The grocery store. An average place which turns into a battleground by the time you hit the bread aisle. One reason for this hectic atmosphere is the vast amount of different products on the shelves like your favorite Kellogg’s Cereals and Charmin Ultra Strong Toilet Paper. But for every time you’ve seen a box of Fruit Loops you’ve also probably seen a bag of Tootie Fruities and every time you go to look at your favorite Charmin Ultra Strong Toilet Paper you’ve most likely seen a nearby stack of Bathroom Tissue. Well my friend, what you have just found would be a great example of a generic product and today we are going to look in depth at them to figure out what they are, what benefits or problems they might have, and finally if these generic products are right for you.

Now first, as promised, I will explain what these generic products are and why they exist. Generic products are essentially cheaper versions of your favorite name brand products so that you can have almost the same thing as the name brand product but without the name brand price tag. But the generic products might be closer to the name brands than you might think. In an article released by The Dinner Daily in June of 2024, their source, a manager of a store belonging to a major grocery chain, revealed that generic products are usually the exact same thing as the name brand. Not a close imitation of it, the EXACT same thing. They are even sometimes made in the same factory! The only difference is what’s on the packaging.

While we have been talking a lot about the pros of generic products, that doesn’t mean that name brands are bad. The name brands actually have quite a few things that they do better than the generics. The first leg up that name brands have is in the quality of the product. While earlier I did say that the products are exactly the same, some procedures are different. For example, name brands have better packaging than the generics do. This helps maintain the quality of the item especially when we are talking about food. As reported and issued by the FDA, Walmart had to recall their Great Value chicken broth in multiple states, which Walmart clarified on their website to be primarily in the south. because of a packaging failure that could risk the integrity of the product leading to sickness. This combined with innovations created by name brands will lead many to purchasing these products over the generic variant. Some generics are also just really bad. If you have ever bought generic toilet paper you know what I mean.

As shown in a survey taken by Washington students, many said that they generally preferred the name brand products over the generics with a large number of people agreeing that they would prefer to buy from name brand technology companies over the generic brands. About half of the participants did go on the record saying that they preferred to buy generic brand food products, stating that it usually tasted the same and sometimes would even taste better than its name brand counterpart, namely freshman Zaren Julion stating that he thought Toaster Tarts made by Millville (Aldi) tasted better than the well known Pop Tarts made by Kellanova (formerly Kellogg’s).

But now you’re probably asking yourself, “What should I buy?” and if you ask me, it really just depends on what you are looking for. If you like the cost savings, generics are perfect for you! But if you like having the assurance of a name brand product then that’s also perfectly fine! All in all, Generic products are a great way to save money when shopping, but name brand products are still great, if not better than the generics that were modeled after them.