What's in a Brand Name?

What’s in a Brand Name?

We all have certain brands of items that we like and would never buy another brand. I used to feel that way until several of the brand name items I liked disappeared, either went bankrupt or are no longer made. Since then I have experimented with the store brand items.

Breyers went out of business within the past year and it took me forever to find a yogurt that I liked. Breyers had more fruit and less sweetness than Yoplait and Dannon. I tried Food Lion My Essentials brand on a lark one day and found that it was closer to the Breyers taste, but with a little less fruit. The flavors I particularly like are the ones in the photo. However, I do not think that I will ever find a yogurt that I like as much as I liked Breyers. Boohoo!

I used to drink Coca-Cola and that was the only brand of cola that I would drink and it had to be diet and caffeine free. Since I liked the brand name yogurt I bought at Food Lion, I decided to try their soda drink. I found that this soda, at least to me, tastes like Diet RC. I don’t know if RC is a brand that is sold in most of the country, but I do know that it is sold in the east, especially the south. I’ve never liked Pepsi products because they are citrus based. Coke and RC are vanilla based, but RC has a stronger taste than Coke. Wal-Mart sells Coke products regularly at $1.28 in my area and the Food Lion brand is sold for $0.83. Even when Coke goes on sale, it does not go much below $1. As far as I am concerned Food Lion colas are cheaper and taste better.

Ocean Spray Light Cranberry Juice was always my brand of juice I drank each morning. However, Ocean Spray has taken to adding grape juice and everything else into their cranberry juice, which makes the juice taste like anything but cranberry juice. If I wanted to drink grape juice, I’d buy grape juice. I have tried Food Lion’s My Essentials brand and Lowe’s brand. However, both of these are watery. To make up for that, I add some Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice with Lime. I just hope Ocean Spray would go back to its original recipe.

I guess that brand names are good, but some store brands are just as good or better. Breyers is gone for good and Ocean Spray changed. However, I like the Food Lion’s My Essentials Diet Cola. Sometimes you lose and sometimes you win.

Which Refrigerator to Buy?

Old Whirlpool Refrigerator

Which Refrigerator to Buy?

On Sunday my refrigerator died. I think I complained once too often about hating it. Ever since I purchased it, I never liked it. We had just bought our house and we had to buy something fast. Never again.

The Whirlpool refrigerator always made strange noises and I will never buy another Whirlpool product. After 8-1/2 years, it should not have died. With my luck, it figures. I’ve always read that, if an appliance dies after five years, the economics are better to replace it.  I had a GE refrigerator that lasted for over 15 years, but I sold it when I left Saudi Arabia. I wish I hadn’t. That refrigerator made many moves between States and overseas.

I spent many hours researching refrigerators this weekend. I read hundreds of reviews from various sources. Just about as many people loved Samsungs as hated them, with very little in between. GE had some hates and loves and some middle of the road opinions. I mainly looked for reliability versus features. Features don’t mean much if the refrigerator dies early. After all the reading, I decided on a GE Profile side by side refrigerator.

After arming myself with the model and the prices from Home Depot, Sears and Lowe’s, I went to the lowest bidder, which, in our area, is Lowe’s. Home Depot is forty-five minutes away and I was so frustrated with their website that I decided against them. I even emailed them and told them they needed to improve their website or lose more business.  Sears was about an hour away and had a delivery charge. So, I opted for the closest and nearest--Lowe’s. At first Lowe’s wanted to charge $200 extra, but I had already found the price on their site and told them. They agreed and I paid for the refrigerator.

The bad thing is the refrigerator will not be delivered for another two weeks. I decided I would either eat dehydrated foods or peanut butter sandwiches rather than buy something I did not want off the showroom floor. I had made my decision and would put up with the inconvenience for the next two weeks rather than purchasing something I did not want.