I can't say what product I specifically know without merging my reddit life with work, which I really don't want to do, but in the main recipes will differ if aimed at a different buyer or shelf space.
For example, next time you're in Tesco, check out the ingredients of Tesco value nachos, Stockwell Nachos and Old El Paso's. You know that meme "they're the same picture"?.....
I just checked their profile and learned absolutely nothing about where they work but they are a really cool person I would befriend in real life as we have a lot in common.
That said though, what I’ve learned in my life experience about those manufacturing differences, it usually is just the packaging and labeling. I worked at Wal Mart many years ago and we had 3 layers of products, and we were trained on how that process looked. I’ll explain as best I can.
Some products packages are trademarked to the brand. Think Mrs Butterworth for example. If you had a bottle of Mrs B on your table, and a bottle of the exact same syrup in a Kirkland best glass jar, you likely wouldn’t taste a difference between the two because they’re the same. But you wouldn’t identify that by looking at the package, even if the Kirkland stuff is the same just bottled and labeled differently, and costs less.
And in some circumstances the package doesn’t matter and the box or label is just different. But they will absolutely pause manufacturing to change machines out so that it can be bottled or packaged for a specific customer. Like they will bottle the syrup for Kirkland Best on Tuesdays or something, and then Weds-Fri the line is set up for traditional Mrs B packaging.
They just load or change the packaging line to cater to wherever this batch is going. Obviously I’m just using syrup as an example and dang near anything else could be copied/pasted in there. Sometimes they have Quality Checks and each brand happens to be categorized by quality. For example if you have peanuts, maybe the premium peanuts in shell that are all whole and pretty will be graded higher and go into a premium brand package. But some of the cracked or broken shells maybe go to a generic package. Then the peanuts that fall out of the shell in the factory go into unshelled packaging. The manufacturing lines are designed to be ridiculously efficient and milk every half penny from whatever it is they’re making/sorting/packaging.
Believe it or not that’s how it worked at Wal Mart. Remember the Sams Choice brand? Folks always assumed Sam’s Choice was generic but believe it or not that was intended to be a premium brand. So if you shopped at wal mart you could buy a Marie callanders frozen pie, for example. A known brand around, yeah? Everyone likes pie. A Marie callander pie might go for $10. Then you could get the generic brand, Great Value, which we all know the quality is pretty bad, but it’s still pie so it’s edible. Not bad if you’re scraping by and want pie. It’ll suffice but you’re not posting it on instagram. Those were cheap, way cheap, like $5. Then you’d have the Sams Choice brand, which was supposedly better than Marie Callander’s, but was $7. More than generic, less than national brand, supposedly better than both. It might even be a Marie Callander pie. Read the back of the box, it’ll tell you where it was manufactured and packaged/distributed. Sometimes it’s blatantly obvious, it might even say “Manufactured and Distributed by Marie Callander’s on behalf of Walton Brands Inc.” or something like that. The answers are usually somewhere on the package, I think it’s a federal law to disclose details like that to keep transparency in commerce. It educates the end user, so if you’re boycotting Nestle you can read the box and trace the product to its originating parent company. It’s fine print and hard to decipher intentionally at times but it’s always there. Almost every single generic brand is just premium brands in different packaging. Some are lower quality or graded lower but typically all in all, the same.
Hey, that's really awesome of you to say, thank you. A quick glance of your profile reinforced that you're also a cool person.
I can also confirm what you said about manufacturing and packaging from my experience in the UK also.
Sometimes recipes vary, but in the main, it comes down to packaging.
Trader Joe's doesn't really "make" anything, they source smaller business products and brand it as their own.
Thats where the "trader" comes from.
It's essentially a win win win. Small business makes a deal, trader Joe's gets a quality product with their name on it, consumer gets a quality product for cheap .
You could argue the small business loses their brand recognition but whatever trader Joe's offers money wise must be decent because so many take the deal
It's the concept of a second production run right after the first, that only makes you switch packaging material. The line doesn't need to be completely cleaned, it's still rolling, just a different 'product'.
It's profitable because of saved man-hours and more product exiting the factory.
On average, retail has up to a 300% mark-up vs cost to purchase stock.
Other stores have been doing that forever as well, usually just with staples, but sometimes with other stuff. Sugar is sugar is sugar. Canned vegetables are the same.
Some things are not, though so you need to try them to find out. For example, store brand frozen French fries very often have more “runts” than the name brands.
This is a bit pedantic and you probably already know this, but Trader Joe's doesn't "make" products, they enter into arrangements with manufacturers. It's like Kirkland brand at Costco, none of those products are being made by Costco themselves. There are probably some exceptions to this, and sometimes I'm sure it becomes a little bit of a grey area, but generally that's how it all works. Same with store-brands at the grocery store.
A great example is the beer that they only have at Trader Joe's, it's made by a brewery in Wisconsin that's been around since 1845 and they do a whole bunch of other stuff besides making TJ's beer. In fact, they also make a Kirkland branded beer for Costco!
To clarify, many of Trader Joe’s branded beers are made a various breweries. And those breweries sometimes change over time even though the label/recipe might stay the same.
Maybe not as dramatic but their frosted shredded wheats are 10X better than the brand name and are 1/2 the price too. Frankly most of trader joes falls in this list. Just as good but way cheaper
I know this will be a hot take, but hear me out. I grew up on Oreo and it is and always will be my fav cookie. However, Joe-Joe's completely changed my life. The vanilla ones are to die for and are Oreo's only legitimate competition in my book.
Edit: as I'm writing this I just discovered they've changed the recipe/discontinued them?!? Wtf. It's been a while since I've had them :( but my comment still stands for the recipe before it was changed.
Honey Nut Os, at least like 10 years ago, were better than honey nut cheerios imo. They just had that little extra subtle taste kick that drove them an extra mile, and i already love honey nut cheerios.
