Who’s the New Champ in Store Brands vs. Name Brands?

Boy, do I have some generic egg on my face!

A recent issue of Consumer Reports found that in a lot of product categories, the dominant brand name tested better than the store brands at Costco, Target, Walmart, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods.

Store brands fall flat in survey

I am so biased on this issue. Through the years, I’ve said store brands are as good, if not better than the name brand at a substantially cheaper price. And now Consumer Reports says I’m wrong.

The categories they tested included yogurt, ice cream, dishwasher detergent, laundry detergent, paper towels, toilet paper, facial tissue, and more.

Of all the things they tested, the sole category where the store brand was absolutely superior was Kirkland Signature bacon. In every other instance, the national brand beat the store brand!

But even with that being case, there’s the question of price value. Consumer Reports say that when factoring in the price advantage of store brands, they’re almost always the clear winner to put in your grocery cart. Because the reality is that in many of the categories, the store brands did OK. They just couldn’t top the brand name. But when you’re paying 30% less on average by buying them, you don’t need something to be top of the line.

While I’m on the topic of Kirkland — which is Costco Wholesale’s house brand — have you noticed how horrible the Kirkland Signature toilet paper is? I’ve been forbidden by my wife from bringing that into the house!