Why are branded items so much nicer?

[purplespink]

I try to buy Aldi/Lidl own versions of things as much as I can but a lot of them just aren’t as good. Off the top of my head, I’ve recently bought Lidl’s version of skips, cookies, *diluted juice, Nutella and ice cream. All really rubbish compared to the branded versions. I’m increasingly finding this the case with Aldi and Lidl products, which I find annoying as overall I really like Aldi, and Lidl’s bread and chocolate are my favourite. But why is it that the branded stuff is nicer? I know it seems obvious but I assumed that branded products spent a lot more on advertising/brand awareness, hence the premium price.

*The cookies I was comparing to Fox’s and diluent juice I was comparing to Robinsons.

This. I have never ever had any problems with stuff being off or mouldy from Aldi or Lidl. Veg fine, fruit fine, meat fine. Mumsnet is full of snobs.

It’s better qualify ingredients op, it’s not in your head.

I don't understand how people find Aldi/Lidl fruit and veg goes bad quickly. The stock turns over so fast that it's brand new several times a day. Occasionally get a crap bag of salad but generally it's really fresh. Their ready made sandwiches are shit though. As are all super market sandwiches apart from m+s.

I forgot to buy caramelised onion chutney once so picked a jar up in Aldi, it was vile, so impossibly sweet and it's the same with a lot of their products, and Lidl's too.

Love how not toeing the popular opinion brings out the insults, the simplistic option!

They aren’t. M&S baked beans are nicer than Heinz or Branston and are only 40p. Sainsbury Museli is nicer than Alpen.

the fruit is lower quality than you get elsewhere which is why it doesn’t last as long and why it’s so cheap. I had to tell a manager of Lidl once that some of the oranges were mouldy.

What a bizarre thing to say on so many levels.
What makes someone MC? Why would someone going to a supermarket be them saying they are MC when according to you they aren't? Are u suggesting only MC people can afford Waitrose/m&s and others name drop them and aren't MC?!

Sooo many questions my head hurts

Maybe they just like the food? Maybe they like some of the food? Maybe they like one thing best?

The inverse snobbery and obsession with class is bizarre.

I love food and love a mooch around most supermarkets.

I think it's less own brand vs branded item and more what your palate prefers. I.e. if you prefer butter, margarine will taste rank until you get used to it and then butter won't be as nice until you get used to it again, and vice versa. If you have a sweeter palate, you'll prefer sweeter items. IME, with the items that I buy, own branded items tend to have less added salt and sugar than branded items.

I'm happy with the majority of own branded stuff from a variety of supermarkets. However there are certain branded items I prefer - Pepsi max, Nutella (I'd rather not eat it at all than have own branded - I dont know if it's the mix of oils or the whey proteon addition but it'snot nice. My kids ldont notice a difference though), green giant sweetcorn, and heinz mayo. Conversely, PG Tips decaff teabags were utterly foul - they had a bitter aftertaste, where all the own branded ones were fine.

As to the fruit and veg - our local aldi is generally fab and have had no problems with fruit and veg, though I do always check the dates. I would also prefer it if they sold more loose fruit and veg. Our nearest lidl is ok for every bar fruit and veg - I've noticed mould on more than one item, and I won't buy it if I'm not using it that day. Similarly, the nearest asda has diabolical d
fruit and veg. So it's a store by store, and management issue, in my opinion.

To the person whose husband likes dates - the taste the difference Zamli dates in Sainsburys are incredible.

Went into m&s yesterday and saw Bran flakes for 1pound. They are terrible. Soggy with no taste.
Yet Aldi ones are lovely and crunchy.
I do try something from different ranges. Start at the top (brand) next time it's the next price down,
If it's good try the next price down.

My cat won’t eat anything from Lidl or Aldi, how does he even know where it’s from?

He obviously has ideas above his station.

Do M&S own products count as “branded”?

