Generic vs. Name Brand Products

In theses trying economic times that we are all in, more people are either turning towards buying generic products at their grocery store or asking what the major difference is between them and name brand products.  The quick and easy answer is the cost.  Usually you can expect to save almost half of the price on buying a generic brand product vs. a name brand grocery product.

Why are generic products so much cheaper?  The simple answer is that the grocery store that you are buying the generic product from can produce a similar version of the name brand product for much cheaper than they can buy and resell the name brand product for. As an example, say you are looking at buying some deli meat.  A well known brand such as Sara Lee has many different types of meats for sale at around $6 or $7 a pound.  Well the grocery store can produce and slice their own meat for maybe $4 or $5 a pound.  Sure the meats can taste different, but the overall quality should be similar.

Some people may still be persuaded to buy the Sara Lee product because of their reputation and since they may have finicky tastes and might not like the generic version.  However, a better example that comes to mind is if one was to buy a jar of salt.  The generic product costs about 50 cents less than the name brand.  Salt will probably not vary too much in taste or quality so more people would probably buy the generic brand knowing this.

Overall, you can save a lot of money buying generic products and they have to all go through the same food administrative and quality assurance tests as name brand products so the only difference could be in the taste of the product.