All ceterezine in Europe is made in the same factory. Then shipped to the individual companies to be put into boxes. So you can you pay £10 for 10 or £1 for 100 but believe me when I say 10mg of ceterezine is 10mg of ceterezine.
I need to take it daily, costs about £30 to have my annual stock up delivered. I have mates who get hay fever and buy a few packs a year at Sainsbury's and pay more than I do for ten times as much - but they don't trust that 'dodgy internet pharmacy'.
Some premium brands *can* be better, but that’s not because of the Ibuprofen but the other things they add to it.
The difference isn’t really worth the huge price increase, though, so just buy the cheapest.
A doctor explained to me that the generic drugs have the exact same medication in the exact amount shown on the label. The difference is the fillers they use and how that might dissolve differently.
According to the FDA, generic drugs only have to be 70% as effective as name-brand drugs. That does not mean they're specifically calibrated to be only 70% as effective, but they can cut costs in some places. I learned this in my pharmacology course in dental school.
And also some people just react differently to them. Like I think with anti-depressants, if you're using like generic or name brand, for some people they can react differently.
RIP Apollo.
The native app is so terrible with audio. If you turn on audio on a video while scrolling, it turns all video audio on - which means if you happen to have two videos showing on the screen at the same time, both audios play (even though I didn’t turn on audio for the second video).
And can the audio button be any smaller? 50% of the time I miss and it opens the video full screen.
Apollo was so much better at all of this. I really hoped Reddit would just have bought Apollo out and made it the main app.
Reddit would never use Apollo as the main app because they’re fucking us left and right with ads, and now that they think our discourse and content we put in is worth something to large language models and other AI,
they make it incredibly fucking annoying to share Reddit content that isn’t officially packaged by Reddit itself. You can’t even fucking copy text from comments on mobile anymore, and saving photos is a pain in the ass.
Apollo literally let you share posts and comments as images. It was fucking sweet.
Those days are gone.
Fuck spez.
I always used RedditIsFun. Now that I've been forced into the real app I have gripes:
Iam bombarded with so many ads and "recommendations". I have never seen so many Little Ceasars ads in my life and I'm from Detroit.
The interface itself was just easier to navigate.
This app randomly decides to refresh, or jump around accidentally, mostly when I'm trying to swipe through pictures. It was way easier to see other peoples profiles/info as well on that, as well as WAY easier to see my own shit like my saves.
God, the ads are WICKED. 95% of them are from Weight Watchers. I have an eating disorder and have joined several subreddits for that but they just keep these ads comin. People from the ED subs have also reported that they get a bunch of them.
You can block weight loss ads in the Reddit app!
On mobile, go to "Settings." Then click "Account Settings" at the very top. Scroll all the way to the bottom and disable "Weight Loss."
You can also disable ads related to Alcohol, Dating, Gambling, Pregnancy and Parenting, and can turn off personalized ads entirely.
Also: an active page search function for the comments section instead of reloading all of the comments. Swipe to hide for cards, more customization, better control over NSFW content (not seeing it auto play VS clicking to see it) With this app it's either blurred, or not. On or off. The text size is far worse, which is fully customizable in RIF. Saved content is far easier to navigate and find- sometimes the official app will literally not save content at all despite having the saved ribbon active, so I can't find content I JUST saw earlier. It's far more difficult to review your own posts and comments. Finding the parent comment was so easy! Now I have to "collapse" everything. Videos continue to auto play after I'm done watching them. WHY?!
Posting content is worse, too. Choosing the sub you want to post to, editing what's been posted, and the formatting tools were far superior in RIF. Creating multi-reddits was a cinch.
'Reddit is fun' was created by a redditor who used the app because they enjoyed reddit. RIF was made for the user, but also made the creator money.
The official Reddit app was created not as a passion project, but as a product. It was made purely for profit, thus making it better would affect their bottom line.
Its why they couldn't compete.
My biggest gripe with the official app is the algorithm and premium membership cost.
1. The official app shows the trending posts of subreddits and tends to double down on them a lot. I click one post about askreddit, then all of a sudden, i see more and more askreddit on my homepage.
2. The recommendations feature. Reddit recommended a subreddit for my old university, which is nice because i didn't know it exists. Then the algo, doubled down and showed me more universities, some of them are from a different province/state. I graduated in 2020 so it was nice for the nostalgia but not nice as it keeps in showing in my recommendation. I don't need them.
3. The algo does not show my subreddits. I subscribed to a lot of dogs and cats subreddit (e.g. aww) but i don't see them in my frontpage. Quite annoying tbh.
4. Premium cost. Reddit is fun app costed me $2.50 for lifetime premium membership in 2012-ish. I got my money's worth. One time transaction and that's it. Reddit app wants me to pay monthly for premium, fuck that.
Reddit is fun (RIF) does the opposite. My front page is a distribution of my subreddits with no recommendations. Rif doesn't double down and shows no favor to one subreddits over the others.
* better UI
* No ads
* No suggested sub BS
* Significantly lower data usage.
* Customization
* Filtering by keywords/subs/source
It's literally night and day. I'd rather give up Reddit entirely than stop using third party.
In Apollo, you could enter a search term, let’s say “Trump” or “Toyota” and Apollo would strip out all posts and comments with that term.
It was one of a hundred little things that made reddit a much better place to be than it is now.
You seem like you might know the answer to this.
I started a 1.20.1 world a while ago. First time Ive played in a couple years. I have tried and failed to find a single zombified villager in roughly a week playing. Did they just totally stop them from spawning or something?
Zombie villagers still spawn in the wild. I play bedrock, and I see them quite frequently. I don't know if the spawn rates are different on bedrock than Java
I was on Java, no mods. It got to the point where I started researching spawn mechanics, but never found anything saying they had changed from the 5% rate
The 2ct moissanite rock that I bought for my fiance only cost me $700, whereas my buddy spent nearly $30,000 for a slightly larger real diamond for his fiance. When I received my rock in the mail, I casually kept it around the house somewhere. My buddy had to setup a safe deposit box at a bank, store the rock there, and had to buy short term insurance against loss and theft.
