VS.

Have you ever watched that show on Food Network? Where they put two companies, who have similar products, and pit them against each other? Like Dominos vs. Pizza Hut, General Mills vs. Kelloggs, Nestle vs Hershey...etc

Well, today we are going to have our own version.

NAME BRAND VS STORE/GENERIC BRAND, WHO WILL WIN?

As I was leaving my second home,Vons one day they had 2 carts at the front of the store. Each was filled with a variety of different prodcuts. However, one was full of their store brand products and the other was filled with name brand. The claim was that you could save over $100 by buying their store brand.

Here is my problem with that:

Were those name brand products on sale?
Were they bought with a coupon?
Was it just the first product they saw? For example, there is not just one name brand of spaghetti sauce. There is Ragu, Prego, Barilla, Francesco Rinaldo, Newmans Own...

Store brand items:
**usually taste very similar, if not the same as their name brand counterparts
**yes they are usually cheaper BUT

**they rarely go on sale, and they rarely have coupons

Here is an example for you
a store brand canned pasta was on sale 10/$10
a name brand was on sale for the same price but, there were .50/2 coupons available. 5 coupons times 1.00 (because this store doubles = 10 cans for $5 or half off.

Now is there a home for store brands on a Coupon Queens' pantry shelves? I say...YES.

**If there is an item that you NEED and there are no coupons out for it.

**If the generic is truly cheaper after a coupon & sale have been factored in.

The point is to save money right?! What about you, do you buy store brands? Why or why not?