Life Lessons: Name Brand vs. Store Brand
As we’re on the way home from the movie tonight, I learn that #1 Son drank all the milk with his supper tonight. I was planning to use that milk to make pancakes tomorrow, so we need to stop and get some on our way home. I pull into the CashSaver near our house and give #1 Son five dollars, telling him that should be plenty to cover it. #1 Son runs inside and comes out a few minutes later with a gallon of milk and a receipt.
“It was $5.14!” he says as he climbs into the car. I give him fourteen cents and send him back into the store, while I try to figure out how I’m saving at this place when I can get Great Value (GV) milk (the store brand) for $2.94 a gallon at Wal-Mart. Then I see that #1 Son has bought Turner Quality Checked (TQC) milk, which is about $4 a gallon at Wal-Mart … the same price as this so-called CashSaver place. (So the only thing I saved is the gas it takes to get to the Wal-Mart, which is 10 minutes from home, while CashSaver is three minutes from home.)
#1 Son returns to the car and we head for home. I ask if they had any other brand of milk.
“Yeah, but I don’t trust those off brands. They aren’t as good.”
So, knowing that we’ve been drinking GV brand for more than a year now, I asked him what was the difference (besides a couple bucks a gallon).
“Turner is fresher, so it tastes better.”
“Oh,” I said, “Wanna bet?” He should know that when I say those words, he’s about to get a life lesson.
When we got home, I set up a blind taste test for both boys. I sent them off to put on their pajamas while I set everything up, so they couldn’t see what I was up to.
I had a quart of GV milk I bought last weekend, and the gallon of TQC that we’d just bought. (RISKY! Week-old store-brand milk vs. fresh-bought name brand!) I put a quarter of a cup of GV milk in each of two clear glasses. I put a quarter of a cup of TQC milk in each of two fancy coffee cups. Then I called the boys.
Right off, #1 Son points out that they each need a glass of water to rinse their mouths between samples, or it won’t be a fair test. So we get glasses of water for each of them.
I tell them to drink from each cup, and then tell me which one they like best, and which one they think is the TQC milk.
#1 Son goes first. He drinks, rinses, drinks. Considers. Tells me his choice and which cup has TQC in it. #2 Son follows suit.
Both boys tell me that the clear glass is the best-tasting, and that it is obviously the TQC milk. I tell them they are wrong! The TQC was in the fancy cup, and the plain old Wal-Mart milk was in the plain old glass. #1 Son practically accuses me of lying.
I look him straight in the eye and say, “When have I EVER lied to you? About ANYTHING?”
“Well … never. But you might have forgotten. Or gotten mixed up.”
“Nope. I wrote it down, on this piece of paper. See?” And I show them the piece of paper where I had written “glass: GV; mug: TQC.”
#1 Son mumbles something about it not being fair that I’m always right, and wanders off, shaking his head. #2 Son asks how I know all this stuff. I tell him that I experiment, all the time, to make sure I’m spending my money wisely. There’s no point in paying an extra $2 a gallon if I’m not going to be able to taste the difference.
There are very few things that I pay extra for the name brand for. Campbell’s condensed cream soups (for making casseroles), yes. BP gasoline, yes. One or two prescription drugs. But other than that, I’m content with store brands or generics. Once I’ve tested them and they’ve proven to work, taste, and/or perform just as well as the name brand, then they’ve got me. Because I don’t have a penny to waste. Not even on something as trivial as milk. Although, come to think of it, at $4/gallon, milk’s not trivial anymore. It’s right up there with the petrol I put in my car.