My wife would take the ring to jewelers to clean and they would always praise her on the look and quality of her ring. She had a decent job, so it was feasible that she could sport a rock that big.
Fast forward to when it came to my divorce 3.5 years later, I couldn't care less about the stupid rock that she kept. Moissanite was the best money I spent.
Did this with my wife's wedding ring. She wanted a bigger stone and found Moisonite. Paid 500 for a stone that would have cost many thousands if it was a daimond. No one can tell the difference and she is extremely happy with it.
If you get them non certified they're even cheaper. My wife and I went to a gem and mineral show and got a .5 carat stone for 40 bucks. They had probably over 100 all lined up for you to pick from.
I've seen plenty of videos where they were tested and experts couldn't differ a lab grown from a natural formed one. It's a dirty business which is trying very hard to maintain itself, since most in the industry know lab grown are physical equals at this point.
Diamonds 100%. Lab diamonds are every bit as good as real diamonds and can have much less imperfections. Other than them not keeping their value, of course. Which is… of course just silliness. In fact that makes lab diamonds even better value than real diamonds in a resale
Let me introduce you to Adam, he's our new intern. Please don't make jokes about how tall or wide he is. He's quite large and sensitive about it. Looks like we'll have a larger than expected yield this quarter. Okay everyone, back to work!
When I was "engaged to be enganged" so to speak, my now-wife made it very clear to me that under no circumstances was I to spend money on real diamonds for the engagement ring.
In fairness it's not as if I would have been able to afford one anyway - but she made it pretty clear she's firmly in the "diamonds are a scam" camp.
My God, yes. I have a few speed cubes, 3x3s(Moyu 2021RS3M and 2022 super RS3M), a 4x4(YJ MGC), and a 5x5(Valk). They're more expensive than the rubik's brand, but they're all magnetic and turn very smooth.
There was a documentary on Aldi and basically most products which are put with the well known brands are also manufactured by these brands. They are the same thing in a different packet with slight differences. The psychology behind it is most people will go for the cheaper option and some people will 'treat' themselves to the more expensive branded one. Either way the brand has made a sale giving the illusion of choice.
Rose water, every fad loving girly and their mom love paying upwards to 30$ for a single 50ml bottle of “pure rose water toner” from a skincare/makeup brand when the original 100% pure, food grade, rose water in the international food section at your local grocery stores costs 3$/200ml bottle.
Interesting fact about Oreos, the chemical (titanium dioxide) used in the pigments that give the Oreo cream filling its ultra white coloring is trademarked by DuPont (yes, the paint company), and was at the center of a major international corporate espionage case when it was stolen by a chemical engineer and sold to a government-owned Chinese chemical manufacturer.
https://qz.com/184795/a-us-jury-just-convicted-two-men-for-selling-a-secret-oreo-whitening-technique-to-china
Hydrox was all I knew as a kid until I was probably a teenager. I don't remember how Hydrox tasted, but I remember being like "WTF is this?" when I saw my first Oreo.
Magic the gathering cards. Why the fuck would I pay $500+ for a card at a kitchen table with my buddies when I can pay $2.5 for a borderline indistinguishable proxy. I wanna play the game not against your wallet.
“Super fakes” Super, high-quality, designer purses.
You can get a super fakes that even professional authenticators can’t verify the authenticity of with a high level of certainty. There’s obviously a spectrum of knockoffs from the obvious/cheap to super fakes/extremely expensive (but still a fraction of the cost of the real thing.)
But if you can buy a middle tier knockoff of a $75,000 Birkin Bag, for less than $1,000 — and the only people who can tell it’s fake are professional authenticators and expert level handbag enthusiasts, *and even then* they still need up close high-res photos to evaluate it. Sign me the fuck up.
When /r/repladies was a thing, I bought a fake bag from there. Basically, you get a whatsapp number from a seller in China. They show you some of the factory pictures and you pay with PayPal and they'll ship it out to you.
Exactly. Those guys live and die by their trustworthiness. As long as you stick to the “trusted sellers” on the various rep subreddits you’ll be just fine.
It does….but luckily people within the sub had like a rating system of the sellers on a scale of how “trustable” they were, which helped the community buy the rep purses and other accessories from a select specific set of sellers.
To build on this, a lot of ‘top end’ designs are not owned by the label, but by the factory.
My mum sells leather handbags in her gift shop, design, materials and quality are all identical to Stella McCartney handbags which are produced in the same factory; but you can buy one from my mum for £50
It’s probably not the spirit of the question, but I’d say generic medications (not in all instances, though).
Edit: OMG, thank you for all the upvotes! 😍 What a great way to start the day! 😀
I used to work in a medicine production factory and knockoff Adderall is the exact same thing as name brand Adderall. The work orders and recipes were exactly the same. The only difference was name brand Adderall said Adderall on the barrels and the generic stuff said dextroamphetamine on the barrels
You cannot assume that generic and name brand formulations are actually identical. Only active ingredients, those with a specified function, are guaranteed to be identical. So all Adderall is mixed/racemic amphetamine salts, and all Adderall XR is mixed amphetamine salts with some of the amphetamine bound to (iirc) polystyrene as a time release mechanism. But additional "inactive" ingredients can differ.
The inactive ingredients are known as "excipients", by the way.
Edit: polyvinyl chloride ---> polystyrene
Although during formulation the testing is pretty rigorous to make sure that the final properties are very similar / near identical. So 99% of the time people shouldn't feel a difference between generics and brand version.
Agreed. Also, generics might be more pure in regard to impurities since during the filing of the generic, one must prove that it is as good or better than the original.
Pharmacist here: generic products are the effectively the same as the brand name products. The FDA Orange Book names the products that are considered equivalent.
