I think Whole Foods 365 brand is pretty good.

I am generally happy with Aldi brands, less so with Ingle’s label Laura Lynn. Publix’ products are also acceptable. There are several brands I won’t shift, especially for baking. King Arthur products are my favorites, even over the less expensive and more easily obtainable Bob’s Red Mill.

I buy milk, butter, juice, cheese, nuts and some produce at Aldi. I don't care much for their packaged goods like crackers. I buy a lot of Good & Gather at Target and have been satisfied with all of it. Where I live their prices are the next best thing to Aldi. There are a few things I only want the brand name - like Heinz ketchup and Miracle Whip. I watch for those things to be on sale. I've been a Starbucks coffee customer for at least 30 years and I've been buying it only on sale for a while. However more and more I've started buying Target's store brand. Prices have gone through the roof - reminds me of when we first got married in 1978 - more expensive every time you go to the store.

I purchased All Bran Buds for my parents in NYC . It was $10.99 a box. At that price, I almost p00ped. Who needs bran???

Dee, it just depends. I usually just run in quick and load up my one big bag I carry, I don’t even get a cart. I like looking through their frozen section by the front of the store for seasonal things — especially seafood. I recently got lobster tails, skewered/seasoned shrimp to grill, and salmon, as well as eggplant fries, pizza, a bag of Szechuan veggie stir-fry, and a bag of mini-tacos DH likes for snacks.

I get salad fixin’s, condiments, chips, nuts, and other staples. I like the aisle that has limited time products (unique things they don’t always carry), too.

ETA: There’s a good German bean soup they carry that makes me nostalgic for when I lived there. :)

jojo, did you just hear my cackle through the interwebs? LOL.

This inflation has also made me realize the power of brand indoctrination. I had to be actually disgusted with brand prices before I tried something different.

I buy a lot of things from Trader Joe's. Just haven't found my groove at Aldi's. For brand names, the real insult if the difference in prices among various grocery stores and Taget or Walmart. I priced a jar of spaghetti sauce a couple of years ago, something like $5 at Acme, $4 at Giant down the street, and $2 at Walmart. Now that is major savings on brand names. But I still like Best Foods/Hellmans mayo.

I buy mostly store brands, TBH. I am lucky to have Aldi, Kroger, & Fresh Thyme within 2 miles, and a Meijer and a couple of ethnic grocers within a few miles more. So I shop sales and price compare. Meijer brand frozen vegetables are the best priced currently and I have always seen little difference from the much higher priced name brands; I buy Kroger brand coffee (on sale, happens regularly) and cereals (or name brand if on sale); and certain of their frozen vegetable mixes; and have just recently found that their dishwasher pillows are working just as well as Cascade etc.

Turkey burgers are a good example - Kroger and name brand are pretty much the same, so I buy whichever and whereever it is best priced.

Kroger brand cola is okay, but really doesn't replace Coca-cola IMO. Still, at $1 per 2L vs. $2.49++, guess which one lands in my cart?

I agree, the prices differences are sometimes astonishing!

I have long bought Whole Food's 365 brand as well as H-E-B store brands. All have been just fine.

Hahahaha, Jojo!

The price of food is ridiculous. I can afford to buy what I need and want, but I don't know how families on tight budgets manage.

I just bought some KA flour yesterday at WF, but I've also used 365 in the past with fine results. It kinda depends on what I'm baking.

Locally there's a wonderful dairy called Clover and I'm very loyal to their milk products. They're not cheap but I think they're superior to store brands. If I can help it, I always buy California olive oil.

I like to be smart with my grocery purchases, but TBH, my time is worth something too. I am not one to run from store to store and we only have two in my little city, but others in the big cities near me. Starting in March, my produce market is open. At that point I start buying much of my produce (fresh) there. Still a few things (lettuce for one) I get at my local store. I got hooked on doing a grocery order and picking it up. That definitely keeps me in line money wise because I make a list and am not picking up things we don't need, etc. It also helps us health wise as we try (not that we always accomplish) to eat clean and healthy. All I have to do is look at the fresh baked Almond Joy cookies at my local store and they end up in my cart. So, alot of that has been cut out and I'm actually staying pretty much in line cost wise even with price increase. I go ever so often and buy up meat (I like to pick that myself). But to answer the original question, I would say that I buy some store brand items, but probably more name brand. I am another who has not been happy with Aldi.

