Remember when your parents used to refuse to buy brand name groceries and now spend like drunken sailors?

Food Lion’s version of Cascade liquid dish detergent is garbage, I’ll say that much.

Considering what their retirement situation is, my parents shouldn’t be allowed to make financial decisions of any kind.

My Upper East Side mother bought the store brand still the day she died. On holidays like Thanksgiving, though, she had the meal catered.

My mother only spends like a drunken sailor on her (over-pampered) cat. Her own food, she buys and prepares as if she had to stand in line for it in a Soviet republic during the Cold War.

My mother does not care about name brands, she cares about quality. Some store brands are better than the name brands, and vice versa.

OP, they're old and no longer have to spend a lot of money on rugrats, so of course they treat themselves to actual name brands in their twilight years. And you begrudge them that small indulgence?

Good grief.

Don't bother to buy brand name over the counter meds. Numerous doctors have told me it's a waste of money. Buy generic.

Sorry OP this is not something I experienced or observed with my parents. I only went to the supermarket with my mom as a young kid and not that often. My father never shopped for food.

[quote]who asked me if I wanted to make Thanksgiving dinner with my “poor people” groceries.

You gotta admit, that's pretty funny.

[quote]OP/AcrylicDesires: I pointed this out to my father, who asked me if I wanted to make Thanksgiving dinner with my “poor people” groceries.

An interesting challenge. If your cooking skills are equal to or surpass those of your parents, maybe you could make a dish or two with your "poor people" groceries, bring your versions to the gathering and let them see whose is better.

Unnecessary to replicate the whole spread - just the one or two dishes for which the store brand products were most at issue.

There aren't too many brand-labeled items I can think of that are vastly superior than store-brand or even Aldi - but there are some exceptions.

However, I do remember when generic food came out - I think it was like early 80's. Seriously, it looked like army rations or something out of a Soviet state.

White labels with black printing of the item. And they SUCKED.

Store brands have caught up a lot in the past 20 years.

This pic is what the stuff used to look like - if you had this in your basket, it was like wearing a Scarlet P for Poor in the supermarket.

Trying this again -

For years, people have told me that generic products are made by the same companies that make the name-brand stuff; they stick a different label on the cans, but I don't believe it. I think the store labels and generics contain grade-B ingredients that aren't good enough to go in the name-brand stuff.

Generics often are obviously inferior--the paper products for example. The stuff that gets lost in a dish, like canned tomatoes probably aren't much difference from regular store brands. Some companies like Procter & Gamble don't make house brands. Other companies make only store brands. I don't think you can assume that store brands and house brands are the same--sometimes comparable quality but probably not the same.

R13 - it actually is true for some things - Duracell makes the long-power batteries for Walgreens and CVS. A lot of Costco Kirkland products are made by major brands.

Due to TM, I think the formula is slightly altered in some of the brand products.

Sometimes you can just tell by looking at it (e.g. paper products) that it's not going to be worth it. I rarely buy off-brand toilet paper, for example.

But I buy very few boxed or canned items, so it doesn't impact me that much. Trader Joe's brands are usually fine.

[quote]White labels with black printing of the item. And they SUCKED.

I remember yellow with black print. One grocery store aisle was nothing but generic, divided into respective sections.

Most of the major brands are from huge mega corporations who are fucking us with the price increases, which also allows them to mark up the store brands because - hey why not?

Don't buy them - let them burn. Greedflation is a thing - fucking Kraft/Heinz's profits have gone up 448% in the last 4 years. A similar story in most food businesses - and they're still planning on fucking with the prices even more.

Fuck em all - do your part and don't buy the brand names!!!

No, I don't remember anything like that. One of the maids did the grocery shopping.

And as far as spending goes, I only met my parents' accountant once. As I recall, it was when the third trust fund was being set up, and I just happened to be home on holiday from boarding school. And if I had to guess, they're actually downsizing now since they sold the place in Kauai six months ago and haven't replaced it.

We all have to downsize eventually. I mean sometimes one yacht is enough.

My mother was devastated when my Dad died but one of the first things she did was dump the store-brand cola down the sink and announce 'Only Pepsi from now on!'

R20 was your dad's death related to diabetes?

R21 LOL No. He actually didn't drink cola... that's why he bought the cheap brands.

When OP's parents get sent to the old folks' home and he has to shop for all their personal goods, he can make sure every item says Great Value on the package.

I resent the term 'drunken sailors'

R12’s picture looks like the No Frills aisle in the Pathmark my family shopped at.

OP's parents are living the American Dream. Is the problem that OP is downwardly mobile?

