canned tomatoes, canned black beans, and olive oil. I've also become fond of their grapefruit scented shower gel and body lotion, which is a fraction of the price of similar products at The Body Shop.

I've mentioned this before in the Aldi thread, but I think their canned corned beef hash is better than the Mary Kitchen brand that most grocery stores carry. It's less salty and has a better flavor. I don't know who is producing it for them.

Of course, homemade corned beef hash is always better, but I always keep a couple of cans around to ward off corned beef hash withdrawal.

Suzy

Meijer brand soda is fantastic, by my standards. They even have 2 colas that emulate Coke and Pepsi, and I like them better than the originals.

Llama wrote:Meijer brand soda is fantastic, by my standards. They even have 2 colas that emulate Coke and Pepsi, and I like them better than the originals.

I didn't care for the Meijer ginger ale -- IIRC it had a kind of metallic taste -- but I'll have to give some of the other flavors a try.

LAZ wrote:I didn't care for the Meijer ginger ale -- IIRC it had a kind of metallic taste -- but I'll have to give some of the other flavors a try.

I would be surprised if Meijer's ginger ale was not some off-shoot of Vernor's.

jlawrence01 wrote:I would be surprised if Meijer's ginger ale was not some off-shoot of Vernor's.

No, it was a dry-type ginger ale, not Vernor's-like, but not good, either.

I keep trying house/generic ginger ales in hopes that I'll come up with a cheaper one I like as well as the name brands, but I haven't so far. Of the routine brands, I like Canada Dry, Schweppes and Seagram's, in that order.

Vernor's is another flavor category, even in its current version, which is far inferior to the barrel-aged, limited-distribution beverage of my Detroit youth.