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I used to work at the meat Dept at Walmart and it was always interesting to see the Johnsonville brats from USDA certified inspector #342 and all the Wal mart ones a few bucks cheaper had the exact same inspector number. It was always Johnsonville and always the brats for Wal mart, nothing else matched up. I have to assume it's all the same plant and meat just packaged differently.
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Apr 5, 2015 09:44
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Visiting several suppliers for the company I worked with was hilarious as they were packaging identical products into different store boxes but some were "premium", etc. 
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Apr 5, 2015 10:00
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hyperhazard posted:If anyone knows a place to buy real root beer or birch beer (not that sugar water A&W and Barqs make), I will love you forever. The closest I've been able to find, outside of Amish farmers markets, is the Pennsylvania Dutch brand. Even that doesn't really have the same yeasty kick to it as true homemade root and birch beers. Have you considered just brewing some yourself? It's really easy.
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Apr 5, 2015 10:06
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poptart_fairy posted:Visiting several suppliers for the company I worked with was hilarious as they were packaging identical products into different store boxes but some were "premium", etc. One of the guys from the Yogscast once talked about this exact thing from back when he worked packaging potatoes (I believe) as a teenager, every single brand and quality level came from the exact same stock. There wasn't even any difference; people generally tried to put the badly-shaped ones in the store-brand bags, but that wasn't a rule.
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Apr 5, 2015 10:27
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Jastiger posted:I used to work at the meat Dept at Walmart and it was always interesting to see the Johnsonville brats from USDA certified inspector #342 and all the Wal mart ones a few bucks cheaper had the exact same inspector number. It was always Johnsonville and always the brats for Wal mart, nothing else matched up. I can't speak to how food is treated for store brands, but I can tell you for sure that computer products made for Walmart are made of much poorer quality internals. For a while, Walmart was selling $400 laptops when everyone else was selling at near $1,000 for their cheap line. The cost to the manufacturer just to make the laptops was $550 or so but their parent company sold so many shoes and garments to Walmart that they agreed to take a bath on the laptops. We ended up buying a thousand or so of them that Walmart was unable to sell. They were absolute junk. I think we were only able to move a few hundred. The SKU on the label even had a "W" on it to make sure you were able to tell it was one of the bad ones. They were cheaply made, cheaply assembled, plastic crap. The same company, on the same line, made excellent laptops. I still have one that's been working great since 2007. Battery finally died last year but my girls use it plugged in all the time anyway. Always look at the SKU when buying equipment. Verify that the SKU matches the expensive stores. Trust me, Harbor Freight and Northern Hydraulic may have the same brands, but they are made to different specs. There's a reason that a DeWalt drill from MSC or Grainger is $50 more than at Menards.
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Apr 5, 2015 14:54
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Cleretic posted:One of the guys from the Yogscast once talked about this exact thing from back when he worked packaging potatoes (I believe) as a teenager, every single brand and quality level came from the exact same stock. There wasn't even any difference; people generally tried to put the badly-shaped ones in the store-brand bags, but that wasn't a rule. I can confirm that this is often the same case for eggs. We did actually differentiate between normal and "organic" eggs, though. Summer job at an egg-packing facility.
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Apr 5, 2015 14:56
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hyperhazard posted:If anyone knows a place to buy real root beer or birch beer (not that sugar water A&W and Barqs make), I will love you forever. The closest I've been able to find, outside of Amish farmers markets, is the Pennsylvania Dutch brand. Even that doesn't really have the same yeasty kick to it as true homemade root and birch beers. Virgil's
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Apr 5, 2015 15:02
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Alouicious posted:Virgil's It's good but it's not what he's looking for. That specific taste you get with Amish/"Authentic" birch beer/root beer is very different from something like Virgils. Lactic acid and yeast based carbonation will make a product that tastes very different.
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Apr 5, 2015 15:18
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El Estrago Bonito posted:It's good but it's not what he's looking for. That specific taste you get with Amish/"Authentic" birch beer/root beer is very different from something like Virgils. Lactic acid and yeast based carbonation will make a product that tastes very different. I have found a few breweries that make root or birch beer along side actual beer and it is usually pretty great. I live in MD and will confirm that Amish birch beer is amazing. This thread did introduce me to that 10 calorie Pepsi. I kicked normal soda years ago and didn't even really drink diet anymore but one 10 calorie root beer was all it took so suck me back in. Even cheap rootbeer is almost irresistible to me. 
