buying groceries

[glenn57]

my wife and I have this conversation now and then. do you buy non-name / generic products over name brand stuff to save a buck?????

i could go on about this but i really dont like most generic.. off brands for the most part. take chips.....gotta be name brand like doritos or old dutch. any kind of soaps. even food products like tomato paste. even KATCHUP.... gotta be Heinz!!!!

while she was at the granddaughters they got her putting this ready whip in her coffee........ she says the real stuff is better then the lesser cheaper brand but keeps getting the cheaper brand.........i dont use it so dont care. just curious.

right off had about the only generic stuff i can think of tht i get is vinegar. i use the "thats smart" brand. i really like how my pickled fish, horseradish and pickles turn out with it. and it seems to move at the store well. alos i bought the "thats smart "brand grape jelly for the orioles........they dont seem to care. it was 6 bucks for 2.

[LPS]

We do buy some of the store brand stuff but not in all things.  Frozen veggies we get Our Family sometimes.  Cream of soups we have gotten store brand.  It's ok for adding to soups and stews. Some stuff we stick with the name brands.   

[Scenic]

 
Answer to that...depends on what it is.  Example sugar.   American Crystal vs no name.   Well if you have ever been in a place like American Crystal Sugar you will find that the only difference is the bags and marketing.   Exact same sugar.   Have hauled both bags in and filled bags out of there.

Heinz 57..gross over priced sauce that I like on pork steak once in a while.  However the "Zesty" sauce sold by Walfart is exactly the same with a different label at half the cost.   Bottles are a good way to tell that for one.  

I am NOT a Walfart fan by any means but in this town you cannot afford not to buy groceries there for some things.  They approach the major players and state they want to private label their products.   Ketchup for example, well every one of the major players bid for that business because they know once that decision has been made someone is going to private label Great Value Ketchup.  Same with most soups and other items.

Some no names...suck depending on what it is.  Some things have to be original.  But for the most part if you pay attention to packaging and ingredients you will find exact or very very close to same products in many items.  A way to put this into perspective for us Sportsman is to look at the tungsten ice jigs and crankbaits.  Most coming out of 3 or 4 factories in China, painted different (or the same), packaged and name branded under different names.   A marketing game. 

[glenn57]

i agree scenic...... things like sugar, salt and sometimes pepper......alot of that same product just a different name to it. we've tried off brand soups......still undecided.  old habits are hard to break.

for a whole lotta reasons....i cant and wont step foot in a walfart!!!!!!!!!

since i stock shelves nowadays......i kinda see a trend in how people shop/buy. i work the aisle with cookies, snack crackers, coffee, and juice. i see where brand name stuff still goes off the shelf faster then most store brand stuff. the store carries our family brands.....

coffee for instance. folgers, which is something i will never go away from sells way better then the our family brand, even if other brands are listed as on sale. maxwell house just doesnt move!!! and they got more damn Kuerig products then one imagines.

when things get close to expiration they TPR it.....or temporary price reduction. when it is expired it goes in a cart greatly reduced price.

one day i walked in the back room.....yea i'm allowed back there.. they had a bag of purina dog food. bag had a slit, rip it it. it was about a 20 lb bag that sells for 35 bucks.......i got it for 3. the grocery manager.......she likes me. 

[Dotch]

Yup, sugar is sugar. The cheap grape jelly (Always Save) works fine for the orioles. The hummingbirds & orioles have yet to voice a complaint. Sometimes Crystal sugar is on sale cheaper than the store brand. If I need it, that's what I'll get. The Always Save grape jelly tastes awful so have some Smuckers or Welch's for us. Occasionally the birds will get some of that if we're temporarily short on the cheap stuff. They don't seem to have a preference.

Certain store brand stuff is as good and in some cases better due to the price if there's no diff. For some reason, either the local store isn't stocking them or Birdseye has gone away from their regular packaged frozen vegetables. They carry these Birdseye steam packet dealies that are convenient but you get a fraction of the veggies you used to. The quality is no better than the store brand (Best Choice) which are pretty good. We run on leftovers so having leftover peas or sweet corn to nuke is a plus. Other stuff like canned mushrooms, spaghetti, some types of chips, cereal, bread, buns, tartar sauce, cocktail sauce, relish, etc., all seem to work fine with store brands here in Bugtussle.

I hate to admit it, but I do like Heinz katchup the best...  

[glenn57]

things/packages are getting smaller weight wise and price still increase. in just the last month Oreo cookies are doing this. i have to watch bar codes to where i put them on the shelf. same type of cookie but the bar code and weight changes!!!!

i notice in plain crackers......Premium is the big purchase item, Zesta is cheaper and second.....i prefer the Zesta.