Tina, same here with my time is worth something too. I've tried to like it, but I just don't. Besides, ours has a little "different" crowd than what I'm used too.

I've bought store brand things like canned tomatoes for years, though I still prefer Red Gold for my pizza sauce because it's thicker and I don't cook it. I have been disappointed in quality at Kroger in the past, but everything HEB store brand has been good quality even if not my preferrence. They actually have multiple store brands -- Hill Country Fare, HEB and Central Market at least. Hill Country Fare appears to be the lowest budget choice, HEB a solid middle and Central Market veers towards specialty items.

I am trying to remember something I wasn't completely happy with -- HEB sugar is cane sugar, but I can't find any info to be sure about Hill Country Fare -- it may be beet sugar and I did notice a difference in baking with a bag of sugar I had years ago. Not bad, but a little different from my usual results. We use a lot of HEB brands. There are even some things that we prefer over national brands -- turkey pepperoni is one. We have tried a number of their hatch chili specialties, most a summer seasonal. The hatch chili sausage and cheese are good -- not a fan of the hatch lime sandwich cookies, but they were a $2 curiosity purchase.

I've bought 365 and Trader Joe's brands and not been disappointed. Aldi's is further away and the couple of stops I've made there haven't impressed me enough to go out of my way to shop there.

Another long time buyer of store brands. Walmart has good quality on a lot of their Great Value items for significantly less - often dollars less - than major brands, and my other stores are TJ's, Aldi, Publix & Target, which all offer good quality on their own labels for mostly comparable costs. I don't spend a lot of time running from store to store either, I do curbside at Walmart, and only visit TJ's once a month. I can't think of any foods from major labels that I consider superior.

I do buy 99.9% organic foods, so I don't have experience with most conventional products, tho. Cleaning, health & beauty, paper goods, etc. can be practically interchangeable - except Target's zip plastic storage bags were terrible and didn't stay closed, so I avoid them.

I do think that the quality of produce and meat quality can depend on store management/location.

I shop mostly at Winco, which is a discount grocer with stores in the western half of the US along with a smattering in OK and TX. They are a no frills operation, which keeps costs down and they regularly beat the prices of higher end stores such as Safeway or Raleys. I don't particularly care for their store brand (too much water content in the cheese, pasta mushy after cooking, ice cream more like ice milk, etc.), but their prices on name brand are very reasonable.

The quality of their meat is excellent and when something goes on sale (NY strips for $5.99/lb for instance), I will stock up our freezer. Their dairy products are also very reasonable, I purchased eggs for $2.98/dz last week. I live on the coast with ready access to fresh seafood. Winco's fresh seafood prices can't be beat and the quality and variety is also excellent. I also often go down to the docks and buy directly from the fishing boats. There is nothing quite like eating a Dungeness crab that was alive until 30 minutes before cooking.

I am loyal to some brands such as Best Foods (Hellman on the E Coast) mayo, Heinz ketchup and Hidden Valley Ranch, but I'm open to trying store brands.

To my surprise, I found that CVS's store brand of snacks are excellent. They make the best caramel corn I've yet to find. While we don't eat that kind of thing very often, when I get a craving I head to CVS for caramel corn, crackers and nuts. I don't drink soda anymore, but I was also surprised to find that I much prefer Shasta brand cola to Pepsi or Coke.

Safeway's prices are ridiculous; I don't know how anyone can afford to do their regular grocery shopping there, but their weekly member specials are sometimes the lowest in town, and if they have something on special that we use, I will stock up on those items.