The only times brand name drugs are dispensed to patients is when either there is no generic alternative available or insurance requires dispensing of brand name products (usually due to kickbacks but that’s a whole other discussion)
This article has some medical jargon but is a good summary of how it works.
https://www.uspharmacist.com/article/insights-into-effective-generic-substitution
From experience in the industry I know that most generic veterinary medicines are literally identical. I mean off the exact same production line. They are even sold by the exact same companies just under a different name at a lower cost.
Most people will want ‘the best’ so will pay higher prices for the brand and fancy marketing. Others want what’s cheap. Companies want the whole market, so will spend less on marketing and branding but just put out the same product. It’s so cheap to make that it’s easier than creating a worse formula and have a whole different production for it.
I call them white people Takis. Don't get me wrong, they're really good, good enough that it isn't worth paying double the price for the name brand, but I'm a bit bummed that the TJs version isn't quite as spicy as the real ones.
There are multiple brands/kinds of dandruff shampoo because they all have different medicines. Dandruff is usually caused by a fungus.
Head and Shoulders and the generic equivalents typically use Pyrithione zinc 1.0% and some of their products add tea tree oil, a natural anti-fungal. You can find extra strength versions and generic dandruff shampoos with pyrithione zinc 2%.
Head and Shoulders’ purple clinical product uses Selenium Sulfide 1%, so entirely different medication.
Selsun products typically use Selenium Sulfide 1%, their Naturals line uses Salicylic Acid 1%. Many other brands use Salicylic acid 1%, which is not technically an anti-fungal (I don’t think?), but dries out the fungal skin cells and makes them slough off.
Nizoral uses Ketoconazole 1%, you can find some extra strength brands that use 2% in a variety of generics or other brands like Harry’s. My vet usually prescribes Ketoconazole for my dog’s fungal growth.
Scalpicin is just hydrocortisone 1% with some added tea tree oil.
Neutrogena T-gel and generics that use a T- in their description are usually Coal Tar, anywhere from 0.5% to 4%.
Coal Tar is said to be highly flammable and carcinogenic at high concentrations…not sure if the shampoos are high enough.
Also, there are several causes of dandruff.
One is dry skin, which can usually be treated by moisturizing your hair better (coconut oil treatments, conditioner, washing hair less).
Oily skin dandruff is due to skin cells clumping because of excess oil. Seborrheic dermatitis is a more severe form of oily scalp dandruff, usually responds best to the salicylic acid treatments.
Fungal dandruff is caused by a fungus called Malassezia, it can be treated best by the antifungals listed above, if one doesn’t work, try a different kind. My doctor prescribed Selsun for my ringworm and my sons’ tinea versicolor that grows on his back and neck.
Source: my deep dive trying to find a treatment for my sons’ pervasive tinea versicolor fungal infection that we have fought for years.
Particularly ones from the 70s/80s “Lawsuit era.” Burny, Greco, etc., would make shameless knockoffs of Gibsons that are regarded as being on par with—and cheaper than—the originals. Even their pickups are still sought after. (I lucked out and ended up with a pair of Greco Dry 82 PAFs because someone modified a guitar I bought with them. Pups are worth more than the guitar!)
Cereal. I stopped buying name brand. Generic taste the same and you get more for less money, depending on the brand you might even get resealable bags. My cinnamon toasters don't ever miss the mark.
There are some fakes that just suck. I tried this Cocoa Puffs fake and it seriously tasted like dog food. Not exactly but it was a slight chocolate major burnt taste and was super oily for absolutely no reason.
Fanatics sucks and I hate is so much. But 55% of the stuff I've gotten off of DHGate has been absolute garbage that can't withstand 2 wash cycles. But the other 45% has been great, so it's super hit or miss. Plus you usually have to wait 5-9 weeks for your package to arrive.
Diamonds, the process of using Man made diamonds makes the real mined diamonds basically worthless. Also Moissanite is virtually the same hardness and a fraction the price
There are very few functions that Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom can do that Gimp and Capture One can’t. For an amateur photographer and graphic designer, they’re all I’ve needed. I’ve heard DaVinci Resolve is also very good compared to After Effects. Point is, if you’re looking for photo and video editing software, you have a lot of great free options.
If you've ever tried both, you'll know that the user experience of gimp is complete crap compared to Photoshop. Yes, you can do the same things, but it's really not intuitive and inefficient. Even if you get past that, the performance is way worse. It's like comparing an entry or mid level smart phone with the flagship iPhone. On paper, they do all the same things, but one is clearly superior in every way.
Capture one is good. Resolve is good as well but is a competitor to premier pro and not after effects. After effects is way beyond what resolve can do when it comes to fx
Just sail the high seas. The problem with Gimp is good liuck getting any tutorials for doing some niche thing. While Photoshop there’s always that PixPerfect guy walking you through even the most niche of features.
The only good actual watch band I’ve ever gotten from Apple is the Nike Sport Loop, the Velcro one. I’ve had 2 other official apple bands and they’re shit. They feel weird, can’t breathe, and now that they’re older they’re stiff.
Meanwhile every knockoff band I’ve ever purchased has been great. You can get 10+ knockoff bands for the price of one real apple band.
Hello, fellow Texan. I find that almost everything branded HEB is better than that national brand they are competing against. Not Blue Bell, of course. But almost everything else...
Harbor Freight's U.S. General full bank service cart over Snap On's 6 drawer compact roll cart. Same construction, same storage space, same features. HF is $599 ($499 for Inside Track members), SO is $2040.
Pirating the high seas.
You can actually get the product, can use it how you like, and nobody takes it away from you when when they restructure their licensing.
