Cheap economy own brand foods

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Whats the take on these products, should they be touched with a barge pole or are they simply low cost- budget foods that are tolerable. I tend to think it can sometimes vary between product to product but not always, (just often bad food).
Do you leave your the store from a weekly food shop slapping your back pocket feeling smug but wary, or self righteous and justified that good money has been spent on top nosh'. Or a little of both?

― _chris_ (bifartdag), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 13:19 (twenty-three years ago)

i don't buy all that much food at the grocery store, but i'll get some more generic-ish brands, sure. or not, i don't usually sweat it too much. one thing i can say is that i don't see myself ever buying any food product from trader joes. they've got some nasty shit in there. but they do sell the big bottles of s pellegrino for 1.09 and they have pure aloe gel with no chemicals in it.

― ron (ron), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 13:36 (twenty-three years ago)

It just makes me think of Repo Man. Though there's really nothing wrong with generic paper towels, say.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 14:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Thanks to a huge rent increase I'm having to investigate cheapo shite products as a way of insuring I still have enough to spendspendspend on MUSIC and BOOZE.
So.
1st roole: Avoid economy meat products. Beefburgers have vile bits of bone and tubes in them, which, attractively, get stuck in yer teef. And fish fingers got dark bits in 'em. Yuk.
Also economy baked beans/(tinned) spagetti are insipid to tha maxx. Avoid.

But! Stuff like bum paper, washing up liquid and non-edible items are worth it. Just about.

― DavidM (DavidM), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 16:49 (twenty-three years ago)

You have to find out: some of the ultra-cheap stuff is fine, some of it horrible. I wouldn't consider own-brand orange squash, but the cheapo Sainsbury's orange juice is perfectly okay. DavidM is right on meat products - they are the only ones not worth even experimenting with. Oh, and I just had an Iceland ice lolly (10 for 69p) which was nice. You do get better by paying five times as much, but not, for me, five times as good.

Of course I don't exactly care much about quality food.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 17:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Go for stuff with abstract chemical flavours like Mixed Fruits that don't exist anywhere else and you can't go wrong.

― Graham (graham), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 17:50 (twenty-three years ago)

Im meat free so thats kinda good, veggeterribble' (bad) food is hard to find cheap or not- usually; I find cheap tea bags annoying (though having to buy them at times).
Although I understand it reflects the low budget'ness of the product, the thing that mainly deters me, is the bland all white packaging of economy food. Im not particualry attracted by eye catching packaged goods (although the odd snipet from Marvel wouldnt go a miss for the checkout queue, on say a 6pk of toilet rolls), but it just feels a bit army ration aesthetic and therefor underprivilidged nourishment, which i-suppose its what it is on some food. But yet needs must at times, so economy food serves a worthy purpose, whilst keeping diligent. And yes, wacky cheap drinks are fun.

Army ration aesthetic, classic or dudd? This makes me think of Miss Havisham as an object. Curious.

― chrisb (chrisb), Thursday, 22 August 2002 00:57 (twenty-three years ago)

we shop for non-perishables at the dollar store. it works.

― Maria (Maria), Thursday, 22 August 2002 02:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Trader Joes had really good white cheese macaroni-and-cheese-in-a-box when I was in college. It was really good- far better than Kraft- especially when mixed with curry powder. I'm not sure if they still have it these days, though.

― lyra (lyra), Thursday, 22 August 2002 03:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I shop in Lidl occasionally where there's comedy cheapo brands. Its usually worth experimenting. Personally I find cheapo cola just as palatable as coke and it costs less than a third of the price. Cheapo breakfast cereal is pretty fine too but cheapo baked beans full of sugar are nasty. Basic fruit and veg type stuff like nuts, pasta, tinned tomatoes and jam are generally fine there. I think their tea is ok but my wife hates it so go figure.

And their CDRs are fine.

― Winkelmann, Thursday, 22 August 2002 12:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Cheap orange juice is the tool of satan.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 22 August 2002 12:40 (twenty-three years ago)

That reminds me of a thing my brother was telling me at the weekend. He said when he was at college they were trying to persuade one of his mates to go for a night out but he was declining on grounds of skintness, they persisted until he burst out 'it's alright for you lot, you drink Tropicana' as though the brand / price of orange juice a person buys is a benchmark for their wealth.

I don't know what scabby brand this poor kid was drinking. Anyway I am quite happy with supermarket own brand but not economy brands. Ew.

― Emma, Thursday, 22 August 2002 12:52 (twenty-three years ago)

they persisted until he burst out 'it's alright for you lot, you drink Tropicana'

For some reason this is the funniest thing I have read all day.

Generic is grate for lots of things, like aspirin or baking soda, etc. Iffy on buying generic/economy foods though.

― Nicole (Nicole), Thursday, 22 August 2002 12:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Tropicana is pretty fantastic but I can see the point, I'd drink a carton in a day no problem. However I always forget to shake it and then think I could have sworn there were bits in this one, look! it says right there, bits!

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 22 August 2002 12:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Apparently Tropicana has since become synonymous with great wealth & classiness in their gang.