I have two Safeways very close by, but I only go there for certain brands, like Best Foods mayonnaise (Hellmann's to you folks east of here) that WF and TJ don't carry. I just don't care for the Safeway shopping experience.

TJ has excellent kalamata olives in water for $2.99, compared to $$$ at the WF olive bar. I don't buy any flour from TJ after some gritty wholewheat flour necessitated an entire batch of baked goods getting tossed.

I do agree with Tina Marie about my time being worth something, not to mention the cost of gasoline. I always shop with a list so I don't wander about thinking what else looks good. Exception: hot food bar at WF.

I base my shopping on produce quality and availability (vegetables make up most of my diet), and Aldi's seems to have the freshest with the most turnover. But it's only the basics. My second choice is Fresh Thyme, which carries other vegetables like beets, fennel and red cabbage that Aldi's doesn't carry.

Between Fresh Thyme, Aldi, TJ's and occasionally Costco, I avoid the standard grocery stores chains around here. I simply don't need to spend an hour wandering around Jewel Osco or Meijer trying to find what I want.

I buy a lot of Wegman's name brand items .. but I always check reviews first. Some are exception.. some inferior. i its the same with most store brands.. but I do think Wegman's tends to have more winners.

I don't always go to Wegman's brands for the $$ (sometimes, yes.. but sometimes it isn't much of a savings). Sometimes it is because I LIKE the product over the other brands.

Feathers, exactly. That’s another reason I like Aldi’s, Albertson’s, and smaller stores in my town. I just want to go in and get out, I don’t like the vastness of warehouse stores (and don’t have much storage in this house to buy bulk anyway).

We have a plethora of grocery choices within our little town of 15,000. I have 6 traditional grocery stores within 8 - 12 minutes of home (alas no Trader Joe's) and multiple farm markets, some year round, some seasonal. I do a lot of my shopping at Aldi, started during the pandemic because they had a wonderful system that felt safe(er). I always buy dairy items, eggs, some cheese, cream, some yogurt, organic produce, organic juice, some snack type foods, flavored unsweetened waters, wine, frozen organic vegies (great for soups), kombucha, organic spices/herbs.... They have great seasonal items, fun weekly specials like plants or kitchen items. Can't get everything in one place, never could but my grocery bill has not taken NEAR the hit it would have if I did all my shopping at other stores the way I used to.

I so wish Costco had a drive-up. I swear 75% of the people that go to mine are there to socialize and graze. I purchase a fair amount of staples from there - trash bags, tuna, olive oil, individual hummus packages, protein bars, paper goods, health and beauty items but dread the visit.

Regarding produce, I tend to shop our local farmer's markets during the summer months. It is more expensive, but the produce is vastly superior to what the stores carry that I don't mind spending the extra dollars. During the winter, I make do with whatever looks the best at the grocery store. I like Costco's produce, but it's sold in packages that are too big for us to get through without some of the produce spoiling.

We get a lot of our produce and most of our eggs through a farm share. The difference in freshness and flavor is amazing.

I have to gird my loins to shop at Costco but if I go early on a weekday it isn’t too bad.

Sometimes, but you cannot tell if they are going to change who produces their generics. Walmart is the worst about changing. What may be okay for a while, is not forever. I stay with name brands. They do change. Nothing from the 60's is the same today, but it is closer.

I often shop at Whole Foods because they offer the best fruits and vegetables around me. (As a vegetarian, that's very important to me.) I buy several of their 365 house brand products, especially their yummy cottage cheese. I used to buy Horizon and was really particular but then Whole Foods stopped carrying them (or Horizon stopped making it) and I discovered that the 365 tastes almost identical. I don't know why, but I find a lot of cottage cheese brands rancid/sour tasting to me. I do generally find myself being loyal to a specific brand of product once I find one that I really like (cottage cheese, condiments, coffee, etc). Sometimes it's a store brand and other times it's not.

It's been years since I shopped at Aldi (basically since I stopped driving) but especially in summer, Aldi had the produce quality/price around-- other than farmers market/farm stands.