My local Lidl is clean, fresh food . I had some Spanish bacon and cheese horns a type of crisp last week. They were delicious. The deli section is good. Lemon yoghurt lush. Some very good wines. The biscuits anywhere can be meh. Toiletries and cleaning products good. Their veg doesn't go off.

For treats I go to M&S.

that one has less sugar and salt than baxters, Sainsbury and m&s
also has 31% onion compared to M&S 24% but it does have Bramley apple in which M&S doesn’t (I don’t work for Aldi, I just have a jar in the fridge and found it funny the ingredients to M&S are nearly identical but less sugar

Further to my earlier post on some of Sainsbury’s own brand products. We buy their baked beans because they have a version that has both less sugar and less salt. Heinz and the other main brands only offer one or the other.

Champagne tastes with a less than lemonade budget.

Lidl opened a brand new branch 5 minutes from me last summer, and sadly it's no different to any other Lidl I've been in before. Their fruit and veg doesn't last half as long as the equivalent from Tesco or Asda, commonly being dead/mouldy within 24 hours. Their bread selection is universally terrible apart from the store-baked Sourdough stuff, the bagged/packed salad is invariably soggy and vinegary days before the "best by" date.

Overall it's just enormously disappointing all around. Fine for tinned stuff and the few brands they do actually sell, but it's such a false economy that I'll still travel 20-30 minutes to a better supermarket rather than shop there. I'm no snob, I have no issues with cheap and cheerful, but my experience of Lidl is that about 90% of the stuff I've bought there is not cheap and cheerful, but cheap and nasty.

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) such as Nutella are industrially manufactured products engineered to trigger the brain's reward pathways, often meeting the clinical criteria for substance addiction.

Some own-label products from supermarkets like Lidl and Aldi don't have the same chemical composition and often contain fewer or different additives and artificial flavourings than their big-brand counterparts. As a result, they are less appealing to junk food junkies.

But they are! Aldi prepacked veg (such as Mediterranean veg trays) come from the exact same place as Waitroses do, they are just sold at half the price! I know this because I have bought one that had a waitress sticker underneath the aldi one 😊😆😆 In answer to the op though branded stuff is not always nicer, there are certain things that I prefer brands, such as coffee and crisps, but most stuff -Aldi is either exactly the same or nicer (baked beans, tomato sauce, pasta sauce, soup, 50% fruit juice, are all much nicer than any brand imo)

I went to an Aldi once the day it opened.
There was mouldy fruit and veg on the shelves and it wasn’t even midday. Customers were pointing it out to the guys suits who were walking round.
I’ve never managed to buy a bag of peppers, oranges, potatoes or onions from Aldi or Lidl and not had at least one in the pack be squishy or mouldy despite inspecting them!

So you think people are lying about the poor quality of fruit and veg at Aldi and Lidl? Why would we? I shop at Waitrose, Aldi, Lidl, M&S and Sainsburys. I know from doing this that the fruit and veg in Aldi and Lidl is not good quality so I don’t buy it. I do buy other things there though. This isn’t snobbery, just good money management. I’m working class btw. Shopping at M&S and Waitrose doesn’t make you middle class.

Yesterday morning I went to Lidl and bought peppers, melon, strawberries, beansprouts, broccoli, potatoes, spring onions, tomatoes, bananas, a peach, avocado and mushrooms and I've just looked and it all still looks perfectly fresh and I don't expect any of it to go off in the next few days although I will try to use the beansprouts over the weekend as they don't last wherever you buy them. The peppers will be fine for a week or two at least.

I've also got some shallots from Easter when they were 10 p a bag and they haven't gone off yet either.

But if people want to tell themselves that they have to go elsewhere and pay twice as much, more fool them. I've been shopping in Aldi and Lidl for way longer than it's been socially acceptable to do so and have never found that the fruit and veg doesn't last.

But many of us, myself included simply don't have that experience so it just doesn't seem how it could possibly be so.

So you disbelieve anything you haven't directly experienced?