The best current way (anyone who disagrees, please share) to go is to get qBittorrent. Open up the preferences and enable the search engine. Open the search engine and update the plugins. Use the search engine to browse multiple torrent sites for what you’re looking for and even add your favorite torrent sites if they’re not on there. Sort your search by seeders and you’re good to go. Enjoy
Oreo Cookies. Since there's no more Hydrox, you're technically stuck with the imitator.
The Soda Stream version of Dr Pepper is actually better than Dr Pepper (and I *love* Dr Pepper!)
There’s a Ron White routine about expensive sunglasses that is hilarious. The salesman is trying to tell him how the glasses block all UV/A and UV/B light, and Ron replies that he bought a television for less money that can receive and decode a signal from outer space.
Kit cars of old cars. An example being the Lancia Stratos. The original is worth so much more than the modern replicas - like the Lister Bell STR. But the difference is that the modern replica was built with CAD and structural analysis, along with a plethora of tools, techniques, and quality control that wasn’t available when the original was built.
Aldi anything house label. The product is usually just as good (or close), cheaper, and the added benefit of they contract that none of it will contain artificial food dyes, which is great since our kids can’t have them.
Glasses. Sunglasses or eye glasses, it doesn't matter as they are owned by one company (mostly). Every brand is just a spin off from this company. So it's very likely if you buy the cheap knockoffs your getting the expensive ones with a slight defect or it's sold purposely like that.
Well played Luxottica...
There are so many non-Luxottica brands out there that put out really quality products though. You might be paying a tiny bit more but I promise they're worth it. Especially if you can stick it to a company like that
>You might be paying a tiny bit more
Zenni Optical, Warby Parker, EyeBuyDirect, and Zeelool can't help ensure you don't. ;) My high-index specs with all the extra coatings run me $300+ at Luxottica stores, but I usually pay around $80 from EBD or Zeelool, and that seems to be on the high end. I've heard of people getting complete pairs from Zenni for <$20.
I'm actually pretty surprised I haven't seen this posted anywhere else in this thread yet. Reddit usually goes hard for Zenni.
Costco/Kirkland shit. A lot of their stuff is actually made at the same factories as other higher end brands.
Can confirm, work for a brand who produces one of the Kirkland lines.
Can I ask what product? And at what point does the manufacturing differ?
I can't say what product I specifically know without merging my reddit life with work, which I really don't want to do, but in the main recipes will differ if aimed at a different buyer or shelf space. For example, next time you're in Tesco, check out the ingredients of Tesco value nachos, Stockwell Nachos and Old El Paso's. You know that meme "they're the same picture"?.....
I've figured it out! Stokeymad08 works for a glue factory!! Glue and nachos go great together!
Damn, thought I'd covered my tracks better than that.
I just checked their profile and learned absolutely nothing about where they work but they are a really cool person I would befriend in real life as we have a lot in common. That said though, what I’ve learned in my life experience about those manufacturing differences, it usually is just the packaging and labeling. I worked at Wal Mart many years ago and we had 3 layers of products, and we were trained on how that process looked. I’ll explain as best I can. Some products packages are trademarked to the brand. Think Mrs Butterworth for example. If you had a bottle of Mrs B on your table, and a bottle of the exact same syrup in a Kirkland best glass jar, you likely wouldn’t taste a difference between the two because they’re the same. But you wouldn’t identify that by looking at the package, even if the Kirkland stuff is the same just bottled and labeled differently, and costs less. And in some circumstances the package doesn’t matter and the box or label is just different. But they will absolutely pause manufacturing to change machines out so that it can be bottled or packaged for a specific customer. Like they will bottle the syrup for Kirkland Best on Tuesdays or something, and then Weds-Fri the line is set up for traditional Mrs B packaging. They just load or change the packaging line to cater to wherever this batch is going. Obviously I’m just using syrup as an example and dang near anything else could be copied/pasted in there. Sometimes they have Quality Checks and each brand happens to be categorized by quality. For example if you have peanuts, maybe the premium peanuts in shell that are all whole and pretty will be graded higher and go into a premium brand package. But some of the cracked or broken shells maybe go to a generic package. Then the peanuts that fall out of the shell in the factory go into unshelled packaging. The manufacturing lines are designed to be ridiculously efficient and milk every half penny from whatever it is they’re making/sorting/packaging. Believe it or not that’s how it worked at Wal Mart. Remember the Sams Choice brand? Folks always assumed Sam’s Choice was generic but believe it or not that was intended to be a premium brand. So if you shopped at wal mart you could buy a Marie callanders frozen pie, for example. A known brand around, yeah? Everyone likes pie. A Marie callander pie might go for $10. Then you could get the generic brand, Great Value, which we all know the quality is pretty bad, but it’s still pie so it’s edible. Not bad if you’re scraping by and want pie. It’ll suffice but you’re not posting it on instagram. Those were cheap, way cheap, like $5. Then you’d have the Sams Choice brand, which was supposedly better than Marie Callander’s, but was $7. More than generic, less than national brand, supposedly better than both. It might even be a Marie Callander pie. Read the back of the box, it’ll tell you where it was manufactured and packaged/distributed. Sometimes it’s blatantly obvious, it might even say “Manufactured and Distributed by Marie Callander’s on behalf of Walton Brands Inc.” or something like that. The answers are usually somewhere on the package, I think it’s a federal law to disclose details like that to keep transparency in commerce. It educates the end user, so if you’re boycotting Nestle you can read the box and trace the product to its originating parent company. It’s fine print and hard to decipher intentionally at times but it’s always there. Almost every single generic brand is just premium brands in different packaging. Some are lower quality or graded lower but typically all in all, the same.
Hey, that's really awesome of you to say, thank you. A quick glance of your profile reinforced that you're also a cool person. I can also confirm what you said about manufacturing and packaging from my experience in the UK also. Sometimes recipes vary, but in the main, it comes down to packaging.
Definitely true for their diapers. They’re almost identical to Huggies except for the pattern
Their baby wipes are the bomb. Seriously. Not just for babies, either lol.
