'Essentials' Brand of foods

loco-colo

I see this in Superquinn - it is much cheaper - what is the difference - eg. Essentials self-raising flour is half the price of the main Irish brand of flour - what can be different about flour - see the same with cream .. surely cream is cream .. there must be something i am missing - any ideas? Thanks.

The Lovely Muffin

In my opinion they are all the same with the only difference being the price.

For brands such as Schwartz, Avonmore, etc are branded good hence they are more expensive, I personally find the own brand (Tesco, Dunnes, St. Bernard etc) to be of the same quality, but for cheaper prices.

For example Chorizo sausage 225g is €3.65 in Tescos, around €3 in Dunnes Stores and is under €2 in Aldi. And it's the very same chorizo, no different in taste, quality etc, just the difference in prices.

Same for spices, I buy the cheapest ones I can, I avoid Schwartz wherever possible as they are so expensive, for example: Schwartz ground ginger 26g in Tesco is €2.09 and Tesco brand ground ginger 38g is €0.85, same product, same taste, same quality but for €1.23 less.

implausible

Very often the "own-brands" are the exact same thing as a more expensive brand - made the same way in the same factory and then whacked into different packaging.

Tea_Bag

I was talking to the rep who does the €3 orange juice in superquinn (sorry for the life of me I can't remember the brand - will update in a while), and she confirmed my suspicions that the superquinn own brand comes out of the same factory for half the price. they don't even go through a different process, its literally just the bottle at the end that's different.

loveisdivine

My OH works in superquinn and its all the same stuff. Even a lot of the branded stuff all comes out of the same factory.

The Essentials stuff is just the normal stuff in different packaging.

loco-colo

Well, I bought essentials self-raising flour yesterday - €1.19 compared to brand price of €2.49 - used it and can see no difference in the rolls baked.

nice1franko

We got own-brand cornflakes in Supervalu last week. Defo not the same as Kellogs. Grand for kids and visitors though.

Mrs Fox

I go by Essentials butter. No difference to Kerrygold.

nice1franko

BTW, interesting list here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=70930797

Mrs Fox

nice1franko wrote: »

BTW, interesting list here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=70930797

Great input.

rubadub

Some might use slightly lower grade ingredients, or bake faster at a higher temperature etc. Lidl had independent taste tests done and were advertising all their own brands which beat leading brands, they named the leading brands too.

Marketing would be a huge additional cost for many items, and you are the one paying it.

I see no real difference between most mass produced beers, and usually get cheapo cans, whatevers on offer. When the likes of Heineken is €1 a can I will get it, and some mates who drink it, or other branded beers all the time might comment "on the good stuff at last", and I delight in saying "no, , I'm on the cheap crap as usual". Its weird that since they were paying over the odds for these for the last 15 years they regard it highly, even though it is now as cheap as the stuff they turn their nose up at, even though they never tasted these cheaper brands -but presume it is bad solely on price.