[Scenic]

"i cant and wont step foot in a walfart!!!!!!!!!"

I hear ya but up nort here we don't have a lot of choices.  We don't have a Costco, Sam's or anything to choose from.   Twp grocery store owners here and Walfart.   

Our local store charges $1.69 for a can of soup....they charge .99 for the exact same soup.  For that money I will shop there.  I am not a shopper to begin with so it don't matter to me where I go. 

[Dotch]

things/packages are getting smaller weight wise and price still increase. in just the last month Oreo cookies are doing this. i have to watch bar codes to where i put them on the shelf. same type of cookie but the bar code and weight changes!!!!

i notice in plain crackers......Premium is the big purchase item, Zesta is cheaper and second.....i prefer the Zesta.

So I'm not imagining things. I thought some of the packages have been getting smaller by weight. I really like the Sunshine Krispy saltines but the local store no longer carries them. Not sure what the reason is. I do most of the grocery shopping and have for many moons. If I didn't, I would starve or have to eat ready made frozen crap out of a box all the time. Wife can cook but chooses not to. She is one of the worst when it comes to eating nutritionally sound meals. I swear she would eat frozen pizza & chips for almost every meal if I let her. Ick!!!! 

I hear ya Scenic. We're very fortunate to have a nice albeit smaller local grocery store. If it ever goes down, will be forced to buy more from places like Sly Vee (Reb's fave), Fareway (awesome meat counter), Cash Wise (good booze selection) or heaven forbid Wally World (amazingly peculiar people).

[glenn57]

So that big town of bemidji is limited to 2 grocery type stores? Odd.

Our big grocery purchases are in st cloud at cash wise. It sucks cub went to the wayside years ago. We still get a fair amount of groceries here in town. Helps a little I get some discount coupons each month as an employee. They also have an app. Spend 400 get 5 bucks off

[Gunner55]

Hy-vee or Fareway here & unless it's on sale or is meat near it's expiration date, most everything comes from Fareway. Like mike, we like Aldi's for somethings too but we need to be in Mason City or Waterloo for that. Generic for quite a bit of stuff here, but far from everything.

[mike89]

we have in Alex a Cub's, Eldons, a family owned store, or was..  along with Target and Walmart and Aldi's...  the Cub app sucks so go there very little and it's high there, Eldon's is so so...  won't touch Target for the most part...  Walmart once in awhile like the rest cause I have no choice...  as for name brand vs store brand depends on the product I want...   Aldi's catchup is as good as any along with many other of their products...  and sometimes ya just have pay for what ya want!!!   

[Scenic]

So that big town of bemidji is limited to 2 grocery type stores? Odd.

Our big grocery purchases are in st cloud at cash wise. It sucks cub went to the wayside years ago. We still get a fair amount of groceries here in town. Helps a little I get some discount coupons each month as an employee. They also have an app. Spend 400 get 5 bucks off

Two owned by Luekens and Market Place foods. 

[glenn57]

Hy-vee or Fareway here & unless it's on sale or is meat near it's expiration date, most everything comes from Fareway. Like mike, we like Aldi's for somethings too but we need to be in Mason City or Waterloo for that. Generic for quite a bit of stuff here, but far from everything.

don't you get your meat and fish in Inger?

Dotch wanted to know!!  

[KEN W]

Buy mostly store brands. We get a lot of things from Aldi.....Except chips. Have gotten home and all broken in the bag. Have read about this nationally.

I was at the Barrel of Fun in Perham once and Hornbacher's bags of chips were coming off the assembly line. Why pay more for just the name????

[LPS]

We try to buy local but we also have to look out for number 1.  So we go the the Falls now and then to hit the County Market grocery  store and great prices on booze there.  We also hit Wally's now and then too.  Why not save a buck.  Never go to Target.  Tried it twice and that was enough.  We use Amazon a lot cuz it's 100 miles to the nearest town to look for stuff.  It's a lifesaver.  They have great meat here at the Lake of the Woods Foods. 

[tangle tooth]

      Seems to me I read somewhere that the Urge brand from Kwik- Trip and the Casey's brand of snacks and chips are made by Old Dutch. No idea where I read this, though.

[Gunner55]

Hy-vee or Fareway here & unless it's on sale or is meat near it's expiration date, most everything comes from Fareway. Like mike, we like Aldi's for somethings too but we need to be in Mason City or Waterloo for that. Generic for quite a bit of stuff here, but far from everything.

don't you get your meat and fish in Inger?

Dotch wanted to know!!  

Nope, at the lake it's Aldi's for good deals on Salmon & chicken most of the time. The Super 1 on Hwy 2 in GR has a dairy case with meat that's getting close to it's expiration date. Most of the time it's roasts & steaks for us there for ~ 25-30% off there.

