Shoes. You don't end up saving money and it's not worth the pain. I tried for years back when I couldn't afford a thing and concluded that there's simply no such thing as cheap good shoes.
Damn right. My backpack is >25 years, my jacket is >40.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. ... A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. ... But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
Always an up vote for the Boots theory!
Exactly. I'm cheap but won't buy cheap shoes. First they are a slip hazard that will cost you in pain and medical bills. Secondly, they don't last for shit and are uncomfortable. Also, they make your feet smell bad.
My expensive shoes last so they end up being way cheaper.I wish there was any consistency or correlation in the shoes I buy and how long they last. I agree that generally higher price means better quality. But I decided to spend on some nicer hiking shoes from REI and they both have holes in them, while an $8 pair of business casual shoes I expected to be a throwaway have lasted years now
Any safety certified equipment tends to cost an a and a leg. Nearly monopoly controlled.
Chocolate. Really cheap, off-brand chocolate is horrific, waxy, and has some weird aftertaste, like mint when it isn't supposed to be, or ketchup (for real).
Some brand name chocolate (Hersheys) is disgusting due to their use of butyric acid. Vomit chocolate
I consider Hershey's to be an off-brand brand. Like No Name in Canada, or ACME in the Looney Tunes.
While I agree cheap chocolate is rough, some store brand chocolate is really nice.
Really cheap, off-brand chocolate
Who in 2024 is still buying Palmer's? How does this brand still exist?
Easter.
Palmer makes enough chocolate bunnies to sustain them for the rest of the year, and no one cares about the quality of chocolate given to a 5 year old.
Soy sauce, Kikkoman isn’t going to be beat by a store brand. Likewise with Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce.
Store brand Worcestershire sauce is even harder to pronounce
Kikkoman is some of the worst soy sauce I have ever had. Yeah store brand is a step down but that is a step into negative territory
Settle down there hipster. Most peoples' taste buds werent ruined by having tasted 15 dollar an ounce artisan organic free range no cholesterol soy sauce made by a secretive order of Japanese monks using only the finest water from the fountain of youth. Realistically they've got 3 options: store brand, Kikkoman and whatever overpriced soy sauce brand their local store begrudgingly put on the shelves. Theyre not cheap enough to get the store brand but lets face it, in this economy, nobody wants to shell out a dollar an ounce for something theyre going to drizzle over instant rice.
Made the mistake of buying Kikkoman a few years ago when I couldn't get my regular brand.
Amoy (dark) is way better. M&S was close though.
La Choy is where its at but i feel you
Q-Tips. Every alternative I've ever tried fucks it up somehow. too much cotton that it comes off, not enough and it's scratchy, cardboard sticks that dissolve the second a single drop gets on them, or plastic ones that don't hold onto the cotton (which is, as discussed, almost certainly already inadequate), and the weight and balance are always off too. Now, I ain't trying to impact my earwax here (which is very annoying BTW), but nobody only cleans the outside with the Q-Tip.
The plastic ones are super flimsy. So annoying.
They've been banned in europe for at least two years now, I only wish they did this with more plastic products. It's easy to figure out alternatives for most of them
Plastic food storage bags, at least since I saw this: https://lemmy.world/post/13153346
Mmm, marinated chicken with a pinch of PFAS.
The solution here isn't to buy brand name, it's to not buy plastic bags. Put your stuff in hard sided Tupperware or old pasta jars. Brand name plastic bags probably have just as many ptfas.
Anything that you need to have working when you need it.
Yep. Protective equipment, safety related car parts, survival gear, anything where failure will have grave consequences.
Ketchup is always Heinz and mayo is always Kewpie .
kulturgut
I'm not usually particular on brands, but French's ketchup is where it's at
French's mustard is where it's at. Hunt's ketchup is the GOAT.
Came here for this. French's Ketchup is great... And at least in Canada, it is made in Heinz's factory around Windsor when Heinz decided to shut it down about 7-8 years ago.
I don't know who the co-packer is, but Whataburger-branded spicy ketchup is evidence that there is still good in Texas.
Heinz... BLECH. Give me some Portland Ketchup anyway.