Sometimes brand names are superior. You just have to try different items. Like if you make tomato sauce yourself make it with Hunt's sauce and tomato paste or other name brands then make it with the store brand. Can you taste a difference? Pasta the same thing. It's worth experimenting. I eat shredded wheat cereal the small square non sugar kind. I find the store brands just as good and a lot cheaper than Post. Canned soup I always eat Progresso. When it's on a good sale. Their prices have gone crazy.

Thanksgiving is a "from scratch" meal. Why are your parents buying canned goods for it anyway? (Maybe for that yucky green bean casserole?)

Turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, celery, carrots, cranberries - these are all things that should be bought as they are on produce shelves and in the meat department.

"that yucky green bean casserole" = canned green beans + canned mushroom soup + packaged fried onions = love

Now, R28, I personally have made the cranberry sauce from scratch, but I have to imagine that most people are using canned? I don’t see enormous piles of fresh cranberries at the store.

Is there much of a price difference between name brands and generic these days? I would have guessed no. Also, now the generics are presented under store brands, aren’t they? Like Kirkland and 365?

Are there some parts of the country that still have generic generics? There used to be a generic glazed donut in a white box with black lettering and a red and blue stripe, maybe? I think a dozen came in a box a little bigger than legal paper. They were good - like Krispy Kreme before Krispy Kreme.

Acme and Target’s brand of peanut butter is much better than some of the national brands. YMMV.

I read things like this and I realize that I absolutely and resolutely don’t related to most of you at all

Acme? That still exists?

It does in Philly r34.

Have a few in northern NJ, too, R34. In my fatter days, this fat whore rejoiced at finding Entenmann’s iced banana cake there. It’s really hard to find. Not sure I could stomach that sweet frosting anymore.

I wish I could find that somewhere. Those cakes are delicious. I haven’t had one in about 20 years.

A cup of coffee with a slice or four of an Entenmann’s banana cake. Good times.

Glad to see some others who love that banana cake! When superstorm Sandy was headed this way, I went to Acme and bought one.

I just checked the website and didn’t see it. I think it’s finally been discontinued.

R33, your grammar certainly relates to many DL posters.

sorry, i hadn't had my coffee yet

Canned things that might be used at Thanksgiving: pumpkin, cranberry, jarred pearl onions. I might need canned stock for the gravy. I might even go with a jarred gravy because home made - sometimes its difficult if you have not time the whole affair and followed your timing.

What else would come in a can for Thanksgiving?

FAT WHORES REMINISCE!

Pumpkin for sure is a good canned item. I have cooked pumpkin in the oven to use for pie, and the canned product is just as good.

maybe bread pudding? or is that more Christmas. Thanksgiving I like turkey, stuffing (chestnut or oyster ++), mash potatoes, some kind of bean but preferably not creamy baked. a lively green been with some snap from garlic or ginger - something lemony or something piquant. I actually want to taste the greenness of the bean. Cranberry sauce. Creamed corn is welcome, however.

I think this is perfect for the meal because there is usually a lot of snacking before and then there are several desserts.

Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy is basically the entire focus.

I would agree on the pumpkin being worth buying in a can versus cooking the pumpkin yourself. But only the pure 100% pumpkin, not the canned “pumpkin pie filling.” I do make fresh cranberry sauce, but my mother always has to have the canned version. I figure on the holiday people should have what they want.

As a general rule, however, I do think certain brands of canned tomato products are superior. Better texture, less sweet, etc.

[quote] I might need canned stock for the gravy. I might even go with a jarred gravy because home made - sometimes its difficult if you have not time the whole affair and followed your timing.

Huh? Gravy is the one thing that should be homemade. Lift the turkey out of that roasting pan and that's the start of your gravy. Stir in a mixture of flour and water. What is the problem.

R47 I told you the issue - timing. And small kittens and stoves of humble city dwellers. Of course homemade is better but I have fucked it up. Then you have NO gravy. Major mistake.

I love that we get bitchy over gravy.

You’re my people! ❤️

You mean graxy

Graxy is a bitch.

I could totally see some Gen Zer naming their kid Graxy.

Graxsi

[quote]Acme? That still exists?

The other day I was driving behind a truck hauling Acme bricks on a trailer. I thought to myself "Guess there's still a coyote somewhere building walls across roads and then painting over them."

I thought Acme was only in podunk parts of PA and died off ages ago.

R55, not sure I’d characterize the greater Philadelphia area as podunk.

Depends on which quadrant?

What is a “food lion?”

A food lion eats the giant eagle.

The less you know about Food Lion the better.

R56 I know it may come as a shock, but the entirety of Pennsylvania is not, in fact, Philadelphia.

