Sea Breeze

[GentlemanJim]

My normal "big box" grocer stopped carrying it, offering only a generic store brand in it's place. Dollar General here still has priced shelf space offering it but with no available product (2 stores that I checked) And Krioger offers only a "premium" cosmetic brand with an insane price.

So, I made a special trip to Walgreen's.....jaw dropping at $6.29 for a 10 oz bottle, but in stock.....I begrudgingly passed.



Then today at Walmart...16 oz bottles for $3.67 each...much more like it, I grabbed 4. Thank you Walmart.

Wonder what is up at these other stores? The great Sea Breeze conspiracy?

[Caroline13]

Generic brands I believe are fine. I just had to buy a "supply" of AA batteries at ebay and bought off brand for Much Less $$$$. Talking to my friend who was just here he agreed the off brands are just fine.

[GentlemanJim]

Personally, I've had mixed results with generics. "Bargain" laundry detergents are, by and large, watered down garbage, just as an example.

Seabreeze is a product I've found I can rely upon. I gave a generic a trial years ago, and as I recall it was just colored rubbing alcohol.

[Caroline13]

Personally I think many brand companies produce their products and sell to off label companies and these companies slap on their labels. Everyone wins.

I have a hard time shopping at Dollar stores and have over the years, but I don't love to buy my stuff that is Made in China....

[GentlemanJim]

I think the real real story here is Walgreen's incredible greed. For the name brand product you can get 60% more product at a price 42% lower.

Put another way, it would have cost me $36+ at Walgreens to buy what I got for under $15 at Walmart...without having to settle for a generic!!

[stevea]

Neither Walgreens nor CVS are economical places to buy anything. Walgreens at least used to have a discount card but that went by the wayside.

Also tonight I happened to notice Glade at Lowes -- 1.98 vs. Meijer and Target .98 or .99. Lowes isn't a good place to buy stuff that the grocery store also stocks

[GentlemanJim]

I strongly suspect that large retailers who develop their own inhouse brands, intentionally inflate the prices of the national brands, to steer business to their own products.

And, as Caroline points out, frequently these store brands are actually made by the national brand, just under a different label and with "proprietary" formulation. Making me wonder how the national brands feel about their customers "using" them, that way?

I've also wondered if a manufacturer's quality control measures might be used to differentiate less than optimal production and selling that off by putting an off brand label on it?

[GentlemanJim]

Re: Walgreens specifically

Yeah, they (and their ilk) occupy a unique niche. I suspect that a big part of their success comes from obligatory trips that families provide grandma to get her medicines, and she uses the opportunity to buy other necessities in a single trip. Albeit at inflated prices.

But hey, who doesn't have fond memories of "grandma candies" that you only find when visiting her house? I remember taking a wrong turn down the candy aisle in Walgreen's one day and discovering "so, this is where she gets that stuff!"

Brach's Bridge mix and chocolate stars, and those bizarre liquorice and coconut thingamabobs? YUM!!

[GentlemanJim]

And yeah, Glade at 97 cents a can at Walmart, seems an uncommon value. How can they produce even the can at that price?

[Caroline13]

No matter how you slice it, it's all about the bottom line, and often I find just buying what I need vs going here and there to save some change is futile. since I do online I know where to go...often a friend will give me a couple things I need as she buys in bulk at Costco, I Never Did...but she's generous to me.

It will be interesting to find how the quality and long lasting pledge will be on the cheapy AA batteries....I don't have a lot of long lasting life left as it is.

[GentlemanJim]

Just my experience, but the cheapie batteries don't seem to have the long shelf life BEFORE being put into a device, that the more expensive batteries do.

If you had 2 identical devices and put cheapies in one, and name brand in another...they'd likely last about the same time. But, putting a bundle in the drawer, to have ready for a power failure, I believe the name brand battery has a better chance of surviving to be of use to you.
It has to do with how the poles are sealed to resist corrosion. Doing it the "durable" way is more costly...jfyi

[biffbronson]

Originally Posted by Caroline13

Personally I think many brand companies produce their products and sell to off label companies and these companies slap on their labels. Everyone wins.

This is true, and as a concrete example, General Mills produces more cereal than they can sell under their own name brands. So when you buy a store brand, you may be getting the exact same product, at a lower price.

[GentlemanJim]

Whenever I shopped at Sav-a-lot, I could always notice a difference between their knock-offs, and the national brand products they were imitating. Less salt or sugar, thinner sauce, less lean, etc. Sorta like how Peggy Bundy gave the kids Chiclets, and told them they were vitamins....

A screaming example of this that I recently encountered, was a store-generic brand of pimento stuffed green olives. Looked great in the jar sitting on the shelf (in Meijer) , at a great price.....but packed in water, nor brine. Never really realized how dependent I was on the salt as part of the taste, until it wasn't there.

Nothing clearly on the package to imply "low sodium" or anything like that. It was just their gimmick.

[GentlemanJim]

That's not to say that I don't accept the responsibility. Had I known enough to read the ingredients CLOSELY, I never would have bought them in the first place. But all I saw were plump queen-sized green olives sitting up on the shelf with all the rest, but at a price a couple dollars a jar less than the Merzetta brand, and I just felt like my ship had "come in"...lol. Until it was too late.

Afterall, an olive is just an olive, right?

[Caroline13]

Originally Posted by biffbronson

This is true, and as a concrete example, General Mills produces more cereal than they can sell under their own name brands. So when you buy a store brand, you may be getting the exact same product, at a lower price.

This is very true and with some other foods I've been buying like 8 oz cans of tomato sauce with the store label, I'd bet they are produced by the same people who bring us Hunts and other brand labels, and I started buying brand name frozen veggies vs the pricier Birdseye....they are the same only more $$$....

I can play their game.

The batteries, I never bought off label brands, but for what I paid for a large qty vs small qty of labels, I'll take my chances....