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.