[HD]

When I make my early Sunday morning grochery run, I get what I need and don't care about the name brand.
Most of the time, (lately, and during the pandemic) the name brand may not be available, so I just grab the next best thing.
Curtain things I'm particular on, but we get by.....

Some things are better than "store brands" and some are not....I guess you don't know till you try....

[Dotch]

So we go the the Falls now and then to hit the County Market grocery  store and great prices on booze there.   

I like that store. When we go across, we fill with gas & stock up there. Nice selection & decent food prices. Booze is usually cheaper there than if we pick it up in Bemidji. Seems to be competitive in that dept. with Cash Wise in Owatonna, one of the cheaper spots locally. 

[glenn57]

When I make my early Sunday morning grochery run, I get what I need and don't care about the name brand.
Most of the time, (lately, and during the pandemic) the name brand may not be available, so I just grab the next best thing.
Curtain things I'm particular on, but we get by.....

Some things are better than "store brands" and some are not....I guess you don't know till you try....

can you name a few store brands that are better then name brands???? just curious.

regarding stuff being on the shelf or not, from what i see yea it was bad during the scamdemic but now not so much. at least what i see, i think it has more to do now with having people actually putting it on the shelves. i see way more empty shelves in cashwise then i do at the Teals store i work!!!!

[glenn57]

Hy-vee or Fareway here & unless it's on sale or is meat near it's expiration date, most everything comes from Fareway. Like mike, we like Aldi's for somethings too but we need to be in Mason City or Waterloo for that. Generic for quite a bit of stuff here, but far from everything.

don't you get your meat and fish in Inger?

Dotch wanted to know!!  

Nope, at the lake it's Aldi's for good deals on Salmon & chicken most of the time. The Super 1 on Hwy 2 in GR has a dairy case with meat that's getting close to it's expiration date. Most of the time it's roasts & steaks for us there for ~ 25-30% off there.

Teals has that bin too.......stuff in there dont last long. i've eyeballed stuff in that bin when working. by the time i get home and go back down its usually pretty cleaned out.

[mike89]

can you name a few store brands that are better then name brands???? just curious.

yup, things from Aldi's, just like Costco brands....   

[glenn57]

can you name a few store brands that are better then name brands???? just curious.

yup, things from Aldi's, just like Costco brands....

yea i aint going in that Aldis in st cloud  i feel like i need to sanitize everything before i get home!!!!!!!1

[mike89]

can you name a few store brands that are better then name brands???? just curious.

yup, things from Aldi's, just like Costco brands....

yea i aint going in that Aldis in st cloud  i feel like i need to sanitize everything before i get home!!!!!!!1

I have heard that many times before about that store...    check them out when you are Monticello maybe...   or Alex

[Gunner55]

The 1 in GR isn't but 3-4 yrs old & they keep it clean. Another thing I like is how quick they are to call an additional checker up front. Hardly ever is there more than 5-6 people in line & they are opening up another checkout. No "Scan & Go" there, either.

[HD]

When I make my early Sunday morning grochery run, I get what I need and don't care about the name brand.
Most of the time, (lately, and during the pandemic) the name brand may not be available, so I just grab the next best thing.
Curtain things I'm particular on, but we get by.....

Some things are better than "store brands" and some are not....I guess you don't know till you try....

can you name a few store brands that are better then name brands???? just curious.

regarding stuff being on the shelf or not, from what i see yea it was bad during the scamdemic but now not so much. at least what i see, i think it has more to do now with having people actually putting it on the shelves. i see way more empty shelves in cashwise then i do at the Teals store i work!!!!

So, I go to the Cub in Cambridge.....
The shelves are still having a hard time being filled with the "name brand" stuff.... maybe it's just our store, I don't know

BUT, the Cub cheese, tortilla chips, canned vegetables, pasta and other packaged items are just as good as the name brand. Granted, I don't have a choice, but I don't notice the difference.

[glenn57]

 

[Gunner55]

If you read the label, most all that is made by 1 of the major national vendors anyway. They just tweek the recipe a little & slap a different label on it. We haven't found much at Aldi's we don't like either. Still, there's some things we prefer the name brand most of the time.

[Kettle]

The 1 in GR isn't but 3-4 yrs old & they keep it clean. Another thing I like is how quick they are to call an additional checker up front. Hardly ever is there more than 5-6 people in line & they are opening up another checkout. No "Scan & Go" there, either.

Buddy manages that store, great guy, takes a ton of pride in the store, treats his employees well, has had low turnover and thus the employees have store pride. Guy I hunt ducks with.

[Scenic]

Was just there yesterday.   Very decent store.  Bought some fruit and veggies there.