As I said, I only ever knew of Acme stores in more rural parts of PA. I guess I should have been more specific and offered an itinerary of towns in western and Central PA. You know, the other parts of the state that exist between Philly and the Pacific Ocean.

R61, Acme is full Philly. Old timers famously pronounce the store’s name with three syllables.

Philly people are no more charming than the Pennsyltucky crowd.

“ Philly people are no more charming than the Pennsyltucky crowd.”

Yet somehow, they are 100 times more charming than any crowd in any of the five Boroughs

That’s actually true.

Had no idea Acme was HQ'd in Philly. They had numerous stores farther west but it looks like that branch of business closed in the 80s. Seems like they're mostly Eastern PA and NJ now.

Not really. I always found Philly natives to be the most annoying East Coasters--no humor, very defensive. I have a neighbor who annoys everyone with his whiny passive aggressiveness. I was not surrpised when he said he was from Philly.

Philly isn’t here to humor you, r67. That’s not our job.

2/10

R47: An aunt of mine would use a blender to mix the ingredients. She always had a smooth, reasonably thick gravy.

I remember back in the early 80s, when Reagan took over, a lot of our local chain supermarkets considered 'middle class' were bought out and closed and were replaced by 'warehouse' markets, such as 'Valueland'. No store fixtures, no shelving. It was cardboard boxes piled up on top of each other with boxes and cans of no-name labeled goods (the white labels with the black print). Empty boxes were available to carry your groceries out to your car - they didn't offer bags to save on money. A lot of people back then said this was the beginning of Reaganomics - where there was no more middle class (and no middle class markets to shop in). Those markets lasted through the 80s / 90s. There are still some versions left of those, only under different names.

These are the ones I remember.

The grocery stores really made a big deal about the white label generics.

Not sure how much of it was legit. We know now in many cases the store brand of a particular product may well have been made by the same company that made the national name brand. And Aldi and Trader Joe's, to name two, have companies making things for them and slapping a random no name brand on the label.

I never saw white label generics in the 70s 80s or 90s in the NYC suburbs. Where were these white label marvels? It sounds kind of chic!

I also recall news reports of these manufacturers, where it said the places were not inspected regularly by the DOH. When they did visit, they found bugs and rodents throughout the factories, and found 'rat hair' in the cans of food.

R73 They were all over the midwest and rust belt.

Tomato products are one of the few things worth the splurge for an expensive brand. But I’ll buy store brand crushed tomatoes to make a soup or chili.

I remember the "white label" (we didn't call it that, at the time) products with black print. Even beer.

In California.

IIRC, that's when generic cigarette brands started coming out, like "Basic." Yes, there really was (still is?) a brand of cigarettes called "Basic." The pack was not white and black, though. Off-white with a red label. (Trying to get consumers to think about Marlboro, I'm guessing.)

“When mother shops for the lake house, she always buys generic. Something about making sacrifices.”

My basic cigarettes were Cleopatra white packs. In Egypt they were almost free, for a westerner. I've never been controlled arriving in Geneva airport. The 80s and 90s were heaven. So much of the world was still so inexpensive, priced at the local level. I digress.

My aunt smoked "Misty" cigarettes, which is trashy and generic-priced.

I smoked for about 5 minutes circa 1990 when I first hit the bars, and got some kind of bargain basement cigs that were like a dollar. Can't remember the name, though.

I remember Government Cheese. My Mom was on our town's Board of Health in the 1970's which was responsible for distributing it locally and she Shanghai'd me into helping deliver it to people and programs that asked for it. She told me later she didn't think anybody wanted a second delivery.

R82, I remember that government cheese as being good.

My mother still shops for groceries on the cheap

There was two scenes in "Mother" (Debbie Reynolds and Albert Brooks) involving Mother being cheap. She bought Sweet Tooth brand sherbet, which was freezer burned (under a "protective ice"). Debbie did buy Grape Nuts and, as a Grape Nuts fan, I can attest that the store brand is not reasonably equivalent.

My grandmother used to buy a huge rectangle of cheese, which we all referred to as government cheese. It made the most amazing cheese and eggs! I’m pretty sure it was cheddar as it was extremely oily.

How do you pronounce ACME in three syllables?

I live in the second largest city in Michigan and there are no Krogers here.

^^^ sorry wrong thread

R87, Ac-A-Me. In Delco you also hear vacuum as Vac-A-Uum

Djeetyet? = Did you eat yet? Nodju? = No, did you?

Da Iggles = The Eagles Wooder = water Winda = window

The absurdity of this thread is why I love DL. Nice change of pace from Trump trolls and Lisa rinna oversized lips and bride of Frankenstein hair .

R91, that pic illustrates to me how Harry and Lisa are morphing into the same person.