Rachelellen, I had to laugh when you specified crackers. :) I bought some house brand crackers last month and I think I know know why they were so cheap --- there was not ONE whole cracker in the entire package. (They tasted "eh...ok".) Back when we had the store, I used to get trade mags that often covered the politics and econimics of private labelling. Trust me, stores aren't carrying house brands out of concern for your wallet. It's a very lucrative area for them. Some products with different names are identical -- for example, Best Mayo on one side fo the county is Hellman's on the other. I don't know why. And, yes, private label products are made by some of the same companies that make similar/same brand names; however, that doesn't always mean the product is the same. Hunts might sell it's excess manufacturing capacity to Kroger or WalMart to create a house brand of product, but they do not always (or often, even) use the sam formulations. There may be more/less spices, more/less liquid to solid ration, less quality ingredients. I find most house brand diced tomoates taste fine, but there is less "meat" and more liquid than my favortie brand name comparable product. On the other hand, I don't like a lot of carp in my canned beans, so I'm happy with the house brand I buy because it has NO HFCS (why do you need that in beans anyway?), salt or other "stuff" in them. (Yes, I could use dried, but I'm lazy sometimes.) it's hit or miss. I'll buy a single unit of something and try it, but if it doesn't pass muster, I go back to my tried-and-true. What I do NOT like is the stores trying to force me to buy house brand by decreasing the space allowed for brand names. Yes, they make a bigger profit on house brands (in spite of the lower consumer price, they do make more or they wouldn't be doing it), but I want a choice.

They took out our Albertson's and replace it with a Western Family store. Now we have 2 WF stores, a Wally World, and a Smith's. I mutter under my breath every time I have to go into WM, I'm not keen on Smith's, it's way too crowded, and the only reason I still go to the old Albertson's, now WF, is for the employees I've gotten to know and who know me by name. If I had my druthers, I'd drive a "fur piece" and do my shopping at the only Albertson's available in my area, but 2 hours is a loooong drive for groceries. The only reason I set foot in WM is dog food, it is cheaper by far than all of the other stores. If I find it on sale somewhere else, I stock up so I don't have to go to WM!! Our local WM has finally taken out all those center aisle kiosks that bottlenecked traffic. They were such a pain. It got to the point I would park my buggy, walk to where I needed to go and pick up product and walk back to my buggy and then check out. I swear they rearrange the store at night and move the shelves closer together so you can't pass 2 shopping carts side by side. And don't even get me started on the shoppers who leave their buggies in the MIDDLE of the aisle and disappear, or block the entire aisle while they talk to someone they just saw. Sorry, ranting got out of hand, what was the question again?

I'm not sure I can answer all of your questions correctly so I will just say what was my very recent experience. I too, compared the store brand to the Blanco that was on display in the kitchen section. I liked the "feel" of the Blanco better. I priced the Blanco silgranit sink at Lowe's...(they would special order it )and it was quite a lot more than what I could purchase it for online. (approx. $200 more) I got the 60/40 sink. My DW is on the left. The large bowl is on the left. The smaller bowl with my garbage disposal is on the right. I would have preferred it to be in the opposite postion, but it wasn't available that way at place I was ordering it from. So I am living with it and it is not really a big deal for me. Personally I prefer a double bowl...but I know there are many on this forum who prefer the single. I like to have a sink for washing and a sink for rinsing/draining/disposing of stuff etc... Good luck and I hope I helped....even a little bit:) Here is a link that might be useful: blanco 441128

The difference between these tiles and the Gucci purse from TJ Maxx is that you only buy one purse and it's not that noticeable if there are a few things "off" about it, because it's just hanging from your arm/shoulder and moving and not the focus of the outfit. The tile, if they are seconds, means that they are ALL a little off, and when you lay them all down next to each other, the small differences will all become magnified and more noticeable. And they will all be off in different ways. Tile is one of those things that, unless it is a really rustic, handmade style, is MEANT to be uniform, and you are guaranteeing that what you get will not be uniform. Additionally, the only tile installers that will install it will be either the extreme pro, who will charge extra for the labor needed to make it look ok (note, it will not look great, just ok) or the tile setter with very little experience or very low standards who doesn't understand the challenges these tiles represent. He will say "sure, I can lay those tiles, it will look fine" and then when you complain about the installation he will tell you that the tiles are the problem and you should have expected the result. Go read some threads about bad tile installations (most of them are bathrooms or backsplashes, but the concept is the same) and you will realize that you don't want to go down the road of having cheap tiles and an less-than-expert tile installer.