Big Brands vs Own Brands

mrsd

I agree with what has been said, I now shop at Ald! when possible as its true what their advertising says and have cut my weekly shop by about £15 per week. The value brands often have less additives and Ads@ are now promoting the fact all their value brand now contains no artificial colours or flavours. My DD is doing A level Business Studies and found that most of the big supermarkets own brands are made by the big brand companies anyway. I am of the opinion that if I buy value brand and like it will get it again, if I dont like it I wont buy it again, but then apply that to everything I buy.

sonastin

building_with_lego wrote: »

...And when you get all the way down to trying the value ranges please remember this:
supermarkets have designed the value range packaging to be garishly, obviously cheap and therefore shame you into spending more on the own brand/ mainstream branded equivalent. Deny the shame! Often it's pretty much as good as you need. Good luck

I was highly entertained during my last a$da shop that EVERYTHING in my trolley was green&white. The only veg on my list was cauliflower & broccoli so even that fit the smartprice colour scheme! OH won't let me buy any other brand of biscuits.

Things that didn't work for me: margarine, tea bags, soya milk (OH prefers sweetened, weened him off organic though!). Everything else is fair game but I'm not evangelical about it. Cereal tends to be branded for OH, own brand for me.

bearcub

We buy a lot of own brand groceries, simply because we've come to like them more than a lot of the branded stuff. For example, we find that a lot of branded cereals are so, so oversweet, and, having found that Co-op or Morrisons own-brand versions are less sickly, we buy them all the time. I do treat myself to the occasional box of Dorset cereals, though, but only when they're on half-price offer.

Branded items we always buy are (like a lot of others) Branston baked beans, Dairylea spread (I've tried others, don't like!), Bertolli spread, Branston pickle and Daddy's sauce. Just looked in the cupboard, and that's it!

We buy a lot of Lidl own-brand, which is generally excellent quality - there's a separate thread on Lidl products somewhere on the forum. We don't have an Asda (yet) or Aldi on the island, and I wouldn't shop in Tesco if they paid me to do so.

mon1o

Thanks to all of you for your input! We do have an aldi and a lidl here which I will definitley try - the inlaws shop at aldi and love the food from there. Home bargains is right next door too so might be able to get some things cheaper in there. First though, ive got a £15 off £75 online spend voucher for sainsburys. So I thought i'd give them a go - normally i find them too expensive so avoid as much as i can but given ive heard their basics range is good i might try them this month. We'll see.

Got last nights "Superscrimpers" recorded from last night so will watch that with great interest.
Thanks again x

mummybearx

Just to add my tuppence worth, I'm happy to buy most value food, most own brand food, and rarely buy big brands. My sticking points though, are coffee - I only drink Lazzavo or Illy, maybe Taylors at a push. Eggs - I only buy Happy Eggs, just cos I know the poor chickens are out roaming in the freedom. If I can't get them I only buy other freerange eggs, not 'windowed barn' eggs, that does not mean they are outside!! And chicken, another I only buy proper freerange versions of. But only DH eats meat, Im veggie, so we really don't spend that much on chicken.

Oh and shampoo I've tried many others, but only Tresemme shampoo makes my hair look and feel great. I currently use Tesco own conditioner though

A lot of the things I buy Value Im cooking with, so Im adding it to other things with seasoning, herbs, spices. So you really don't notice!

camNolliesMUMMY

we buy nearly all things value brands, unless branded is cheaper when an offer is on and its better value for money at the time.

i always take a calculator with me to work it out, or when i shop online i use my supermarket and search via the price per unit.:T

budgetboo

You couldn't pay me to swap my Lidl's washing up liquid for a "brand", the Lidls one does what the expensive branded adverts claim to do, but never quite manage ; ) I've been impressed with the laundry detergent too.

My son is on a special diet so I have to be very, very careful with ingredients. Oddly many of the Sainsbury's & Asda's basics ranges have far fewer strange things I can't pronounce in them so are probably the healthier choice long term. (I haven't checked Tescos for a few years as I did notice the quality drop with their value range).

Fruit and veg - the only difference is the cheaper ranges have a wider variety of sizes. Sainsburys basics bananas are even fairtrade if that's important to you.

Most of the cheaper ranges are grown on the same farms and made in the same factories as the more expensive ones. I don't to just pay for fancy marketing and I'm not keen on too much packaging anyway.

Most people have one or two branded items they are very fond of such as coffee, or marmite, or shampoo but I find that if the large bulk of my shopping is from the cheaper ranges it's nice to have enough left over to treat myself to a chunk of Marks & Sparks Cornish Cruncher cheese to nibble on guilt free [wink]

Stephen_Leak

The thread Squeaky mentions is the source of all knowledge on this.

It is a very personal thing. Try downshifting from the named brand to the supermarket own brand. If you don't like it, go back up - at least you tried. If it's OK, then try downshifting to the supermarket budget brand. For example, I've done this with baked beans, and I couldn't tell the difference. Other people can.

rosie383

mon1o Can I suggest that you go on https://www.mysupermarket.com if you are planning a big shop from Sains, and just check out what they have on offer first. You may find that by the time you do your shopping list there, that maybe one of the others would be cheaper, depending on your shopping list. I tend to only buy value brands or stuff on offer from Sains, and always check on mysupermarket before I go, then plan some meals around what they have on special offer.

mon1o

Thanks Rosie

Ive heard of mysupermarket.com but never been on it. going to go take a look now!