save money, buy generic, maybe not

[Radbird]

I remember Colonial as our white bread of choice when I was growing up but I doubt it's still around.

Jeez, I can't remember the last time I had a slice of plain old white bread.

[jim]

A few years ago we had a Chilean foreign exchange student living with us, and at the time my oldest kid was eating lots of peanut butter on Wonder bread. I'll never forget the look on her face when she felt it ... she picked a slice up by the corner and it kind of just went limp and she looked up at us surprised with a look of "Is this ok to eat? Is it supposed to be like this?". We told her that was how white American bread was, and she took a little bite and a new confused look appeared on her face. She said in this broken english "What eees theees?. Muy strange".

She never had another bite of that bread again and we promised her we would have some real bread in the house from then on, which we usually do anyway.

I never buy that stuff, although my wife will buy it if she does the shopping. It usually goes bad before we eat it - which is saying something because there is so much crap in that stuff that it takes weeks to start going bad.

[lukethedrifter]

Pretty amazing con job it was to get people to think that stuff was better. Post WW2 everyone was looking for progress whether or not it was progress or not.

[heyzeus]

[cardsfansince82]

Might as well grab a brick of velveeta at that point.

[docellis]

Generic rice a roni, yes, same.
Generic cleaners, yes, close to same.
Generic almost everything but cheese, bread and alcohol.

Cheese being the thing that I think, most warrants extra money. Lots of generic things only have slight taste differences. But the more you spend on cheese, the greater taste difference as compared to almost everything else.

[jim]

Sometimes I think generic products do things just to piss people off. For example, generic Fruit Loops taste pretty close to regular Fruit Loops. But the bag doesn't open right. I dare you to open that [expletive] plastic bag in such a way that you get a clean tear. You can't. And if that does cost more to produce a bag that doesn't tear, it can't be more than .000000001 cents. In fact, I'm pretty sure some of the packaging of generic packages cost more to produce. "How can we produce a bag that when pulled on in a natural way tears all the way down the side?". Lot of engineering in that I bet.

[MrSaigon]

Are you talking about generic American cheese? I don't think that stuff is technically cheese whether its branded by Kraft or Schnucks or whatever. Isn't it just like coagulated oil or something? Blech. I used to love it as a child, though, especially the neeto individual slice wrapping. Now, it seems like a relic from another era what with the excessive packaging and the unnecessary processing to "improve" a better existing item.

I say make yourself a conservative budget based on reasonable expectations and go ahead and use the savings. I'm a fairly aggressive saver precisely so I can use the money in times like yours. What's the point otherwise?

American cheese is the worst. It's so, so bad. Pretty sure it's why the terrorists hate us. Decent burgers are ruined everywhere with that stuff.

[MrCrowesGarden]

Most generics to me are fine. I prefer Coke and Dr. Pepper to the store brands, but the generics are okay.

Peanut butter is the big exception. I can't taste much of a difference between Jif, Skippy, Peter Pan, etc... but all the store brands are awful.

[Socnorb11]

Sometimes I think generic products do things just to piss people off. For example, generic Fruit Loops taste pretty close to regular Fruit Loops. But the bag doesn't open right. I dare you to open that [expletive] plastic bag in such a way that you get a clean tear. You can't. And if that does cost more to produce a bag that doesn't tear, it can't be more than .000000001 cents. In fact, I'm pretty sure some of the packaging of generic packages cost more to produce. "How can we produce a bag that when pulled on in a natural way tears all the way down the side?". Lot of engineering in that I bet.

I can hardly stop laughing.


I agree with everyone here. Generics are fine for the most part, but definitely have to go with name brand peanut butter, bread, beer, and pop tarts.