Screwdriver bits, any type of storage — drives or pendrives, PSUs.
Coffee, some snacks (like cheap/unknown brands of chips or chocolate) can be really terrible, even some spices.
Dr. Pepper.
It's the only thing I can think of that has tons of copy-cats but not one of those copy-cats comes even remotely close to replicating the original.
I still haven’t gotten over the loss of the original Mr Pibb flavor
Fellow Dr Pepper enjoyer here! 😃 same here, it just has such a specific and indescribable taste and I've yet to drink anything that is even remotely close to the flavour of Dr Pepper
Barbeque water
Did you know that Dr Pepper was once marketed to also be drunk hot - a bit like mulled wine? Search for “hot Dr Pepper” on YT and prepare to look at your drink in a whole new light.
That taste is a dash of pepper with conceit that has been fermenting for 8 years.
Pop tarts. I've been burned by too many off brand toaster pastries to ever trust any other brand.
Mayonnaise. I'll get more expensive gourmet kinds or make it, but won't step down.
Also ranch, ricotta, mozzarella. There are a couple of each of those I'm willing to buy, but store brand doesn't have any of the flavor.
Ketchup.
This is a katsup household.
I guess I need to... catch up... on all the different spellings.
catsup*
Heroin
Yeah, for me, it's Bayer or nothing.
I had knockoff coco pops once and they tasted like cardboard
Generic Froot Loops are usually trash too.
Mountain Dew. Fuck Culver's and any other restaurants switching to Coke products
Botox. I got paralyzed from the waist up. Everyone calls me Riverdance now.
Hmm, regarding food... I'm not sure if there's anything. Some things I don't like, but we have multiple supermarkets with different store brands and usually there's at least one store brand somewhere that I don't exclude.
But laptops would be an example for me. I really like enterprise hardware more than a generic and slow Wallmart laptop made from cheap components. And it'll probably last me longer and be cheaper in the long run.
With food the more complexity the more chances they have to screw up in my experience. Milk, butter, cheese and bread? Prob won't be an issue. Soda, Mac n cheese, hamburger helper? Lot more questionable... though I'll admit that cola derivatives are really hard to fuck up to the point where it's a hard pass.
Yeah, I'm probably forgetting some of the products. Like ketchup which some people mentioned... I don't drink soda that often. But you're right with beverages in general. I'm picky with beer and that's always one of two or three (local) brands. And I'm not sure about the convenience products. Could be a cultural difference or me refusing to buy overpriced powdered seasonings... I buy spices and pasta and do it myself, at least most of the times. I mean I've never tasted hamburger helper, I can't comment on that.
The prices have become insane, but I will never cheap out on toilet paper. This is a Charmin household gdi.
Also JIF peanut butter, and Hellmann's mayo.
get yourself a butt showerhead or a bidet
When it goes on sale at Costco, it's just like Christmas
blasting shit from ass It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
Paper towels. Nothing quite compares to bounty.
The quilted quicker picker-upperrrrr
Chunky peanut butter - generic creamy seems to be fine, but I've never had a good store brand of chunky. They are always just slightly off somehow. Most often they're too dry, but I've had some where it tasted like the peanuts were burnt.
Cream cheese. If it's not Philadelphia, it just isn't quite right. I've tried every other brand, and I've, so far, always been disappointed.
I've had good luck with Aldi
Whole Foods cream cheese is great for bagels but Philadelphia is the one for cheesecake, the only one for cheesecake.
Clothes. A lot of tiny local stores here have clothes hung on racks in between the aisles and the checkout, mostly things like t-shirts, hoodies celebrating the local town, and occasionally uniforms when schools like mine have one. Aside from the latter, they'll often feel like they fit on some parts of the body but not others, meaning they'll never actually fit. Being a small store also means they won't let you just try one on.
Irn-Bru. The store brands are passable and I would accept them if offered, but the real thing is much better.
Cottage cheese. Store brand has a bunch of additives and odd things in it.
Additives and preservatives are usually my decision maker. Yuka app is pretty handy.
Chicken... Very nasty, rubbery chicken meat when I bought the cheapest brand. Barely edible.
Instant coffee
