Yellow Pack

corblimey

Actually I don't know if they even do Yellow Pack anymore, but it's used as a generic term for own-brand foods down my way. So, I'm just wondering how many people are comfortable with buying own-brand foods, buying into the well-known theory that they're usually made by the same manufacturers as the branded foodstuffs.

Personally, I'll buy Tesco own-brands for some things, but I'm still a slave to the brand for:

breakfast cereal
milk
bread
orange juice
beer
biscuits
crisps
condoms

Tom Dunne

I have to admit, myself and the better half are buying more and more of Tesco's own brand, especially their finest range. Having said that, the Tesco value brand (the white pack with blue trimmings) tends to be rather manky.

I would buy the Lidl and Aldi coffee and bottled water.

There was a day when I wouldn't even look at own brand stuff.

snubbleste

Sure Milk is the same no matter what brand it is?

Creamy Goodness

snubbleste wrote:

Sure Milk is the same no matter what brand it is?

UHT milk is nasty compare to normal milk.

claires friend

Cremo wrote:

UHT milk is nasty compare to normal milk.

What kind of response is that?/?/?/?

obviousely uht is nasty that has nothing to do with the particular brand of UHT milk,
you might as well have said the milk from your mother tastes nothing like avonmore??
what th hell

try to add to threads dont just go around everywhere poking your nose in FFS

nlgbbbblth

Tesco value is pretty nasty

Tesco Finest on the other hand is great - especially pizzas and yogurts.

Lemon Curd
Fudge
White Peach

vibrant

I remember reading about Tesco's different brands a couple of years ago, this was a while before they really started pushing Tesco Value as an alternative to Lidl/Aldi.

Apparently there is not too much difference between the Value range and the "regular" Tesco range (ie their cornflakes/baked beans etc) but they found that people were buying the regular, middle-of-the-road range instead of the Value range because they were a smidge embarrassed at being labelled a cheapskate! Thus Tesco were able to raise the price of their regular range a little, and made a little extra vanity money on it. Their reasoning on it was that people were too cheap to buy Finest, but too vain to buy Value!

Gosh, hope that made sense!

aidan_dunne

I don't have a problem buying own-brand stuff. Don't care if people think I'm a "cheapskate" or not, if it saves me money and tastes okay/does the job, f**k what other people think. God knows, things are dear enough in this country as it is, you gotta save a few pennies where you can.

As I said, particularly when it comes to food, as long as it tastes okay I don't mind buying Tesco Value stuff. A lot of it is okay but, admitedly, some of it does taste mank and I'd avoid that stuff. Usually what I'll do is, I'll often see something on the shelves that might be significantly cheaper than a big-name brand so I'll buy a single tin or packet of this Tesco Value-branded item just to try it out, bring it home, try it, and if it tastes okay I'll buy it regularly in future. If it tastes crap, I won't go near it again.

I've also found a lot of the stuff in Lidl is really nice, the likes of chocolate and things in particular.

My sister, on the other hand, I call her a snob because she wouldn't be seen dead with a blue-and-white stripped tin or packet in her trolley! She's one of these people who thinks that if it's an own-brand, then it must taste horrible......... yet she'll have never even tried it to find out! I think if she, and a lot of people like her, did try them they'd often be pleasantly surprised, not just by how much certain own-brand items taste exactly the same as their more-expensive, big-name counterparts but also by how much more money they'd have in their pockets.

Sarsfield

I saw/read somewhere that national wealth decides if we choose own-brand or not

The less well off buy it because they have no choice.
Those with 'improving wealth', known as aspirational, buy brands to show that they have the money! They're not buying a product, they're buying a lifestyle :rolleyes:
Those who have been wealthy for a long time also buy own-brand because they don't feel the need to impress.

Which is why the German supermarkets do so much own brand produce.

It's only at level 3 (you don't care if its own brand or not) where quality starts to come into it. Ireland is still full of 'aspirational' shoppers.

simu

Sarsfield wrote:

It's only at level 3 (you don't care if its own brand or not) where quality starts to come into it. Ireland is still full of 'aspirational' shoppers.

