Converting a Brand Snob

Clowance

Its really a question of taste, personally I will buy own brands (but tend not to buy value range) of food except for a very few items like mcvities ginger nuts, marmite etc. Having said that, value kitchen towel is OK whereas toilet roll is rubbish, and in tescos case even their own brand toilet roll seems to have reduced in quality lately.
I would continue the experiment slowly, and when you can prove there is no difference on a few major items, tell her.
By the way, surely the fresh meat is "own brand" unless you buy branded eg Bernard Matthews - in this case, I prefer the own brand.

lfc4eva

I can only eat John West red salmon or tuna......cant stand Princess............(OH laughs at me coz i say it tastes fishy) :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

horizon

I have been trying for a long time to get her to change, and am finding it very difficult.
Hence my sneaky efforts so far.

The foods that I am most annoyed about are :-

Birds eyes frozen peas (as already mentioned)- she will not have any other brand of peas, she won't even have peti pois !

Mushrooms - When you look at the mushrooms in Tesco's etc, I cannot see the difference in the Value ones, normal boxed ones or the loose ones.
In fact the value ones are normally bigger, and IMO taste better (more meaty)
........but if i pick them up

Chicken breasts - whats the difference between a value pack, and one in standard packaging ?

I do tell her that the local takeaways, will be using these cheaper indgredients, an she will quite happily eat them. Once they are covered in sauce you can't tell what it is !!

horizon

I'm_With_Stupid wrote:

Most of it isn't being a brand snob though, it's just sticking to what you know you like. Do you buy your normal margerine, or do you save 20p and risk all your sandwiches tasting like crap for the next month? After all it's not worth saving the money if you're not going to enjoy the product. There's a difference between being a brand snob, and always buying a particular brand because you happen to like it, and haven't tried anything else. But if you assume that it's gonna be rubbish because it's a certain brand, or it's from a certain shop, or country, that you're a brand snob. I do wonder why people care about their brand of soap or floor cleaner though.

Oh and all you people switching the brands round, tell your other halves to get a grip.

I don't mind which butter or marge she buys (thou its always one of the well known or advertised brands) as I don't use it.

I much prefer my sandwiches and rolls without any butter or marge.
If i need something to help stick them together I might put in a bit of mayo. (Hellmanns of course !!)

horizon

tr3mor wrote:

Sod off, she's probably spending his hard earned money

I'll buy whatever seems the best value, look at the ingredients see how similar they sound. Some value things have less additives etc compared the the main brands!

Thanks !!

She certainly is.

When I go shopping I always look at the price per kilo, Gram, litre etc rather than the price per item.
This is the way to get the cheapest option.

eg:- there are so many different versions of heinz tomato sauce, it always beat to look at that price per gram. The glass bottles are usually cheapest.

skylight

I too have undertaken "taste" tests - but hubby knew about it. Mainly with beans and ketchup. HP sauce and Heinz salad cream though is non-negotiable!

Own brand almost everything else though - from nappies and wipes to printer cartridges these days.

I am not a brand snob, and managed to change my mother too!

DavidHM

I'll happily buy unbranded anything. If it turns out to be inedible, I'll just chuck it though and either do without or replace it - the 60% savings on other goods will easily pay for anything that flops.

To me, it's worth paying 15p to find out whether value beans taste as good as Heinz. They do, saving me 40p a can for life, but if they didn't, I'd only have lost 15p and the time it takes to get a replacement.

boatman

If you go to Germany Aldi and Lidl ARE the brands!

Emmarillo

I think I was a brand snob! Just with one thing though - diet coke. We economised everywhere we could but I always insisted on having this even when pepsi or whatever was buy one get one free, then I read on here about the lidl one, and bought a bottle to try. I didn't really enjoy the first glass, but very quickly got used to it, and now I prefer it. Its usually 39p a bottle but they quite often have it for 19p.


Bargain of the year.

glenstan

I did this with beans for hubby used branston beans , wich I love and left empty heinz can on worktop for recycling . Hubby knew difference , kept saying I am going to write to heinz these must be a duff batch.