Because I have groceries delivered, I generally stick to the same few stores .. but I do try to hit the farmers market at least every other week if not weekly. Sometimes the prices are higher but you know they are fresh and they are supporting local farmers. I haven't had a farm share since I moved to this house. It was fun to get an interesting variety of items fresh from the field but it wasn't all that great for me as a single person. I ended up wasting way too much.

We do finally have a Trader Joe's nearby but I have rarely used them for produce (though I did get some delicious asparagus there a few weeks ago) and even more rarely meat.

I mostly buy store brands, or more accurately for most things I tend to buy whatever brand is cheapest (sometimes big brands on sale cost less than the store brand). Dairy, bread, canned fruits and veggies. Like a few others who've posted, Best Foods (Hellman's) mayo is an exception. Bad mayo is just bad, and it's not like I go through it all that fast. For spices, I usually look first in the ethnic foods section. El Guapo is vastly cheaper than the White people spice section (though I just realized now as I was searching to confirm the name that McCormick of White people spice fame owns the El Guapo brand; apparently it's just ethnicity-based price discrimination).

I don't often shop at Whole Foods, but have been impressed with the prices and quality of their dairy (I go through a lot of yogurt). I shop at Trader Joe's a lot.

Not every brand-name item has a good generic substitute, but there's not a lot of differentiation between one canned corn and another.

I don't remember being disappointed in anything I've tried under Trader Joe's label. Same with Costco's Kirkland. There are a few things I'll pick up in generic in grocery stores that have been fine, but I hold a firm line at dried pastas. I was disappointed in Safeway's offering of generic brand once and haven't tried any again.

We don't have an Aldi and I've never seen one on this coast. We did try Winco's last month when shopping out of town - it's a little bit out of our way (even though we always travel with coolers) but I found the prices quite good. The differences on name brand products were enough to convince me to go back. Maybe not every time we're shopping, but we'll go again. The price differences on several items were dollars, not cents. Now that I understand how the store works better ;) Bag your own groceries, and since the beginning of Covid I've been shopping with only a credit card in my pocket, no purse. They take debit not credit. DH had his debit card in his wallet so we were fine, neither of us had enough cash on hand to cover our purchases.

He prefers his salads made with baby spinach over most lettuces. I bought a huge bag cheaply and actually used it all before it had wilted - so it must have been very fresh.

Aldi Is my closest grocery store and I do not have a whole foods or trader Joe's within an hour so I rarely go. In generalgeneral, I'm very happy with what I buy there.

Although if I had a trader Joe's and whole foods nearby, I would be there often!

I only shop at Aldi, so everything is (pretty much) store brand!!! Our diet is limited, so we have very few branded products anyway!!

I do buy store brands, but I agree some are totally fine and some are lacking.

I do find Wegman's and Aldi's to be pretty reliable.

Re Aldi's...when I first went it didn't appeal to me too much as it's pretty different from the usual. It was located really convenient to my job, so I would pop in there and with familiarity I really grew to appreicate it. I find most of their products to my liking, and I definitely love their pricing.

As I've mentioned, their dairy especially is great. ( as is the produce, and items in their refrigerated cases. It takes a while to get into their groove, but once you do, it's wonderful.

I haven't bought this , but they have a chocolate bomb cake ( in a plastic shell). Someone brought it into work and we all thought it was from the French bakery in Princeton. It was THAT good.

I'm a big fan of costco's kirkland's brand...they have a lot of organics and most of their stuff has been better than what I can get at the regular grocery store...and a lot of their store brands actually have the name brand on it...such as their kirland's ocean spray cranberry juice.

Ones I find good: Wegmans when I am visiting family, Whole Foods 365 brand, and Simple Truth Organics from Harris Teeter and I think that is consistent across all Kroger companies.

I have a good friend in Pa … she likes to gloat that I’m jealous she has a Wegmans and we don’t. Meanie! 😄

gsciencechick, I miss Harris Teeter. The one we had on St Simons was super nice as is the one near DD in Asheville.

