Store Brands v Name Brands

Thought I'd get some feedback on this topic from those in the know. Since I will be coming from the states and have no particular affinity for ANY brand, thought I should try to be a little informed about what NOT to buy. When generics came to be in the states I already had long established buying patterns so I tend to not buy generic or store brands.

When beginning my UK shopping, should I just start with the cheapest and work my way up or has anyone run into real problems with particular brands. I really don't want to buy margarine, get home and find out it takes like week-old grease!

Any input would be appreciated,
PaulaH

i know people say the tuna here is manky......you really have to get the high end kind to have good kind

ps: i like lurpack light butter.  it's awesome.    also utterly butterly is good if you want the overly buttery taste but not eating butter.

I would answer this with what is really a non-answer: it depends....  

For me it depends on the item that I'm after AND the store. Like I find Tesco own-brand stuff repulsive and poor quality pretty much across the board: kitchen rolls to tinned tomatoes to tinned sweetcorn. BUT I really like their soups. When I shop at Waitrose on the other hand, I buy nearly all own-brand stuff and find the quality quite good.... It's hard to say if there's a good method of finding out what works for you. If you can afford Waitrose, which is a bit more pricey than other places (though not as much as Tesco would like you to think!) then start with own-brand stuff. If you shop Tesco or Asda, I would be a bit more careful.

Well it depends which supermarket.  Waitrose anything is good.  Sainsburys & Tesco do 3 ranges: a budget range, an own brand range and a top of the range more expensive than even name brands range.  The budget range is OK for some things but you might want to give some things a miss unless you are on a VERY tight budget.  The own brand ranges are good quality, as good as the name brands for most things.  The top of the range again good but you do pay more for that.  Safeway/Morrisons also have their own brand which I find is pretty good.

At Marks & Spencers everything is own brand and 99% of it is yummo but again more expensive than your average supermarket brand.

ps on the margerine, Clover is my favourite, made of buttermilk and tastes SO nice.

Margarine - we're using Flora buttery flavour lately.  I like it because it does have a buttery flavour, and it freezes, so I can buy in bulk when we do a large shop!

Anyway - I go with Britwife's answer.  Mark & Spencer's stuff is great, and if it were just me and my hubby, I'd probably do a lot of shopping there and Waitrose.  But as we're a family of 4 with a teenager and a eats-like-a-teenager, we shop at Sainsbury's.  And I love that I can trust their own stuff.  I shopped at Publix in Florida, and shopping at Sainsbury's is very similar for me.

Thanks for all of the margarine recommendations. That's probably the one food item I am most particular about...can't stand bad margarines/butters!

I am single and will only be feeding myself. Don't cook very often (as I don't enjoy cooking for one) so i tend to do take-out or easy-to-prepare stuff. I try to eat my main meal of the day at midday when I have easy access to eating out, then just make do in the evenings.

Sounds like I should plan to give Marks & Spencer and Waitrose a try then work from there.

Who carries the best selection of American brands?

(You guys are the best! I can't believe how much harder this would all be without you! Thanks!)

PaulaH

We buy some store brands-but never for cereal(Kelloggs), crisps(walkers), Ketchup(heinz), Mayo(Hellmans), Beans(Heinz), corn(Green Giant), dish detergent(Fairy), cat food (Whiskas), Juice(Robinsons), Margerine(Flora or Stork for baking) and yoghurt(Muller). 

Laundry we tend to buy on sale(usually Daz but occasionally store brand-but only the good store brand, not the cheapy cheap one).  Biscuits are a mix-I'll buy store brand fig rolls and custard creams but only McVitie Chocolate Digestives and Jaffa Cakes must be the real thing. 

We buy PGTips tea bags and Fair trade coffee.   

Oh and the toilet paper is Andrex.  Unless the store brand is buy 12 rolls for the price of 9.  But tissues have to be Kleenex.   

Oh, and the bread has to be Hovis.

In general, store brands and brand names are the same product with a different label.  The difference in taste or whatever is purely psychological.  My dad works for a food processing company and same product/different label is common practice in the industry.

