A new McKinsey report says that a large number of consumers who are switching to cheaper brands during the recession are switching for good. Of those surveyed, 34% said they no longer preferred the costlier products. 41% said that although the liked the better stuff, it wasn’t worth it anymore. Have you downgraded during the recession? Is the switch for good? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
How the recession has changed US consumer behavior [McKinsey Quarterly] (Thanks to c-side!)
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My fiance’s aunt and uncle live in South Carolina. When i’m down there, I love going to the Piggly Wiggly and picking up some Mr. Pig (Mr. Pibb). Being from IL, the closest i can get to that store is Moo & Oink.
For some things I buy regularly I generally buy one of each and taste each one. I rank each one, calculate the price per gram/L/item etc… (ounces, quarts, pints, pounds etc… still confuse me) and decide what to buy from there.
However, in areas where there are a lot of options some initial filtering is necessary. For instance with bread I remove items with HFCS and bromated flour (if possible). Then I sort them depending on the number of ingredients then choose the top 5 or so for testing.
I wish someone would make off brand nutrition supplements.. I spend about 300.00 a month on overpriced MRP and other assorted powders..
Aldi is a great grocery store (small store and they carry mainly Aldi brands). The Aldi brand items are good quality, the prices are fantastic, and they occasionally have store brands too. Try out their items and see what you can subsitute for items you buy at the regular grocery store.
I buy a LOT of generic stuff from Aldi, but there are some things I won’t budge on when it comes to the name brand. If I’m gonna get bologna, it better be Oscar Meyer; same with hot dogs. Cheerios – the same. Things like graham crackers don’t matter. They don’t have to be Honey Maid.
With milk I don’t care either way. Aldi’s milk comes in an opaque container and it tastes as good as regular. Since the price has gotten so high on milk and I drink a lot of it, I tend to buy whatever’s cheapest, be it store or name brand. Dillon’s store brand is okay, and the Prairie Farms at Price Cutter too.
Pretty much for every type of food we eat, we try different brands (including store brands) until we find the one we like the best. Then we buy that brand until they discontinue it.
After they discontinued our salsa, we got over a dozen different ones to try. I’m keeping track of the results in a spreadsheet. Right now I’m also working on picking a low-cal salad dressing.
Pretty much we just buy whatever we like best. We stock up when there are sales, but otherwise we just pay what it costs to get what we want.
Safeway diet soda! Seriously, I don’t even buy Diet Coke on sale anymore. First of all, the Safeway brand is delicious – strikes that balance between the bitterness of Diet Coke and the sweetness of Diet Pepsi – and second of all, it’s cheaper than even the sale price of brand-name stuff. Even during the “Buy 2 Get 3 Free” 12-pack sales. Can you tell I’m kind of hooked on diet soda?
Also they call it “Go2 Cola.” It’s a subtle joke, but it makes me snicker.
I buy everything I can in generic. I also do my absolute best to get the cheapest price for everything. For instance, I almost never buy something that isn’t on sale, and if it isn’t on sale, I’ll buy it where I work so I can get my employee discount.
I see so many people complaining about “milk” on here… I cant stand cardboard containers. 1. They taste weird, like paper and wax 2. They usually arent as reusable as plastic jugs (certainly not as easy to use to pour) 3. I dont care about missing kids on the boxes, I pay for milk, not missing kids. To me, milk is milk, as long as it is in a plastic jug. I have a taste preferrance for “Clover” but I dont always buy it. I also like “Safeway” Eggnog more then any other brand, but whatever.
Soda, its Pepsi or anything “Lemon-Lime, Grape, Strawberry, or Dr. Peppery” that is cheap non-name brand. I will NEVER willingly buy “cola” flavored off-brand, and I NEVER buy “Coca-Cola” colas..eww.
My point is…Ive always been thrifty. My roommates hate the fact that Ill shop at a WinCo, Food-4-Less, or FoodsCo. and not shop at Whole Foods (where I used to work) and buy all organic. Personally, outside milk and soda, in a time of need and recession, its about saving money, and while Ive always been a thrifty shopper, I will spend more when I want to try something new, but I just cant justify affording so called “better” things in smaller amounts because “its organic” or because others might judge me…
For me, its all about HOW MUCH food and full I can get for less, not how cool I look with the brand names I can get.
I used to drink Pepsico and Coc-Cola products, even though they cost more tna gasoline, but have since changed to Meijer store-brand soft drinks because the taste is close enough and they’re half the price!