Hello Fellow Savers!
After I graduated from high school I worked part-time for a health food store called Arizona Health Foods. AZHF had their own line of supplements consisting of multivitamins, all the vitamins and minerals, CoQ10, digestive enzymes, glucosamine, etc. Basically they had their own line for every popular supplement at the time.
A few weeks before we actually launched the AZHF brand and put it on the shelves, the manager spoke to all of us and told us how we’d get a bonus (collectively as a store) depending on how much of the AZHF brand was sold each month. I was intrigued by more money ($6.15/hour wasn’t exactly doing it for me) but completely dismayed when the product arrived. The bottles were solid white, with a white label, black lettering, and the AZHF logo. They looked pretty generic. You would hold that bottle up next to something from Nature’s Health or Nature’s Way and it wouldn’t look nearly as appealing.
On top of that, the little guy on my right shoulder started whispering a few questions in my ear — would I be pushing an inferior product just for the money? I decided to ask my manager about that. I didn’t want to promote the product if it wasn’t as good as the alternatives (cheaper, yes — but if it was as good as it looked then I was concerned). She took me to the back and showed me a packing slip from the shipment of the AZHF multivitamins. On that packing slip there was also a shipment of my favorite multivitamins (they were from Oregon Health at the time).
It turns out Oregon Health was manufacturing their brand, and our brand. Same exact pills. Different bottle. Ours were a few dollars cheaper.
This happens quite a bit with generics. The same company that’s selling the spaghetti sauce for $2.49 is also selling the store brand next to it for $2.09.
I see it as a win-win for grocers and consumers. The grocers don’t need to fund large advertising budgets to raise awareness about their new spaghetti sauce, they simply use the very-valuable shelf space they already have to let consumers know they have an alternative that is cheaper.
In a recent Neilsen survey, consumers like you and I are catching on. 62% said, “store brands were just as good as name brands.” (http://tinyurl.com/76focg)
It may not happen every time that a national brand is also making the private label brand as well, however, a simple comparison of ingredients will put your mind at ease. You’ll be surprised how many times they are the exact same.
Today’s Budget gives a great tidbit on the types of foods that make a lot of sense when going generic: “Staples such as rice, flour, sugar, salt, milk, applesauce, apple juice, frozen vegetables, frozen juices, vinegar and pull-ups for the toddler all make for great store brand or generic purchases.” (http://tinyurl.com/5ogswq)
I’m certainly not saying if you have a favorite food, swap it out for the generic straight away. But know that there are plenty of opportunities to buy generic where the taste and quality are both on par, but the cost is significantly less. Remember, AZHF had their products made by the exact same companies with whom they were competing!
Most consumers report that when they make a concerted effort to move toward private-label brands, their savings are significant — sometimes upwards of 30%. When you consider that your grocery bill is one of those few things that you can actually influence quickly, it makes sense to look there for bottom line savings.
Stay tuned for next week’s tip! It should save you a couple hundred dollars per year if done correctly.
I have been preaching this for years with great discussion with whoever would challenge the thought.
I go for the generic label everytime, and compare, 95% of the time it is the same, off course at a much lower price
By the way being the male in the house, and always the one to budget, I do the main purchasing
PS: My wonderful wife does not always agree with me either, she does like the savings though
Have a great day
William & Ineke Montgomery
I can certainly agree with the abovementioned. Case in point, yesterday I needed to buy shredded cheddar cheese for taco salads I was making using leftovers. My local grocery store (big name in the metro St. Louis area) had their store brand cheeses on sale, so I purchased a couple of packages at $1.57 each.
That is significant, considering the Kraft brand sells for around a dollar more. Maybe a coupon would offset the cost….maybe. I know their shredded parmesan cheese in the poly bags are equally as delicious as their name brand counter-part.
Great tip! Thanks. :-)
I used to work in the grocery industry (now I am a stay at home mom) for a private label grocer. Their products were pretty much identical to the name brand products, and often created by the same manufacturers (kellogs, mellville, etc.).
Also, another great tip for buying perishable grocery items is to shop at night. Often times, grocery stores will have product on the floor that must be sold before the end of the day, or else they will have to throw it out. Although most people do not do this, you can often negotiate the price down because they would rather make a sale than throw it into the garbage. This works particularly well at smaller grocery stores where the volume does not allow for quick product turn over.For instance, last week I bought 15 loaves of 12 grain wheat bread for $0.10/loaf. I froze them, and will live off of great tasting bread for the next 8-9 weeks
@Jenny, thanks for that tip! What a great idea to shop later at night. Plus the lines at the cashier won’t be nearly as long :)
This is a great tip. Be careful though because sometimes the store will have a brand name item on sale for less than the generic. So always buying generic isn’t quite as good as always buying what’s least expensive this week.
Totally true that store brands are just as good/better. I also use thegrocerygame.com to match the sales with the coupons and get the best deals on name brands and buy in bulk when the store brands go on sale.
Unfortunately we recently had a child diagnosed with a severe tree nut allergy. When comparing name-brand to store-brand items, the store-brand items are much more likely to contain traces of tree nuts, which she will react to in trace amounts. One day I had to put back store-brand cream cheese, saltines, and shredded cheddar cheese. They were all processed with pecans and almonds. (WHY?!? I guess it saves money to process everything all together?) I would think this reliance on more name-brand items would make our food bill go up, but I have been more diligent about checking my coupons against my grocery list BEFORE going to the store and saved over $14 with coupons this week on $160 of groceries.
I do make my own laundry soap, though. That saves a TON of money and is easy on the skin.
I rarely buy a name brand product. But at the same time, I’m always comparing prices per ounce or pound or serving to see what is my best bang for the buck. About the only time I buy a name brand product is when we want hard shell tacos – or Kraft’s shells and cheese. I’m even purchasing more and more of our cold cereals using store brands — I’ve noticed that there is more variety in the types my stores are offering than there was even a year ago.
Thanks Jesse for the tip. How do you handle coupons with this philosophy?
Sometimes I find it just right where a coupon and a sale match up so perfectly that the name brand is cheaper than the store brand – sometimes even free name brand stuff.
Thanks for spreading the good news of store brand, they almost always win.
Generics are a great money saver. I also used to use the grocery game till I found websites that give you the info for free. Go on Becentsable.com. Between shopping sales and useing coupons (internet ones too) my grocery bill was 35 bucks this week,with 77 in savings. It’ll blow your mind the kinda money you can save.
If your neighborhood has a local farmer’s market, that’s where you’re going to get the massive, MASSIVE discounts on your produce. We go to ours every weekend and never pay more than $5-10 (winter) or $10-15 (summer) for our entire weeks worth of produce. Usually this amounts to almost an entire reusable bag’s worth of food. And there’s a side bonus: if you make friends with the farmers, they’ll often give you even better deals and just give you a ‘wink’ when you only need to buy one thing. (Free, in other words.)
Thanks for all the helpful tips :)
The website with Grocery coupons is http://www.becentsable.net they also have a link on there to http://www.southernsavers.com which my wife has been using to save a ton on groceries!