― Emma, Thursday, 22 August 2002 13:12 (twenty-three years ago)

I feel I must point out: it's not always a matter of choice whether to buy the economy own brands.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 22 August 2002 13:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Places like Trader Joe's in the States or Lidl or Aldi in Yurp often have the very same stuff made in the very same factory with a cheaper non-brand on it. Check the label for clues -- if the ingredient list is identical and stuff is made in the same town, it's probably the same stuff.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 22 August 2002 13:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Gotta love packaging. But hey, if it tastes good. I'm always bemused by the frozen food packages at a Trader Joe's that read 'Product of Denmark' and the like. Isn't that cost-intensive?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 22 August 2002 14:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Catch it, freeze it, ship it -- what's expensive about that?

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 22 August 2002 14:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Gotta love packaging. But hey, if it tastes good. I'm always bemused by the frozen food packages at a Trader Joe's that read 'Product of Denmark' and the like. Isn't that cost-intensive?

I trust that it's cheaper to ship frozen (as opposed to fresh) food.
From what I understand, TJ sources its products from wherever it can find goods that meet their standards at the best price. Therefore, it was Denmark this time around, but may be Turkey or Indonesia or Chile, when next the company reorders.

― j.lu (j.lu), Thursday, 22 August 2002 14:35 (twenty-three years ago)

While I was a student I isolated the reasonable house brands at the nearest supermarket: I've completely forgotten the arcane heirarchy I'd developed at the time, but I have incredibly strong memories of the Jewel-brand cookie assortment. Also vegetable oil, spaghetti, and President's Choice "Dr. Smooth" cola, but mostly the cookies: four different types for just over a dollar. You could break them out when people had the munchies and not care if they all got eaten -- which they wouldn't, because they were tasty treats but not quite enticing enough to really pig out on.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 22 August 2002 14:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Catch it, freeze it, ship it -- what's expensive about that?

Struck me as counterproductive given the energy to keep it not merely packaged but frozen -- however, I shall bow your and J.Lu's wisdom. :-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 22 August 2002 14:54 (twenty-three years ago)

President's Choice cookies are superior to any other cookies, regardless of brand name.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 22 August 2002 14:55 (twenty-three years ago)

you can make your own burgers fairly easily, you know, it's often not worth buying pre-made patties if you're trying to save money.

my dad used to work for a meat processing company, and he could tell you the specific differences between brands. for instance, the economy brands of bacon are no worse in terms of quality, they're usually sold more cheaply because they're not cut in perfect strips.

i'm still trying to get over the sticker shock of buying chicken breasts at a Sainsbury's in Islington this past Christmas - no wonder veggieism/veganism is so popular over your way...

― Dave M. (rotten03), Thursday, 22 August 2002 15:05 (twenty-three years ago)

I know; I often wonder how people can afford to eat meat. I only really eat fish in restaurants because I baulk when I see the price per kilo in the (super)market. Although if you were shopping in Sainsbury's you might wonder how people can afford to eat vegetables; they seem so much more expensive there than anywhere else (at least in my local places). I quite often stand there screaming (in my head) NO I am NOT paying 80p for a plumped up bloody Dutch hydroponic pepper just because it's all fat and smooth and you've probably got lackeys to shine the skin. I'm going to find a twisty, thin, interesting pepper somewhere else for cheap. You buggers.

― Ellie (Ellie), Thursday, 22 August 2002 16:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Safeway's smoked bacon economy style is so good they might have stopped making it. As are the economy fish fingers.

I do not eat baked beans if I can avoid them, nor canned spaghetti. This may be down to my mother telling us Spaghettios was cuisine de trailer trash.

― suzy (suzy), Thursday, 22 August 2002 17:16 (twenty-three years ago)

I want this vegetable-buffer job Ellie posits.

For a while in the Midwest it was this big thing for everyone to get "Amish" chicken, which was necessarily organic and free-range and such by virtue of being raised by the Amish. My brother used to joke that each chicken had an "Amish child mentor." I like this idea of foodstuffs having handlers and personal assistants, like those pigs that get fed walnuts and massaged every afternoon.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 22 August 2002 17:36 (twenty-three years ago)

It is difficult to find the optimum orange juice/price point, I find -- especially in Tesco when they have own brand fresh *and* from concentrate. The fresh stuff is twice the price of the concentrated stuff and almost worth it. Although I am easily confused and find food shopping a bit of an ordeal.

One Sainsburys in Belfast has started putting courgettes in the "exotic vegetables" section which is surely a brainwrong.

― Clive, Thursday, 22 August 2002 19:32 (twenty-three years ago)

nineteen years pass...

the "weetabix" i bought from tesco yesterday were so cheap they couldn't afford the corners. tasted ok though.

(i think the shape of weetabix is protected somehow and other copies pay them money to copy them and being rectangular is a way around that. i had sainsburys versions a couple of years ago that were completely circular, possibly for the same reason. and which also made the box an odd shape to store)

― koogs, Thursday, 24 February 2022 20:53 (three years ago)

https://metro.co.uk/2017/04/28/it-turns-out-weetabix-makes-a-cheaper-own-brand-version-for-asda-and-tesco-6602671/

― .xlsm (P. Flick), Thursday, 24 February 2022 21:30 (three years ago)

these were obviously not those thought but Stockwell's and Co branded, exclusively for Tesco's, it says

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/300455629

the box lid tore as i opened it and the plastic inner wrapping was tough to open. still, 74p...

― koogs, Thursday, 24 February 2022 22:44 (three years ago)

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