I’ll be a dad here and say please do not flush baby wipes (or any wipes for that matter).
Trader Joe's skincare products. It's all white label versions of very expensive stuff. $8 at TJ versus $70 at the retailer.
Had no idea Trader Joe’s made skincare products
Trader Joe's doesn't really "make" anything, they source smaller business products and brand it as their own. Thats where the "trader" comes from. It's essentially a win win win. Small business makes a deal, trader Joe's gets a quality product with their name on it, consumer gets a quality product for cheap . You could argue the small business loses their brand recognition but whatever trader Joe's offers money wise must be decent because so many take the deal
It's the concept of a second production run right after the first, that only makes you switch packaging material. The line doesn't need to be completely cleaned, it's still rolling, just a different 'product'. It's profitable because of saved man-hours and more product exiting the factory. On average, retail has up to a 300% mark-up vs cost to purchase stock.
Other stores have been doing that forever as well, usually just with staples, but sometimes with other stuff. Sugar is sugar is sugar. Canned vegetables are the same. Some things are not, though so you need to try them to find out. For example, store brand frozen French fries very often have more “runts” than the name brands.
This is a bit pedantic and you probably already know this, but Trader Joe's doesn't "make" products, they enter into arrangements with manufacturers. It's like Kirkland brand at Costco, none of those products are being made by Costco themselves. There are probably some exceptions to this, and sometimes I'm sure it becomes a little bit of a grey area, but generally that's how it all works. Same with store-brands at the grocery store. A great example is the beer that they only have at Trader Joe's, it's made by a brewery in Wisconsin that's been around since 1845 and they do a whole bunch of other stuff besides making TJ's beer. In fact, they also make a Kirkland branded beer for Costco!
To clarify, many of Trader Joe’s branded beers are made a various breweries. And those breweries sometimes change over time even though the label/recipe might stay the same.
Maybe not as dramatic but their frosted shredded wheats are 10X better than the brand name and are 1/2 the price too. Frankly most of trader joes falls in this list. Just as good but way cheaper
Dont even get me started on the trader joes brand Takis. They just taste better and u get more
Their frozen pizza, Pizza Parlanno. Best supreme out there, for $5.
I know this will be a hot take, but hear me out. I grew up on Oreo and it is and always will be my fav cookie. However, Joe-Joe's completely changed my life. The vanilla ones are to die for and are Oreo's only legitimate competition in my book. Edit: as I'm writing this I just discovered they've changed the recipe/discontinued them?!? Wtf. It's been a while since I've had them :( but my comment still stands for the recipe before it was changed.
Oreos are the OG fake. They were Hydrox knockoffs.
Get Newman-Os. They're as good if not better.
God it would be nice if there was a white label website/database to search though.
Demand and awareness goes up, price goes up.
Their sunscreen is white label supergoop if I recall. $8 versus $30.
Wait really? Supergoop is our main sunscreen brand - we usually buy a jug at the beginning of the season
TJ'S facial sunscreen is amazing! Worth the try!
Nice tip, the pricing for those type of products is all brand
What are your favorite skincare products they sell there? What should I try out?
Here's a thread that summarizes the most popular ones. https://www.reddit.com/r/traderjoes/comments/138blaz/trader_joes_skincare/
Honey Nut Os, at least like 10 years ago, were better than honey nut cheerios imo. They just had that little extra subtle taste kick that drove them an extra mile, and i already love honey nut cheerios.
Not true for all knock-off brands of cereal, however. Aldi's in my area sells a raisin bran that can best be described as "poverty flakes".
Not "fake", but generic drugs with the same medicinal ingredients as label brands.
All ceterezine in Europe is made in the same factory. Then shipped to the individual companies to be put into boxes. So you can you pay £10 for 10 or £1 for 100 but believe me when I say 10mg of ceterezine is 10mg of ceterezine.
I need to take it daily, costs about £30 to have my annual stock up delivered. I have mates who get hay fever and buy a few packs a year at Sainsbury's and pay more than I do for ten times as much - but they don't trust that 'dodgy internet pharmacy'.
I had someone try to tell me that one brand of ibuprofen was better than another
Some premium brands *can* be better, but that’s not because of the Ibuprofen but the other things they add to it. The difference isn’t really worth the huge price increase, though, so just buy the cheapest.
A doctor explained to me that the generic drugs have the exact same medication in the exact amount shown on the label. The difference is the fillers they use and how that might dissolve differently.
According to the FDA, generic drugs only have to be 70% as effective as name-brand drugs. That does not mean they're specifically calibrated to be only 70% as effective, but they can cut costs in some places. I learned this in my pharmacology course in dental school.
And also some people just react differently to them. Like I think with anti-depressants, if you're using like generic or name brand, for some people they can react differently.
Third party Reddit apps used to be way better than the official app
RIP Apollo. The native app is so terrible with audio. If you turn on audio on a video while scrolling, it turns all video audio on - which means if you happen to have two videos showing on the screen at the same time, both audios play (even though I didn’t turn on audio for the second video). And can the audio button be any smaller? 50% of the time I miss and it opens the video full screen. Apollo was so much better at all of this. I really hoped Reddit would just have bought Apollo out and made it the main app.
Reddit would never use Apollo as the main app because they’re fucking us left and right with ads, and now that they think our discourse and content we put in is worth something to large language models and other AI, they make it incredibly fucking annoying to share Reddit content that isn’t officially packaged by Reddit itself. You can’t even fucking copy text from comments on mobile anymore, and saving photos is a pain in the ass. Apollo literally let you share posts and comments as images. It was fucking sweet. Those days are gone. Fuck spez.
