Brand Loyalty

Some folks are extremely brand loyal especially when it comes to food.  I have to admit that we are as brand loyal to actual food but we are with respect to certain food prep items.  For example, our cast iron must be Lodge, and I absolutely love Corsori, American Pan, Oster, All American (pressure canner) and Logastina.  As far as food goes though, not so much so.  We spend about 1/3 of the year in the US.  Some brands we get here in Canada are not available in the US and visa versa.  We also spend time in the Caribbean where brands are very different.  At home (Canada) we shop directly from growers and producers.   Over the years, we found reducing out dependency on grocery stores, greatly reduced any brand loyalty too. We also don't buy much in the way of commercially processed foods.  We also boycott certain companies for ethical reason.  So we simply aren't brand loyal.

Inflation and food shortages are creating a climate where brand loyalty is not always the best policy if you want to keep a well stocked pantry.  One secret the food industry hides is the fact that one processing plant can run different lines of the same product but with different labels.  For example tomatoes - brand name, store brand.  Same tomatoes, from the same group of farmers just different labels.  Ergo, same product but different labels and price points.  This applies to all commercially canned fruits and vegetables.  What does differ is propriety products.  So, a processing plant runs 2 lines of soup - one for company A and one for company B.  Company A is a brand name, company B is store brand so 2 price points.  In this case, the processing plant will use Company A's recipe for that line and company B's recipe for their line.  The products will differ but sometimes you might actually prefer the store brand to the brand name while saving a bit of money.  Case in point, Kellogg's had a labour dispute so Kellogg's products were not available for awhile.  We buy a large box of Rice Crispies once a year specifically to make squares.  This time, hubby came home with the store brand rice equivalent.  It was not only less expensive but crispier, nicer flavour.  Brand names simply don't matter for some foods like rice, whole grains (ei. wheat berries, kamut kernels), dried beans, dried lentils, some salts, white sugar, baking soda and white vinegar.  What does matter is whether organic or not if that is important to you and country of origin.

So if you are brand loyal but looking for ways to keep rising food costs in check, you might want to buy store brand commercially canned fruits and vegetables as well a trying out store or lesser known brand for other commercially processed foods.  If you are looking for foods where brands don't matter, switch to the cheapest option which may even be a dollar store so be sure to check unit prices.

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