That said, I don't buy a lot of brand name stuff.  It depends on what it is but most of the time, I'm not too fussy about the label on the package.

We buy some store brands-but never for cereal(Kelloggs), crisps(walkers), Ketchup(heinz), Mayo(Hellmans), Beans(Heinz), corn(Green Giant), dish detergent(Fairy), cat food (Whiskas), Juice(Robinsons), Margerine(Flora or Stork for baking) and yoghurt(Muller).

Laundry we tend to buy on sale(usually Daz but occasionally store brand-but only the good store brand, not the cheapy cheap one). Biscuits are a mix-I'll buy store brand fig rolls and custard creams but only McVitie Chocolate Digestives and Jaffa Cakes must be the real thing.

We buy PGTips tea bags and Fair trade coffee.

Oh and the toilet paper is Andrex. Unless the store brand is buy 12 rolls for the price of 9. But tissues have to be Kleenex.

Sounds like us!  Except we don't have a cat so don't buy any cat food, and we use Persil dish detergent.

But the corn has to be Green Giant - I buy the creamed corn and the "mexi-corn."  Yummy!

American Brands - a big Sainsbury's.   (not to bring up a totally different topic, but you won't be able to find everything you are used to)

As another cook for one kind of person - Marks and Spencer is great!  Although they only have their own brand, so don't go in expecting to find heinz ketchup.  But honestly, I have yet to find something ready made from M&S that I don't like.  

I have had good luck with Waitrose for basics and store brand stuff.  Their new line of summer sorbets is really yummy.  

Sounds like us! Except we don't have a cat so don't buy any cat food, and we use Persil dish detergent.

Now, I used to only use Persil, but I bought one of those aromatherapy Fairy liquids on sale, and I really liked it, so we've switched.  

Have you tried the Green Giant Sweetcorn for Salad.  That's really nice.

That extra crisp Green Giant corn is lovely.  But they've stopped selling it in the larger cans. 

I love love LOVE Marks & Spencer, but they can be a bit pricey, so it's probably best not to buy staple items there, like ketchup, or fruit/veg because you can get basically the same stuff at a supermarket chain, for a lot less.  However, they have some LOVELY ready-meals, delicious, LEAN packets of cold meat, and scrummy desserts.  I always used to balance things out budget-wise by shopping at a variety of places, so I could get everything I enjoyed without breaking the bank.

I agree with what Peedal said about Sainsbury's -- I think that they're own-brand items are on the whole, very good quality and can definitely be trusted.  Safeway's own-brand things can be quite good as well, like chip dips and some of their ready-meals.  Tesco, ASDA and Somerfield's can be hit or miss.  I pretty much only shopped at those supermarkets if there was an item I wanted that was on sale, or if I needed something in a pinch.  I didn't discriminate too much on things like paper towels or bin liners, but for me, dish and laundry detergent needed to be name-brand.

I think across the board, though, everyone has different tastes and really the only way to figure things out is by trial and error.  I must've tried about 8 different kinds of raspberry jam before I found one that resembled my American favourite, Smucker's.  (Bonne Maman was the closest!).  If you just allow yourself to be flexible and open to trying new things, it will help a great deal. 

With reference to the butter issue, I always bought Anchor Spreadable Half-fat, and my flatmate bought Flora margarine.  I can attest to the fact that both are good! 

You can also save money buying some name brand items in pound shops or places like Lidl.  Lidl carries Walker crisps, Hovis bread, McVities digestives, Pringles...it's just kind of hit and miss, though.  Oh, and Lidl carries a very Ruffles-like brand of potato crisp!  Yummy.

Anyway - watch the pound shops, because sometimes you can get what they're selling for £1 for less than that at the grocery stores - and sometimes you get a great deal.  Like the multi-packs of Walkers and McCoy's crisps for £1 - or Cadbury hot cocoa mix.

It's really just a matter of looking out and getting used to what is where and how much it is at different places.  It was neat to learn to shop here, because in the US I simply shopped exactly like my mother had - at the same grocery store and the same items and all.  Now, I'm shopping my way!