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Apr 5, 2015 15:49
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Capt'n Eli's is also a great line of sodas but their root beer is along the lines of a Virgil's or I.B.C. Fantastic Orangina-esque orange soda, though, and the ginger beer has a great bite.
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Apr 5, 2015 16:05
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In the UK there's a brand called Fentimans that brews soft drinks traditionally. Their cola is the best I've had. Never seen their stuff anywhere else in the world, though, sadly.
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Apr 5, 2015 16:40
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Chas McGill posted:In the UK there's a brand called Fentimans that brews soft drinks traditionally. Their cola is the best I've had. Never seen their stuff anywhere else in the world, though, sadly. We have Fentimans in North Carolina. I like their Victorian Rose Lemonade.
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Apr 5, 2015 16:42
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littlebluellama posted:We have Fentimans in North Carolina. I like their Victorian Rose Lemonade. Yeah it's around in the states. I also love that lemonade.
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Apr 5, 2015 17:17
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hyperhazard posted:If anyone knows a place to buy real root beer or birch beer (not that sugar water A&W and Barqs make), I will love you forever. The closest I've been able to find, outside of Amish farmers markets, is the Pennsylvania Dutch brand. Even that doesn't really have the same yeasty kick to it as true homemade root and birch beers. I really like the sarsparilla and root beer from Maine Root but I've never had a true fermented one to compare it to.
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Apr 5, 2015 18:01
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It's always most telling abouut brand name vs generic when there's a recall. Like I remember a few years back when there was a peanut butter recall, and it was both skippy and the store brand. When it comes to cereal, a little while back buzzfeed did a (very unscientific) taste test between the name brands and generics. It depended on the cereal for which was better. I actually like the cheap version of lucky charms more than Big G's, for example.
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Apr 5, 2015 18:17
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Choco1980 posted:It's always most telling abouut brand name vs generic when there's a recall. Like I remember a few years back when there was a peanut butter recall, and it was both skippy and the store brand. There's only one product that I've ever noticed a major difference in flavor between brand and generic, and that's Bisquick. I've tried the cheaper instant pancake mixes and for some reason they taste noticeably worse to me then Bisquick. As far as cereal goes, its so much sugar that even the cheapest bulk bags are probably going to taste the exact same. There was a Lucky Charms rip-off called Wizards Munch or something that I preferred because the bag had a lower proportion of marshmallows to cereal which I liked more then a mouthful of pure sugar in every bite.
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Apr 5, 2015 18:41
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ToxicSlurpee posted:Speaking of stupid restaurant marketing... I don't get it. It still sounds like a great idea. Who was the dumbass who scrapped it, instead of simply adding, "8 minutes from placing order. Only applies to food on this menu?" Or just retitling it "items that can be rush ordered," so there's no 8 minute promise at all? Also, gently caress those customers that do things to make a server's packed rush hour even more complicated. The more I read about it, the more small town diners sound like magnets for the greediest people on Earth... Piled high
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Apr 5, 2015 23:46
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El Estrago Bonito posted:It's good but it's not what he's looking for. That specific taste you get with Amish/"Authentic" birch beer/root beer is very different from something like Virgils. Lactic acid and yeast based carbonation will make a product that tastes very different. A lot of good ideas here, I'll have to see if I can ship to my house if I can't find any of the brands locally. C.M. Kruger posted:Have you considered just brewing some yourself? It's really easy.
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Apr 6, 2015 01:11
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Drunk Nerds posted:I don't get it. It still sounds like a great idea. Who was the dumbass who scrapped it, instead of simply adding, "8 minutes from placing order. Only applies to food on this menu?" You'd still have the issue of people going "Just gimmee everything on the menu" and it would guarantee it wouldn't be there on time.
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Apr 6, 2015 01:58
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RagnarokAngel posted:You'd still have the issue of people going "Just gimmee everything on the menu" and it would guarantee it wouldn't be there on time. "Limit: two per customer."
