Outstanding Store Brands
It used to be when you walked down a store aisle, you'd see boring black and white packages containing generic brands that looked and usually tasted pretty bland. But these days, Consumer Reports says all that's changed. Store brands are lot better in terms of the quality and in terms of the packaging. Consumer Reports has long surveyed our subscribers about their preferences when it comes to food. Seventy percent of those surveyed said the quality of store brands is really quite high. Consumer Reports' trained tasters compared leading brand names to store brands, trying 29 different foods. They did blind taste tests on everything from salsa to frozen strawberries. Betty Crocker's au gratin potatoes went head to head with Great Value's by Walmart. Great Value was the winner at half the price! Old El Paso Thick n' Chunky Salsa battled it out with Costco's Kirkland Signature Organic. Kirkland's medium salsa is just plain tastier and is almost half the price! And DiGiorno's frozen pepperoni pizza was pitted against the Archer Farms pie from Target. It was a tie. But the Archer Farms was about a dollar cheaper. Overall, tasters found the store brands as good as or better than big-name brands 23 out of 29 times. So switching to store brands can be a tasty way to trim your grocery bill. And many supermarkets are making a tryout worth your while by offering a money-back guarantee on their brands! And some regional stores go even further. Hannaford doubles your money back. Harris Teeter gives a refund and a replacement item if you have a store bonus card. Consumer Reports has no commercial relationship with any advertiser or sponsor appearing on this Web site. Copyright © 2005-2009 Consumers Union of U.S., Inc.
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