How do you feel about off-brand products?

[Ananas Dragon]

How do you feel about off-brand products? For me, it depends. Some are better than the brand ones and way cheaper, but other times they're just really bad and poor quality...

When I say off-brand, I mean a brand other than the one that is known for that kind of product (and is the most popular)! Like for chocolate sandwich cookies with cream in the middle, Oreos would be the brand. Might not be the true definition of "off-brand", but, might be interesting to see just how many people go with the flow? I may be are have stupid :')

Not limited to food, either! I once had an off-brand barbie and her rubbery head was so fragile it tore off (and in half) in less than an hour. I feel bad for her.

 

[Aquilla]

I love finding an off-brand dupe for an on-brand thing. I'm mostly thinking about groceries here. I have basically no income as a student, so I truly appreciate finding those gems. I've found a lot of the off-brand/no brand candy and snacks at my grocery shop that are the exact same thing just in different packaging.

I've read an article that some brands basically produce both their on brand stuff and then the same product wrapped in different packaging but sold for a lower price. At the end of the day the money still goes to the same corporation which I think is kinda eh- (I'd prefer to support small local businesses) but as long as I live without a proper income it is what it is. One day I'll be a farmer's market lady, but for now I'm the Aldi no brand cookie girl.

 

[Clock]

I'm fine with it as long as it's decent quality or if it's not a controversial off brand.

 

[-Lumi-]

I love off brand items!! They save me money and sometimes I find they taste better, too. For all my Canadians out there... the Presidents Choice brand is actually really good. So is the No Name brand!! It's funny they are both loblaws off brand but PC tends to be more expensive than No Name. I love the no name soup stock though.... I need other people to stop buying it all up!!

 

[oak]

It truly depends on the item. I like the "no name" brand overall but when it comes to ketchup I need the name brand.

 

[Flyffel]

If you consider something like Nestlé to be the "brand" then I go out of my way to not buy that kind of trash.

I don't buy anything blindly based on brands but based on quality, production (organic, Fairtrade, ...) and price. I am incredibly picky. About 99,9% of processed products (= basically the things that are sold branded) in a supermarket I would never even consider buying.

 

[Midoriya]

It definitely depends on the product for me. Some things are okay quality as off-brand, but other things I'd really rather have the name brand.

 

[Seastar]

It depends on the product. Sometimes it's okay, sometimes it's exactly the same, and sometimes it's just awful.

 

[Kitsuragi]

depends really on what it is
off brand cheez-its
name brand cheez-its

name brand clarifying shampoo
store brand clarifying shampoo

many such nuances

 

[Coach]

Oftentimes off brand stuff is the same as if not better than the branded stuff. I have grown up almost exclusively having own branded food in the house, so maybe my pallet has adapted by now haha. Stuff like Heinz products, I actually don't like the taste when compared to the supermarket equivalent, and the price is a bonus factor!

With cosmetics I like to try everything once but I normally splash out for name brands there

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

Off brand snacks like cookies or crackers are pretty good and napkins and paper towels are decent enough to get the job done but laundry detergent and garbage bags you should never buy off brand. I once bought some generic store brand laundry detergent and it somehow made my clothes look even dirtier. My whites started to look extremely dingy and people kept asking me if I was even doing my laundry. I only bought the awful detergent because I needed laundry detergent but didn’t have enough money for the name brand because I was on a tight budget.

 

[Corrie]

I like them! It really depends on the product but there's very view things out there where I must buy brand.

Off brand canned foods taste the same to me as brand. I even recently discovered that No Name pb and ketchup are the same as their brand counterparts which is great since it'll save me $3 on each.

Q Tips are one thing that I can't go cheap on though lol. I tried but they were super flimsy and not as fluffy on the ends.

 

[BetsySundrop]

It totally depends on the product. Some off brand stuff is fine, sometimes even better than the name brand.

But some - nope. Gotta have the brand. Some examples - laundry soap, dishwashing soap, some dairy products, and cereal.

For the soaps, I try off brands now and then, but they never seem to work as well. Plus I end up using way more product, which means I have to buy more, which ends up not saving any $ anyway.

Certain dairy products - I used to just go off brand, but then looked at ingredients. When you have 3 ingredients on one (brand) and a laundry list of ingredients on the other (off brand), including some that aren't so great...then I'll spring for the brand.

Brand name cereal - we have a family member with very severe autism. He can definitely tell the difference in brand/off-brand, and he likes what he likes. So we buy him the brands he likes, lol.

 

[LoserMom]

Depends on what it is. I’ll usually try anything off-brand once though to see if I like it and if I do then I’ll continue to get it. I’m also crazy about looking at reviews for things though so if anything has really negative reviews then I won’t try it

 

[ShinyDungeoneer]

I like them! sometimes, they can be funny (example: the Jamaican Pikachu plushie), while other times, they can be cursed (the Thailand bootleg Sonic The Fighters plushies), so it depends for me.

 

[CometCatcher]

Depends on the product. Can be funny how they name certain things. Most of the time, I prefer getting off-brand so I can save some money. A girl is BROKE out here

 

[Zinnia.]

I don't really care what brand it's from as long as the quality is good and it's cheap.

 

[Croconaw]

It depends on the protect for me.

 

[Romaki]

It really depends. I have a lot of dupes for Taylor Swift merch because I'm not rich lol also anime figures are fine as long as they're decent.
I do like to buy the good thing when it comes to food and electricity though. Knockoff tablets and laptops are my worst enemy.

 

[g u a v a]

it depends on the product for me. there's some things that i'm happy to buy store brand because it's a total dupe of the brand name product, like paper towels are pretty comparable imo (though it depends on the store brand you're buying). it's a good way to cut down on your overall spending