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Apr 6, 2015 02:25
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RagnarokAngel posted:You'd still have the issue of people going "Just gimmee everything on the menu" and it would guarantee it wouldn't be there on time. Then limit the menu to one item per customer? Restaurants do stuff like that all the time.
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Apr 6, 2015 02:27
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Cleretic posted:One of the guys from the Yogscast once talked about this exact thing from back when he worked packaging potatoes (I believe) as a teenager, every single brand and quality level came from the exact same stock. There wasn't even any difference; people generally tried to put the badly-shaped ones in the store-brand bags, but that wasn't a rule. I worked at a fruit processing/canning factory and the only difference between brands was the label. There were boxes and crates of labels, they'd get loaded in, slapped on cans as they went by until the run of labels ran out. The line would stop, they'd pop in the next brand of labels and fire it back up again. This went for the applesauce, cherries, pie fillings and juices. Also we'd get cans of nacho cheeses shipped in to be labeled as all different brands. This was in northern Michigan, and after some research I found most of the brands were store brands from the deep south or southwest. Also some of the brands would have versions like sharp cheddar, and then "value sharp cheddar" which was the exact same thing.
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Apr 6, 2015 03:55
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A lot of generic brands even have on the label "Same ingredients as Brand X" especially for things like medicines.
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Apr 6, 2015 03:57
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El Estrago Bonito posted:AFAIK every company doing fermented sodas is extremely regional for this reason. Your best bet is to look for a brand of Root Beer called Bundaberg. If so I didn't realize they licensed/exported.
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Apr 6, 2015 08:08
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Croccers posted:This one? https://www.bundaberg.com/brew/ginger-beer/ The deli that's a block away from my house sells it and I've seen it in World Market too. Actually using their product search it appears all the weird local markets around here carry it.
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Apr 6, 2015 08:51
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El Estrago Bonito posted:The deli that's a block away from my house sells it and I've seen it in World Market too. Actually using their product search it appears all the weird local markets around here carry it.
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Apr 6, 2015 10:07
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I did a search, and it came up with every single Cheesecake Factory in the state. That was unexpected.
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Apr 6, 2015 18:39
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What's weird about the whole HFCS/sugar thing is, I've tried imported sodas from the US in Europe and the pronounced HFCS taste was pretty awful, but when I was in the US once I picked up some Cherry Coke and Dr Pepper and those actually tasted better to me than their European versions with real sugar.
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Apr 6, 2015 18:58
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My Lovely Horse posted:What's weird about the whole HFCS/sugar thing is, I've tried imported sodas from the US in Europe and the pronounced HFCS taste was pretty awful, but when I was in the US once I picked up some Cherry Coke and Dr Pepper and those actually tasted better to me than their European versions with real sugar. Shipping the product overseas somehow fucks with the delicate composition of the corn lobby's mind-control serum. Don't worry, though. They're working the kinks out as we speak, so that all worldwide may enjoy delicious HFCS syrup with added water and colorings.
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Apr 6, 2015 22:14
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Isn't there something about HFCS that if you ingest it often enough, your brain/tongue essentially get told "THIS IS WHAT SUGAR IS, SENSORY ORGANS", making the consumption of real/natural sugar taste off?
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Apr 6, 2015 22:23
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GOTTA STAY FAI posted:Shipping the product overseas somehow fucks with the delicate composition of the corn lobby's mind-control serum. Don't worry, though. They're working the kinks out as we speak, so that all worldwide may enjoy delicious HFCS syrup with added water and colorings. Well if they'd just let us fly out chemplanes in their airspace...
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Apr 6, 2015 22:28
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MisterBibs posted:Isn't there something about HFCS that if you ingest it often enough, your brain/tongue essentially get told "THIS IS WHAT SUGAR IS, SENSORY ORGANS", making the consumption of real/natural sugar taste off? Taste is a bizarre thing all around. Part of what you think tastes good is based on what you ate as a child. If you consume nothing but HFCS as a sweetener when you grow up you're likely to prefer its flavor when you are an adult. Sweeteners and salt you also kind of go numb to over time. Technically speaking HFCS is still as much sugar as sugar it just has a different composition. Sugar is basically just fructose, sucrose, and glucose in various combinations. HFCS has a poo poo load of fructose, hence the name, which can taste weird because it's heavily processed into a combination that doesn't happen in nature.
