Ah, a question as old as the first general store.
People have been arguing for both sides for years now, and it doesn’t seem like we’re any closer to finding a better answer than “it’s up to you and your preference”.
While that answer does seem to suffice most of the time (because nobody can force you to do anything!), there are still valid and wise points to be made for both sides, which one would do well to consider before jumping straight to the preference conclusion.
We want to make informed decisions, yes, but we also want to make wise decisions.
So, with that being said, we thought we’d jump on this train and add our two cents (also known as wisdom!) to the conversation. After all, this kind of stuff is what we’re all about!
Join us as we join one of the biggest and longest conversations of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Advantage, Store Brands
One word; price.
Another few words; store brands have gotten an unfair reputation over the years! Just because you’ll mostly get store-branded items cheaper than premium-branded ones doesn’t mean that the store-brand ones are bad.
Sometimes the store brand item is better than the premium brand one.
Yes, we said it.
Advantage, Premium Brands
Quality is the biggest and most obvious advantage to buying premium branded items from the shops. Most of the time (not all the time), a premium branded item will last longer if it’s clothing, taste better if it’s food, and work better if it’s an appliance.
All good reasons to buy premium!
Disadvantage, Store Brands
Unfortunately, saving some money by purchasing store-brand items comes at another kind of cost: quality. As we’ve said previously, not all store brand items lack quality, but the reality is that most don’t have as much as an already established brand in a specific industry.
This means that by going with store-brand items, you should be prepared not to be blown away entirely by what you get.
Disadvantage, Premium Brands
As the popular maxim goes, you get what you pay for. And in the case of premium branded products, you can end up paying quite a bit. A lot of premium brands charge purely for the name on the item (their name). That’s par for the course.
Something to note, however, is that while an item might be more expensive because of the brand, it might not always be of better quality. This is for you to figure out.
Who Wins?
At the end of the day, it really is up to you and your preference because that’s how every one of these conversations will end up for any topic, ever. As we’ve said earlier, nobody can force you to buy something from somewhere that you don’t want to. You have the freedom to choose what brands you buy and from where you buy them. It’s a great freedom to have!
That being said, we’d be remiss if we didn’t throw in our opinion!
It goes a little something like this: We believe in quality over quantity, but we also believe that not everything has to be the finest quality. So, if you can save some money on a soap bar holder by buying the house-branded one over the branded one – why not?
Do you get what we’re saying?
Ultimately, we’ll conclude by suggesting that instead of answering the question of this article with the “preference” answer, rather answer the question of what needs to be quality and what doesn’t. That’s your preference, yes, and probably a better question to ask, too!