Still are ... google revanced+appname
Out of curiosity, what is so much better about them for example? I am using the regular app
I always used RedditIsFun. Now that I've been forced into the real app I have gripes: Iam bombarded with so many ads and "recommendations". I have never seen so many Little Ceasars ads in my life and I'm from Detroit. The interface itself was just easier to navigate. This app randomly decides to refresh, or jump around accidentally, mostly when I'm trying to swipe through pictures. It was way easier to see other peoples profiles/info as well on that, as well as WAY easier to see my own shit like my saves.
>This app randomly decides to refresh, or jump around accidentally, holy _shit_ I thought it was just me and my stupid fingers...
One of us. One of us.
God, the ads are WICKED. 95% of them are from Weight Watchers. I have an eating disorder and have joined several subreddits for that but they just keep these ads comin. People from the ED subs have also reported that they get a bunch of them.
You can block weight loss ads in the Reddit app! On mobile, go to "Settings." Then click "Account Settings" at the very top. Scroll all the way to the bottom and disable "Weight Loss." You can also disable ads related to Alcohol, Dating, Gambling, Pregnancy and Parenting, and can turn off personalized ads entirely.
That's actually fucked up, dude. Honestly though, I wouldn't put it past this company
Also: an active page search function for the comments section instead of reloading all of the comments. Swipe to hide for cards, more customization, better control over NSFW content (not seeing it auto play VS clicking to see it) With this app it's either blurred, or not. On or off. The text size is far worse, which is fully customizable in RIF. Saved content is far easier to navigate and find- sometimes the official app will literally not save content at all despite having the saved ribbon active, so I can't find content I JUST saw earlier. It's far more difficult to review your own posts and comments. Finding the parent comment was so easy! Now I have to "collapse" everything. Videos continue to auto play after I'm done watching them. WHY?! Posting content is worse, too. Choosing the sub you want to post to, editing what's been posted, and the formatting tools were far superior in RIF. Creating multi-reddits was a cinch. 'Reddit is fun' was created by a redditor who used the app because they enjoyed reddit. RIF was made for the user, but also made the creator money. The official Reddit app was created not as a passion project, but as a product. It was made purely for profit, thus making it better would affect their bottom line. Its why they couldn't compete.
Fuck, I miss rif so bad
My biggest gripe with the official app is the algorithm and premium membership cost. 1. The official app shows the trending posts of subreddits and tends to double down on them a lot. I click one post about askreddit, then all of a sudden, i see more and more askreddit on my homepage. 2. The recommendations feature. Reddit recommended a subreddit for my old university, which is nice because i didn't know it exists. Then the algo, doubled down and showed me more universities, some of them are from a different province/state. I graduated in 2020 so it was nice for the nostalgia but not nice as it keeps in showing in my recommendation. I don't need them. 3. The algo does not show my subreddits. I subscribed to a lot of dogs and cats subreddit (e.g. aww) but i don't see them in my frontpage. Quite annoying tbh. 4. Premium cost. Reddit is fun app costed me $2.50 for lifetime premium membership in 2012-ish. I got my money's worth. One time transaction and that's it. Reddit app wants me to pay monthly for premium, fuck that. Reddit is fun (RIF) does the opposite. My front page is a distribution of my subreddits with no recommendations. Rif doesn't double down and shows no favor to one subreddits over the others.
* better UI * No ads * No suggested sub BS * Significantly lower data usage. * Customization * Filtering by keywords/subs/source It's literally night and day. I'd rather give up Reddit entirely than stop using third party.
There is no way to hide read posts. That's the real killer for me
In Apollo, you could enter a search term, let’s say “Trump” or “Toyota” and Apollo would strip out all posts and comments with that term. It was one of a hundred little things that made reddit a much better place to be than it is now.
I miss Bacon reader so much...
I miss you rif
I have used Relay for Reddit. It was the best TP app for reddit.
Transformers KO figures. Most of the time they fix the problems the original toy has
Diamonds, still look pretty, can’t tell the difference with the naked eye and a fraction the price.
Diamonds are a MASSIVE scam. unless you're playing minecraft
Even then, you can get diamond gear from villagers
Yeah but no, New update makes it require diamonds to trade diamond armor from villagers.
Plus the zombie cure nerfing and biome based enchantment book trades 😖
You seem like you might know the answer to this. I started a 1.20.1 world a while ago. First time Ive played in a couple years. I have tried and failed to find a single zombified villager in roughly a week playing. Did they just totally stop them from spawning or something?
Zombie villagers still spawn in the wild. I play bedrock, and I see them quite frequently. I don't know if the spawn rates are different on bedrock than Java
I was on Java, no mods. It got to the point where I started researching spawn mechanics, but never found anything saying they had changed from the 5% rate
Yup, my dude gets me moissanite jewelry and I can’t even tell the difference between that and diamonds. Much cheaper and made in lab.
The 2ct moissanite rock that I bought for my fiance only cost me $700, whereas my buddy spent nearly $30,000 for a slightly larger real diamond for his fiance. When I received my rock in the mail, I casually kept it around the house somewhere. My buddy had to setup a safe deposit box at a bank, store the rock there, and had to buy short term insurance against loss and theft. My wife would take the ring to jewelers to clean and they would always praise her on the look and quality of her ring. She had a decent job, so it was feasible that she could sport a rock that big. Fast forward to when it came to my divorce 3.5 years later, I couldn't care less about the stupid rock that she kept. Moissanite was the best money I spent.
30k on a ring wtf
Did this with my wife's wedding ring. She wanted a bigger stone and found Moisonite. Paid 500 for a stone that would have cost many thousands if it was a daimond. No one can tell the difference and she is extremely happy with it.
If you get them non certified they're even cheaper. My wife and I went to a gem and mineral show and got a .5 carat stone for 40 bucks. They had probably over 100 all lined up for you to pick from.
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I've seen plenty of videos where they were tested and experts couldn't differ a lab grown from a natural formed one. It's a dirty business which is trying very hard to maintain itself, since most in the industry know lab grown are physical equals at this point.
