I bought store brand dishwasher detergent about 4 months ago and my dishes were cloudy, but I thought it was the dishwasher acting up so didn’t think it was the detergent when the brand name was on sale I used it and the dishes were clean, forgetting this I bought store brand and dishes are cloudy again.
I generally like store brand cereal etc.
When does it not pay to use store or generic brands in your experience ?
i’ll usually buy store brands all the time unless there is a sale on the name brand. The exception has been paper towels - the store brands don’t seem to do as well as the name brands. I also seem to buy Dawn exclusively for dish soap. It seems to cut grease much better, and their introduction of Dawn in a spray bottle has been great for guys like me who tended to overuse it from the squirt bottle.
I suggest going after the lowest hanging fruit.
I buy generics and store brands almost all the time. I use unit pricing by the way. If I find that a particular product is not great, I’ll go to a somewhat higher priced item and try that.
If you start at the bottom you may save the most money and just upgrade the few items you didn’t like.
When I was near Aldi, I bought a lot of items there. I only found one item I didn’t care for but it was good enough that I didn’t bother to take it back for a refund, I just never bought it again.
I always buy brand name printer toner and cartridges. I work in IT and have seen too many problems with generic toner.
Totally agree with Dawn, but Walmart paper towels are great!
Can try Great Value dishwasher gel from Walmart. We use it because consumer reports rates it highly and it’s much cheaper than cascade.
Dawn is best for handwashing. You can use a few drops while store brands often need much more to get a lather and cleaning power.
Use store brands first, then if quality/taste is not great, then go back to name brand or try another store’s store brand. . Have found the following store branded items of good quality:
- Walmart- Dishwasher deterg pods; Soft and strong TP; Paper towels
- Winco foods- canned beans; canned diced tomatoes with green chilies, tomato sauce canned ( use for chili, and with added herbs for topping for chkn parm; tea bgs