'Downshift Nation: Dropping down a brand's becoming accepted wisdom' blog discussion.

sparrer

wbrichard wrote: »

Did anyone see Dispatches last night - not the greatest bit of insight, but the basic thrust was that own label products are not as nutritionally rich. Examples provided were the levels of protein in meat pies and sausages, levels of lycopene (antioxidant) in tomatoes and the amount of apple in apple pie (less than 10%).

Saw that and if my diet solely depended on getting all my nutrients from the few foods mentioned I would be somewhat concerned, but as I eat more than just meat/apple pies, sausages and tomatoes I took the whole thing with a pinch of salt (pun intended).

It makes good, ie scaremongering, television for the gullible which is the purpose of this kind of documentary.

PeterKayFan

In our family we don't call it 'downshifting' - we talk about rolacola! Anyone who has seen Peter Kay doing stand up will know that his mother wouldn't buy 'proper' 'branded' coca cola, she would only buy rolacola! We shop at Morrisons (I hope I'm allowed to say that) and I can tell you that the rolacola ('Value') range has some really good products. The cartons of apple and orange juice, the ready salted crisps (much nicer - in our opinion - than the most famous leading brand advertised by a certain footballer...) , the crispy salad, the baked beans, the tinned tomatoes, the kitchen rolls, the choc ices - all good, really good. not so good is the rice pops (rice crispies in value form) - even the birds wouldn't eat them until it had rained on them, and even then, over a week later, most of them are still spread across the patio from when I slipped over, on ice, whilst taking the wretched things out to the birds! The loo paper wasn't that brilliant either. in my humble opinion. their pasta is in the cupboard, as yet untried, as is their chocolate steamed pudding and syrups sponge pudding, and their tinned custard. Its well worth trying a few of their products out - you don't know until you've tried them, do you?

worbikeman

I downshifted on ketchup - it's only tomatoes, sugar and vinegar so why pay more? You dont really eat it for the lycoprenes...
As for cola - I used to buy branded diet coke if it was 241 or summit, as I dont like the 'rolacola' brands. BUT now I have discovered that you can get diet ginger ale at 48p a litre in bottles - which tastes great and works out at the same price as the cheapest offers on branded coke.
The litre plastic bottles dont lose their fizzy like big 2l bottles do. Then I ride to the council depot and recycle the bottles - which gives me an enormous sense of well-being! Lol.

lesley1960

If everyone only bought the non branded goods wouldnt the prices of these goods go up considerably? , I would guess alot of the reduced costs , especially in food items , can be explained away by using inferior ingrediants , but over heads will still need to be met . Of course this all depends on the profit margins built into the premium / non brand goods, I would expect the profit margin to be higher on the premium goods and if so the non branded stuff would have to go up in price . There again I could just be wittering