WFMW: brand loyalty edition
Posted on September 5th, 2007 by kimc
Shannon wants to know which items inspire brand loyalty in us. When is store brand/generic just not good enough?
Our list is pretty short.
- Hunt’s Ketchup
- Crayola crayons. Rose Art just doesn’t do it for us.
- Good chocolate chips - Ghiradelli, Nestle, Hershey, but no cheap stuff. Unless it’s for the kids.
- Hellman’s Mayo. Cheap is never creamy, and chunky mayo just isn’t right.
- Wolf Brand Chili. Pampa’s goulash isn’t Pampa’s goulash if it isn’t Wolf.
- Owens sausage for our pizza. Up north we bought Bob Evans. Either way, the cheap stuff often smells like sweat socks when it’s cooking. Maybe it’s only when I’m pregnant; that’s pretty often.
What’s on your list?
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Filed under: WFMW: works for me
Crayola! That’s one I left off my list! Must use Crayola.
And Nestle chips are the one exception to my all Hershey all the time rule. *S*
Some of our family’s name brand choices include: Tillamook Medium & Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Ovaltine (our splurge item), Kirkland (Costco) brand items, Trader Joes canned corn (we do miss Trader Joes), good chocolate chips (no imitations), Barilla whole grain pasta, Crayola Crayons, Ziploc bags, Stonyfield yogurt, WalMart/Sams Extra Raisin Raisin Bran, HEB Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream, Haagen Daz Coffee Ice Cream, Jimmy Deans or Owens sausage, Johnsonville Brats, Pink Lady Apples when price is feasible.
These aren’t really “brand” issues, but other buying/ingredient guidelines we try to stick to: no corn syrup, no msg, real vanilla, cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil, no fluoride toothpastes, no parabens or sulfates, whole grains-instead of white flour, honey/organic sugars-instead of white sugar.
Ways my husband abandons the usual guidelines when he buys “treats” is: Captain Crunch, Peach Ring candy, sugar-laden Lipton’s instant tea.
I used to buy all generic when my first priority was $ spent. But, as I’ve learned more about health issues, I have learned to make healthy ingredients a higher priority. We are not purists and do have our ways of “fudging” : ) but we are more conscious of ingredients when we buy now.
Now I’m curious as to what other family favorites are!
Laralee Seargeant
Real vanilla extract-not vanilla flavoring
Real butter-no margarine
All natural peanut butter
Farm fresh veggies when in season
Good quality cheese-there is a difference in flavor and therefor requires less to get the same taste
We have been trying to use better quality ingredients and make better nutrionally sound choices. I have found that while the intial expense may be more the product also goes farther because it has a more intense and better flavor.
The two “splurges” in our house that I am “forbidden” to buy generics for are Kellogg’s Poptarts and Franco AMerican Spaghettio’s.
Charity
Laralee, I thought I heard a million times when I was a kid that your teeth fall RIGHT OUT if you don’t use fluoride LOL!! OK you’re making me rethink that assumption because … now… I’m *assuming* you have teeth if you use toothpaste!!
Hot cocoa simply *must* be one of the more expensive brands… I’m not too picky which one but not the cheap store brand stuff.
I’m with you Kim on the candy… we bought a store brand of jelly beans and they sat for months until they began to stick together…
DIAPERS also must be Huggies or Luvs. Found that out the messy way. :]
Mrs. C.
Hunt’s Ketchup? I’m not sure I can read your blog anymore.
See I would think Hershey’s is cheap chocolate. At least their milk chocolate bars have the texture of wax. Good for smores though.
I *think* Heinz ketchup is considered the best because tomatoes are the first ingredient vs. other brands that have water first. Not 100% sure though.
I don’t have a brand but for peanut butter I prefer to get a type that is enriched with vitamins. That usually means Peter Pan.
Hunt’s ketchup?? Oh Kim, that’s a travesty! We are Heinz only people around here and there ain’t no substitutions.
I could smell a new box of Crayola’s…well…all day. Yankee Candle should come out with that scent!
i was going to say the same about crayons, hubby would agree on mayo…
I also can’t live without TIDE! It gets all the stains out, worth the extra $$
I’m a Hellman’s girl too. Not to mention crayola. They have the best colors.
You just have to let me know next time you have a CBD coupon. I have missed two of them by one day. Aaarrrggghhhh!
Have to have Tastefully Simple’s Simply Salsa no other salsa will do, and I agree about the ketchup Heinz 57 all the way.
Hi, Laralee! It’s always fun to see a comment from someone I know in real life.
I’m really catching it from everyone over the Hunt’s Ketchup. I want y’all to know that I checked the ingredient list and it is made from VINE-RIPENED TOMATOES. Does Heinz say that? And water is nowhere on the list.
I once did a side-by-side test, and Hunt’s was redder. Is anybody convinced to switch yet?
Hershey’s chocolate chips are certainly nothing special, but are much better than Sam’s Club or Great Value.
And when it comes to Tide: lalalalal lalal not listening…
I’ll say again what I said over at Shannon’s blog when everyone sang the praises of Tide: it’s not nice to tempt people to try a product that costs 4 times as much. What if we love it?
At least we’re all together on the Crayola issue. It’s important to have a point of unity, and funny that a bunch of moms should come together on crayons.
believe me, i know Tide is expensive, but after using it for this long, I honestly have tried to switch and it really is NOT the same, really… If you buy it on sale and use coupons, its really not to bad
If you ever hear of a brand that works as well and is cheaper, I am UP for it! xoxo
Hi Kim,
>>>Waving< << The boys and I will be in your area today mowing lawns. >>>Waving< <<
Ketchup is one of those items that usually has corn syrup in it. So, we use HEB’s Organic Ketchup, which has no corn syrup. It’s more expensive than the gallon can at Costco, but no corn syrup. We need to make our own. Just haven’t taken the time to research and perfect the recipe yet.
And, real butter and either HEB’s or Kirkland’s natural peanut butter are also on our preferred list.
Our home grown list is raw goat milk (makes great ice cream) and free-range chickens, both egg and meat.
Fluoride….Last year’s dentist visit was a disaster - and we were still using fluoride toothpastes then. For the past year, we’ve been using non-fluoride toothpaste (still deciding on which brands we like best since everyone seems to have a different preference), but this year’s dentist visits were MUCH better.
We used to use ALL-Free detergent, but to save money, we started making our own which has worked out great.
Maybe ingredients are different in different places. My mom’s Hunt ketchup has tomato paste and water first. I suppose really what matters is which taste best to you.
Carr’s Water Crackers (for cheese or other tidbits) and Jelly Bellies… I can’t think of much else that we won’t buy store brands for, but then we don’t do a lot of processed things. We have some decent non-Crayola crayons, too- decent but not perfect, alas. I think it’s unanimous on the crayons!
Helmann’s. Nothing tastes right without the Helmanns.