Indeed. I love the Soviet aesthetic of many shop brands myself!

cashback

If you ever look at the product reviews in the Life (or living?) section of the indo on a Tuesday, own brand foods are regularly rated above the established brands. Aldi and Lidl seem to do very well in these taste tests.
it's true that some own brand stuff is rotten but most of it is fine.

rubadub

vibrant wrote:

Their reasoning on it was that people were too cheap to buy Finest, but too vain to buy Value!

Gosh, hope that made sense!

It does make sense. Some of the value food is nasty but I am certain some value/normal tesco stuff is the exact same. There is value sugar and tesco sugar which have a price difference but I bet nobody could tell the difference in taste.
The value packaging is disturbing, it is like it is purposely bad, have you ever seen tesco gin or cider? Even the winos wouldnt be seen dead drinking out of those bottles
https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/23524/10264.jpg

heres an old thread I started on own brands
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=118333

rainglow

Some of the Tesco Value stuff is awful (their tinned tomatoes are full of the leftover tops/ stems and I wouldn't be a fan of the bread) but their biscuits are great! The Ginger Nuts are yummy and the Custard Creams are way nicer than Jacobs or any other own brand

blorg

simu wrote:

Indeed. I love the Soviet aesthetic of many shop brands myself!

My absolute favourite here has to be Tesco's own brand GIN - It's the one with the completely plain white label just with 'GIN' written in big sans-serif capitals in the middle. I can't help but think of 1984.

blorg

corblimey wrote:

breakfast cereal
milk
bread
orange juice
beer
biscuits
crisps
condoms

I find many own brands to be superior to branded goods. Tesco is my local supermarket and milk is certainly the same, while the fresh orange juice is superior to any branded option I'm aware of; similarly the smoothies are as good as Innocent (and superior to some other brands - P&Js yuk yuk) at a significantly lower price. There are some very nice chocolate/nut 'finest' biscuits and in the past they have had own-brand French beer that is definately superior to the Bud/Heineken/Carlsberg cartel that we are subjected to in Ireland. Their own-brand Weissbier is also decent. They also have a new 'finest' Swiss chocolate range in the Lindt 100g style which is very pleasant at €1.49/bar (e.g. what Lindt tends to cost on the continent ;-)

Don't live near a Lidl/Aldi but have got good stuff in the latter whenever I have been near it.

bonkey

rubadub wrote:

The value packaging is disturbing, it is like it is purposely bad,

Go to the top of the class

Most such packaging *is* purposely bad. The idea being that ppl will not want to be seen to be poor, and so will not buy as much of these products as they otherwise might. Couple that with a weency price-hike in non-budget-brand prices (as they do), et voila. Profit++.

It doesn't always work that way though....

One Swiss supermarket chain (Migros) went with an absolutely horrible green/white narrow diagonal stripe pattern. Its truly painful....but it became a cult movement to buy this stuff (because Migros always did own-brand stuff at very high quality, and this was cheaper own-brand at almost-identical-quality only in UGLY packaging).

It has gotten to the point of success where last winter, the Migros Budget SNOWBOARD was released. They even went so far as to do a joint venture with one of the car dealerships (IIRC) and did the Migros Budget SMART. Despite being ugly enough to almost make your eyes bleed, the boards are apparently quite good (I don't board, but have heard good comments, and seen a few on the slopes), and the Smart is...well...a Smart.

It always makes me smile to think of a cult movement for buying the cheapest of the cheap in the ugliest of the ugliest packaging....in Switzerland

jc

pickarooney

When I worked in a creamery there was one tank with several taps outputting to different conveyor belts transporting cartons from well-known, budget and supermarket brands (and one specially for the US army base, the cartons being quarts with little american flags on, aww bless! ), so unless there's something in the carton I'd say there's really not much difference.

I never buy branded anything foodwise, unless you count beer.