Studio711.com – Ben Martens

This is a bit of a weird post (which is saying something on this site) but as I go through the grocery store each week, I’m always looking at the prices for the store brand versus the name brands. I will almost always default to the store brand unless the name brand happens to be on sale for cheaper, but there are some items that I will always buy the name brand regardless of price. That usually gets me wondering if others feel the same way about these specific items or if there are others I should be considering. Reflecting on this is harder than doing it in store, but here are some that immediately come to mind:

• Kleenex – Raw nose. Ouch. Enough said.
• Paper towels – I want the smaller sheets and I don’t want them to fall apart!
• Toilet paper – Raw… you get it. Ouch. The exception to this is Costco. Their generic brand of toilet paper works well and we had a plumber tell us that it’s one of the best ones for not clogging your pipes too.
• Trash bags – The cheapo ones fall apart too easily. This is another Costco exception. Their generic brand of bags is great.
• Bacon – Pay for the good bacon. It’s worth it. Locally I like to get Hempler’s center cut peppered bacon.
• Cream cheese – This is the newest addition. I have always bought the store brand and just assumed that when a recipe says “softened cream cheese” that was just impossible to do well. Then I bought the good stuff and learned that the consistency of good cream cheese is so much easier to work with!

What did I miss on this list?