Joe’s lounge

A Said:

Would you risk trying unfamiliar yet affordable brands of toiletries so that you can save on your budget since the more popular brands are a lot more expensive? I grew up with the habit to stick with the more known brands since they are suppose to have more quality than other brands, but since I got married, I find myself more willing to try other brands so that I can get more out of my budget. Is it really true? Do the other brands really have less quality just because they are just new in the industry? Would you be willing to try out new brands?

B Said:

Obviously you live here in the US and have fallen prey to gullible advertising. From toothpaste to body wash, simply flip the container over and compare ingredients. A lot of no-name brands arent new in the industry, they just dont blow a bunch of cash on advertising, packaging, nice smell, pretty color, etc that also drive the cost of said product up. Especially in bathroom type products, using the pharmacy brand is BETTER than the big names because the pharmacy (equate, walgreens, etc) have more money for research, which makes the product more effective.

C Said:

I wouldn’t mind if the brands looked presentable enough,not like liquid hand soap that you have to pour from the bottle and stuff like that. Might also depend on where the brands come from, for example,something can be cheap here but quite popular in it’s country of origin. I like french make -up Bourjois, they seldom sell it here but I’ve seen it a couple of times in discounted stores and in my country it’s considered rather shick and expensive

D Said:

I use lesser known brands all the time and save a lot of money that way. Some of them I even like better than the popular brands.

For example I buy this cheap four cheese spaghetti sauce that costs me about $1.00. and I really like it. The same amount of spaghetti sauce int the more recognized brands cost three to four times as much.

It’s a matter of trial and error finding what you like just as it would be choosing between two or more major brands of the same item.

E Said:

One thing that I learned in one of my business classes is to look up at the shelves above your head and at the shelves at floor level. The most expensive brands are always at eye level.

I do try less expensive brands of cleaners and toiletries. I discovered a wonderful pine cleaner at Wal Mart that is better than the Lysol pine cleaner. The off brand is 97 cents while the Lysol is over $2!

I don’t do it too much with my food stuffs except for things like pasta, rice, pinto beans etc. I go to the bulk food stores as much as possible for that stuff. But for margarine, mayo and other stuff I go with brand but hopefully it’s stuff on sale.

I don’t think that other brands have less quality for the most part, I do usually read labels before I try them out.

F Said:

If you can judge the quality of the product then you can go for unfamiliar brands. Otherwise you may face problems than comfort. I dont agree that big brands with higher price are having good quality than the unfamiliar cheaper brands. The price may be less due to the the company is keeping lesser margin. Manufacturing cost me less. Advertisement charges also effect when it comes to price of the product. So judge the quality of the product and buy. That is worth.

G Said:

well,i think the excellent quality and reasonable price is the most important.and your choose.how to make the better ways in your shopping,it’s depend on the time added.we called that experience,the experiences in lives you know.no matter what brand.you have use it and feel it better.so,make a choice friend.you will have a good day.

H Said:

Yes, I can try them out. I don’t think there’s much harm, I mean I have tried many things like that, some I have like some I haven’t. Say for instance there’s a new shampoo or soap which is quite cheap and can be purchased in small sample quantities. I would always go for them and continue using if I find them good. But if I have to buy a monthly quantity, then maybe I would not go for untried products. I do this for food too…just yesterday while at the supermarket, I saw a new unbranded fish finger which was being sold by weight and not the entire packet. Well for the three of us, I bought about 10 fingers which was a lot cheaper than the entire branded packet. It was yummy to say the least, and I have switched loyalty…I am all for it and thankful that I tried it out.

I Said:

I am from Pakistan, and chain smoker. Here every year the government announces its; budget in the month of June. So month before and after that cigeretes are getting short for this time period. Because many retailers stock the cigeretes and after the budget when the prices rises they sold them at new rates so during this time I use the other brands for smoking.

J Said:

That always happens to me. I would never by an unknown brand fearing that it may not be good. The reason why this happens is because of all the advertisements that we see each day. These advertisements have a drastic impact on our mental thinking. But some of these other brands are just as good. It’s just that they do not have much reputation since these previous brands are taking all of the customers. So these other brands tend to lower their prices in an attempt to get costumers. But I don’t believe that all of them have less quality. It’s just that when I buy them I feel a little weird because no one is really buying them. And I’m looking around and realizing that I’m the only one. It makes you feel to buy the normal expensive stuff. lol. But no those other brands are good or at least some of them. The only problem is how are we gonna find the cheap, good brands and not the cheap poor brands. That would give you a headache.

K Said:

Like you i also tend to stick with brands i know to ensure i have the good quality stuff. When i’m tight with money it drives me to seek cheaper brands and sometimes i find their quality is good which then made me switch brands. I think you got to be more willing to try things to get the good ones.

L Said:

Sure, I’m always up for trying new things! Especially when it could potentially save me money! I look at it this way: nothing ventured, nothing gained.

You have to try something to see if you like it. Sometimes you get lucky and discover a cheaper item is just as good as the more expensive one. Sometimes, you just can’t make the compromise.

In my house, shower gel is whatever is cheap. But we can’t make compromises on toilet tissue. This is true all over the house! I tried cheap diapers, but found I was going thru more of them because they were poor quality, so I didn’t save any money. In the kitchen, we buy the expensive storage bags to freeze meat, but the store brand ones are fine for packing lunches, snacks and storing dry things.

M Said:

we always buy the store brand and have done so even before buying the store brand was cool! you would be suprised that most of the store brands are made by the same people that make the higher priced brands…so you are paying for the name!

N Said:

Trying different brands is quite good but please be very careful. Other brands especially the new ones are not that safe. It would be better if you will stick the brands which you have trusted for many years. Although you can save a lot for the affordable ones, you will still doubt if it’s really good or safe. In terms of toiletries, I do really try the affordable ones. There are lots of good quality toiletries yet so affordable. In terms of foods or medicines, I go with the branded ones. It’s beacuse I feel that they are really safe.

O Said:

In my opinion, i do find the big names have a slightly higher quality compared to unknow brands. However, I really don’t mind trying other brands as the the savings does make up quite a difference. As long as the stuff does not cause side effects, i am ready to buy it again. So what i do is on and off i will buy the branded stuff to give myself a treat.

P Said:

Just recently, I was “forced” to try out a newer brand of USB memory things…you stick them into your USB to store information and data. Well, I bought one from Le Target for $5 USD 9128 MB) and it’s really cute and colourful. I wanted to buy more because it wasn’t storing as much as I wanted. When I went to Wal-Mart, I found a new company that sold 2GB worth of cards. It was the same price as the other one but held so much more! I was quite pleased. It’s called the “DataTraveler” made by Kingston. So, that’s my money’s worth.

So, there are things I would be willing to save money for and buy cheaper brands, but things like bacon, toilet paper and such, I will pay more for the better quality.