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Apr 6, 2015 22:33
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So why all the stories of companies just changing labels on things? Do you make more money selling the "premium" label? Or is this established companies being their own "generic" version and selling more of the same product for slightly cheaper and less margins?
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Apr 6, 2015 22:43
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PhantomZero posted:So why all the stories of companies just changing labels on things? Do you make more money selling the "premium" label? Or is this established companies being their own "generic" version and selling more of the same product for slightly cheaper and less margins? Yeah they'll sell a premium and an economy version of the exact same product to cover more sections of the market.
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Apr 6, 2015 23:02
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ToxicSlurpee posted:HFCS has a poo poo load of fructose, hence the name, which can taste weird because it's heavily processed into a combination that doesn't happen in nature.
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Apr 6, 2015 23:58
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NoNotTheMindProbe posted:Yeah they'll sell a premium and an economy version of the exact same product to cover more sections of the market. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I always assumed store brands were also much more appealing to stores since they actually have higher margins? Like Pepsi doesn't own most of the plants that bottle their product, but rather contract out for certain batch amounts. So if a plant is not bottling Pepsi, it's losing money. Enter the grocery stores, which then pay the plants for a very similar (but not technically the same) product. The plants use their machinery more (which raises their margins on overhead) and the grocery store then gets soda that they paid $1.50 a unit for (instead of the $2.50 Pepsi charges) and then sets the store brand value at $2.50 (instead of the $3 it costs for Pepsi). So they make .50 on a Pepsi sale but $1 on a store brand sale and in the process tap a slightly different market. (These numbers are made up but hopefully get the thought across). Maybe I'm mistaken but that's what I always thought was the driving force.
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Apr 7, 2015 00:49
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Drunk Nerds posted:I don't get it. It still sounds like a great idea. Who was the dumbass who scrapped it, instead of simply adding, "8 minutes from placing order. Only applies to food on this menu?" Have you never worked in customer service? It doesn't matter if the restaurant's rules technically prevent those obvious cases of people trying to get free food. Customers will still complain that the promotion didn't meet the expectations that they had in their head, and that complaining will take up their server's time, and the manager's time. Often times the customer will get their food comped, even though they are blatantly wrong, just to get them to shut up. I can't even tell you how many times I've gotten multiple coupons from the same person that say "One per table," or bonus cards that explicitly have the dates they are valid from, like 1/1/2015 - 2/15/2015, and try to use them months later (bonus cards are like if you buy $100 of gift cards from a restaurant, they'll give you a $20 bonus card). Never underestimate how stupid and selfish people can be. At the restaurant I work at I just had a woman try to use two limit 1 per table coupons: One $5 off, and one free desert. I told her we only accept one, and she told me she wanted to use the $5 one then. As I was clearing the table afterwards, she says with disdain, "I don't see why you can't give me both. The desert is free!" Not to us, lady. Besides, the whole point of coupons is to get you to come in and spend more money than you otherwise would.
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Apr 7, 2015 00:52
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NoNotTheMindProbe posted:Yeah they'll sell a premium and an economy version of the exact same product to cover more sections of the market. Specifically companies like Safeway will have up to 3 store brands, one super discount one, one normal store brand, and one upscale. But usually all those hot dogs will taste the same and come from the same plant.
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Apr 7, 2015 01:11
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El Estrago Bonito posted:Specifically companies like Safeway will have up to 3 store brands, one super discount one, one normal store brand, and one upscale. But usually all those hot dogs will taste the same and come from the same plant. I misread this for a second and imagined the grossest tree in the world.
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Apr 7, 2015 01:13
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El Estrago Bonito posted:Specifically companies like Safeway will have up to 3 store brands, one super discount one, one normal store brand, and one upscale. But usually all those hot dogs will taste the same and come from the same plant. Yup. Some people will happily pay more for the same product just to avoid being perceived as cheap/poor, so why not take their money?
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Apr 7, 2015 03:23
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