Own Brand/Shop Brand Products That Are As Good As The Posh Stuff

[Drago]

Bacon, all comes from one factory, to several supermarkets

I thought it came from pigs. Shows what a thicko I am, eh?!

 

[Drago]

Been drinking green tea for 23 years now.

Your bladder must be fit to burst!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Your bladder must be fit to burst!

Chris Rea helps to disperse it during monsoon season.

 

[Jameshow]

I've never actually seen a Lidl bakery. I've been to a few but all they seem to have is those parbaked crap ovens where you put a half cooked then frozen bread product in an oven to continue cooking. They typically have very high levels of yeast so the resulting bread product goes off very quickly. It's the same as convenience stores and petrol station shops where they just heat up frozen stuff. I think the only supermarkets locally that have bakeries here are Tesco, Asda and Morrisons. All of them bake some fantastic loafs which last a long time. I'm a little sensitive to yeast so would typically buy the prepacked bread in Lidl or Aldi as won't have excess yeast and much healthier.

One thing that isn't comparable to the top brands is the Lidl premium coffee in a tin. I bought the Turkish flavour version and it has a weird taste although usable but you have to keep stirring the coffee. It's meant to be instant but it doesn't dissolve properly into the water/milk. Even if you keep stirring you still seem to have some black tar at the bottom. It's a weird product of very low quality. It's completely put me off buying anything similar in Lidl. I'd give it a 1/10 rating, 2/10 for flavour and 1/10 for not actually being a proper instant coffee. I'm not sure if all varients are like this or its just the Turkish one.

Sainsbury's have bakeries and the local one to us had a very gifted baker who was brassed off by the celeb status of Paul Hollywood, so would make remarks regarding his lack of technique!🤣🤣

 

[bonzobanana]

Sainsbury's have bakeries and the local one to us had a very gifted baker who was brassed off by the celeb status of Paul Hollywood, so would make remarks regarding his lack of technique!🤣🤣

Sadly we don't have a local Sainsburys. They tried to come here but the council insisted they use the old cattle market land which every reasonable person would know was completely unsuitable compared to where they wanted to go at the time. Then they tried to build a supermarket close to the football ground and that was denied as well. Like most places our councillors are utter morons completely unsuitable to be employed in that role. They bought loads of commercial property on loans when there is a high street apocalypse going on so many of these investments have dropped hugely in value and we are having to pay the interest of those loans in our council tax and of course the huge Wilko building sits empty and would be ideal for an indoor market but nothing is happening as far as I know. They have also just re-generated the high street in a really weird way and its taken a huge amount of time and money and no one is impressed and the chance of regenerating the high street when most of the shops around it are empty is probably nil. Our moronic useless council is Liberal Democrat but I know of similar stories from Labour and Conservative councils, they are all a waste of space.

 

[Drago]

I picked up a cheap multi at Lidl recently.

A Gerber is ain't, but for £9.99 it's astonishingly good. Nicely designed, very well finished, only minor gripe is slight play in the selected tool when in the locked position I wouldn't have been upset to pay £40 for it.

 

[Jameshow]

Sadly we don't have a local Sainsburys. They tried to come here but the council insisted they use the old cattle market land which every reasonable person would know was completely unsuitable compared to where they wanted to go at the time. Then they tried to build a supermarket close to the football ground and that was denied as well. Like most places our councillors are utter morons completely unsuitable to be employed in that role. They bought loads of commercial property on loans when there is a high street apocalypse going on so many of these investments have dropped hugely in value and we are having to pay the interest of those loans in our council tax and of course the huge Wilko building sits empty and would be ideal for an indoor market but nothing is happening as far as I know. They have also just re-generated the high street in a really weird way and its taken a huge amount of time and money and no one is impressed and the chance of regenerating the high street when most of the shops around it are empty is probably nil. Our moronic useless council is Liberal Democrat but I know of similar stories from Labour and Conservative councils, they are all a waste of space.

That sounds like Shipley!
The only decent building is the town hall but it's out of the way and facing the wrong way. It needs lifting with 1000 Chinooks and dropping onto the indoor market that's a 60's eyesore!
The outdoor markets dying on its feet and needs replacing with a cafe culture. The charity shops all need flattening and replacing with independents. But that will never happen as Shipleys poor and saltaire is posh!

 

[Psamathe]

A different aspect to "own brands" are DIY products.

I once purchased some B&Q own brand ("Dial"?) rapid set glue (their version of Araldite) and it was completely useless. Similarly I wont but own brand paint from the DIY chains. I appreciate it's significantly cheaper than brands but if I'm spending lots of time and effort doing painting then I want it to last and not be doing it again. Also, lasting longer in effect reduces the price of the branded quality paint.

My main experience of branded vs unbranded that I can directly compare is the neighbour's barn compared to my own (so same climate, same weather exposure) where I buy branded quality exterior weatherboard paint and they don't and mine lasts for years where their's "doesn't".

Exception is that I do buy most of my paint from supplier who is predominantly a trade supplier (Brewers) and they do their own brand brushes that are very good quality.

Ian

 

[alicat]

Sadly we don't have a local Sainsburys. They tried to come here but the council insisted they use the old cattle market land which every reasonable person would know was completely unsuitable compared to where they wanted to go at the time. Then they tried to build a supermarket close to the football ground and that was denied as well. Like most places our councillors are utter morons completely unsuitable to be employed in that role. They bought loads of commercial property on loans when there is a high street apocalypse going on so many of these investments have dropped hugely in value and we are having to pay the interest of those loans in our council tax and of course the huge Wilko building sits empty and would be ideal for an indoor market but nothing is happening as far as I know. They have also just re-generated the high street in a really weird way and its taken a huge amount of time and money and no one is impressed and the chance of regenerating the high street when most of the shops around it are empty is probably nil. Our moronic useless council is Liberal Democrat but I know of similar stories from Labour and Conservative councils, they are all a waste of space.

At the risk of thread drift, where is this?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Own brand bread is as good as the major players.

 

[simongt]

In B & M recently and saw a sachet of Lloyd Grossman 'Parmesan & Cheddar Pour On Sauce'. With Grossman's 'reputation', I gave it a closer look. The ingredients listed, among several other items - Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese 4%, Cheddar Cheese 2.5%, Mascarpone Cheese 0.5%.
So in a 'quality' cheese pour on sauce, total cheese content = 7%
How many folk actually check the ingredients list before buying I wonder - ?