Generic Brands

Generic brands kind of remind me of the joke about the guy who asks his greengrocer, "Hey, what's the difference between the $2.00 apples and the $5.00 apples?" And, the greeny tells him, "Nothing, it's just that some people like to pay more for their apples." Sure, a lot of people think generic brands taste bad or are of low quality, and in the past they often were inferior.

These days, however, ‘generic’ will often be your favorite brand just with less packaging and under different labes. Yep, that's right. The thing is it optimizes a company's factory output to produce both name and generic foods because it allows them to hedge their bets and play both ends of the grocery shoppers' market. I'm not saying that all generic products are of the exact same quality of name brands, but it certainly pays to check the ingredients on the labels.

So, do I buy generic brands? Sure I do. I just peel the labels off when I get home. *gg* Seriously, I think with the down turn in the economy, generics are looking better than ever, and it's no longer a case of who's buying generic but rather who isn't?