We have King Soopers in CO which is also pretty nice and a Kroger brand but it's so crowded all the time it's not as pleasant.

We like TJ's organic mayo.

And I'm actually planning on a trip to Aldi's tomorrow morning - mainly for eggs. Their organic eggs are huge and dollars less than anyone else's around here. Last time, they were $3.55. The only negative is that I never know if they'll be in stock, which they weren't last week, which is why I'm going tomorrow. I'll pick up a few other things while I'm there, I'm sure. They've started carrying organic half & half and whipping cream, but not regularly, so I buy it when I see it, and I always buy organic butter to stick in the freezer.

P.S. Aldi has organic whole chickens for the same price as TJ's - $2.99/lb., but Aldi's have less liquid in the package.

The prices have gotten crazy. When I saw a bag of navel oranges for $8,99 at a local Grocery Store, I was about to scream. Eggs went down, but the prices of everything else went up!

Mostly an Aldi shopper here. Love running in and out. Mostly getting fruit, vegetables, eggs, milk. Recently found that they had Carnitas, pre marinaded. Surprisingly, good. I do buy their Salmon on occassion.

My experience in general is it depends on the product. Some store brands are fine, some are better, but many are much worse.

It is so true about the quality varying by product -- although Costco and Trader Joes are more consistent in managing their suppliers. There are sites where you can find out if the house brand is made by the same manufacturer/factory as a well known brand.... if you could not tell by taste already.

And yes, food producer profits are expanding (link) even as wholesale food (and energy) prices have declined.

I've always used store brands for things like mustard, canned beans, cream cheese, pasta, and a myriad of other items, and have never felt like the quality wasn't as good.

The thing about wegmans @Jilly is that I find the actual store overwhelming... visually but also in the size and number of options. When I did shop in store, I only every shopped a section or two at a time. Trader Joes and the farmers market are about my ideal size. I LOVE the little market stores but we don't have any nice ones here.

Grocery delivery is my saving grace. I miss out on selecting my own produce and meat but it's a blessing in so many other ways.

And when are you coming to PA to visit your many friends (GW and otherwise)?

Funky, I wish it was soon! PA is my adopted state, I love it so much there. 🥰

What part of PA is your fav?

OMG Jojo you are so funny.

The odd thing about grocery prices, is that it feels as thought they have risen faster than restaurant prices. At least to me.

Funky … my first love is Philly. I’ve spent a lot of time there … my late DH had work there often and I’d go for weeks to months at a time. I’d live there if I could.

And I think Pittsburgh has its charm. We were there a few times.

After that, all of the rural areas with big old stone and wood barns. When I was a young adult, I hauled horses with my boyfriend (who later was my husband above) and we’d stay with horse people on their farms. I don’t remember all of the rural towns by name, but fell in love with every one we went to. It was such a great experience. :)

I have yet to be disappointed by the store brand's. Most are same just rebranded anyway. What's going to kill the main line grocery stores is WalMart/Aldis. When I can buy a bag of mini peppers for half the prices as a main line grocery store...that's where I will be shopping and it's going to bite us in the end when our options die out.

Well, Dollar Tree is one of my favorite stores so yeah, I buy generic stuff. I have no problem trying store brands. I've found that Food Club "brand" is usually very good. For personal care products, I normally buy brand name things, they are usually better than the store version of the product, there are a few exceptions though.

For me, the grocery budget is one area where it is possible to economize when necessary. Most other budget categories for me are pretty fixed (utilities, mortgage, etc). So, we do use mainly store brands and I shop at a variety of stores. It's interesting that while I often find Kroger owned stores more expensive, they sometimes beat Wal-Mart by a significant margin on non sale items. The most recent example was the Simple Truth brand of tart cherry juice was one dollar cheaper for a bottle than the equivalent great value one at Wal-Mart. The one place I am probably pickiest on brand is Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage. The seasoning is absolute perfection to me and I have not found a comparable lower priced brand. Now I stock up and freeze that one when on sale.