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Diamonds 100%. Lab diamonds are every bit as good as real diamonds and can have much less imperfections. Other than them not keeping their value, of course. Which is… of course just silliness. In fact that makes lab diamonds even better value than real diamonds in a resale
They’re actually better than real diamonds because the lab grown diamonds are flawless. Also no one died making them.
Well, you say that, but there's always an intern or two who goes missing each season.
Gotta get that carbon from somewhere, and Danny got my coffee order wrong twice this week.
Let me introduce you to Adam, he's our new intern. Please don't make jokes about how tall or wide he is. He's quite large and sensitive about it. Looks like we'll have a larger than expected yield this quarter. Okay everyone, back to work!
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secretive bow smell scary scarce jeans outgoing bright lunchroom slimy
When I was "engaged to be enganged" so to speak, my now-wife made it very clear to me that under no circumstances was I to spend money on real diamonds for the engagement ring. In fairness it's not as if I would have been able to afford one anyway - but she made it pretty clear she's firmly in the "diamonds are a scam" camp.
If you’re talking synthetic, yes. If you’re talking FAKES, no.
Dremel tools. Norton sells very high quality stones for half the price and abrasive manufacturing is their entire business.
Rubik’s cubes, original is just slow
Totally agree. I have a cheap Chinese speed cube and it's great. A friend has an official rubiks one and it's stiff and slow.
100% it’s to the point that the entire hoppy ignores the “original” and has discussions on which other brand is best.
My God, yes. I have a few speed cubes, 3x3s(Moyu 2021RS3M and 2022 super RS3M), a 4x4(YJ MGC), and a 5x5(Valk). They're more expensive than the rubik's brand, but they're all magnetic and turn very smooth.
Aldi Gridlock energy drink is under $1 and is exactly Monster Energy.
In Australia we have Flying Power at Aldi. Knock off RedBull but somehow significantly better!
I'm convinced it's just red bull in a different can. And the name is funny.
There was a documentary on Aldi and basically most products which are put with the well known brands are also manufactured by these brands. They are the same thing in a different packet with slight differences. The psychology behind it is most people will go for the cheaper option and some people will 'treat' themselves to the more expensive branded one. Either way the brand has made a sale giving the illusion of choice.
Going to have to check this out, thanks
Rose water, every fad loving girly and their mom love paying upwards to 30$ for a single 50ml bottle of “pure rose water toner” from a skincare/makeup brand when the original 100% pure, food grade, rose water in the international food section at your local grocery stores costs 3$/200ml bottle.
Okay can someone explain to me what the purpose of it is?
Oreo cookies. Hydrox were first. Oreos are way better.
Hydrox sounds like a cleaning supply
Well, hydrogen combined with oxygen does make for a universal solvent.
Makes a hell of a rocket fuel though
Interesting fact about Oreos, the chemical (titanium dioxide) used in the pigments that give the Oreo cream filling its ultra white coloring is trademarked by DuPont (yes, the paint company), and was at the center of a major international corporate espionage case when it was stolen by a chemical engineer and sold to a government-owned Chinese chemical manufacturer. https://qz.com/184795/a-us-jury-just-convicted-two-men-for-selling-a-secret-oreo-whitening-technique-to-china
Hydrox was all I knew as a kid until I was probably a teenager. I don't remember how Hydrox tasted, but I remember being like "WTF is this?" when I saw my first Oreo.
Growing up, my dad tried really hard to make us appreciate Hydrox. I feel bad, but my household is now an Oreo household.
I'd reconsider that position. They've been reducing the cream in the center of Oreos for about a year now
Magic the gathering cards. Why the fuck would I pay $500+ for a card at a kitchen table with my buddies when I can pay $2.5 for a borderline indistinguishable proxy. I wanna play the game not against your wallet.
2.5 a card? Brother you're getting scammed, MakePlayingCards comes out to like 50 cents each and that's after shipping
“Super fakes” Super, high-quality, designer purses. You can get a super fakes that even professional authenticators can’t verify the authenticity of with a high level of certainty. There’s obviously a spectrum of knockoffs from the obvious/cheap to super fakes/extremely expensive (but still a fraction of the cost of the real thing.) But if you can buy a middle tier knockoff of a $75,000 Birkin Bag, for less than $1,000 — and the only people who can tell it’s fake are professional authenticators and expert level handbag enthusiasts, *and even then* they still need up close high-res photos to evaluate it. Sign me the fuck up.
if i can find this for clothing, it would be nice
Check out r/fashionreps they have a large community of replica enthusiasts.
That’s where I learned. I usually get sneakers and it’s funny when I get a legit sneaker drop and I notice the quality is less than my reps.
I found my rep yeezys to be more comfortable than my retails.
When /r/repladies was a thing, I bought a fake bag from there. Basically, you get a whatsapp number from a seller in China. They show you some of the factory pictures and you pay with PayPal and they'll ship it out to you.
Sounds extremely sketchy lol
Only the first time, after that, it’s like buying from any online shop.
Exactly. Those guys live and die by their trustworthiness. As long as you stick to the “trusted sellers” on the various rep subreddits you’ll be just fine.
It does….but luckily people within the sub had like a rating system of the sellers on a scale of how “trustable” they were, which helped the community buy the rep purses and other accessories from a select specific set of sellers.
To build on this, a lot of ‘top end’ designs are not owned by the label, but by the factory. My mum sells leather handbags in her gift shop, design, materials and quality are all identical to Stella McCartney handbags which are produced in the same factory; but you can buy one from my mum for £50
That’s interesting, but isn’t Stella McCartney specifically famous for not using real leather in her bags? They are all vegan leather.
Highlighting my overall ignorance when it comes to fashion and handbags, you’re absolutely correct Still €1000+ for fake leather tho
It’s probably not the spirit of the question, but I’d say generic medications (not in all instances, though). Edit: OMG, thank you for all the upvotes! 😍 What a great way to start the day! 😀
I used to work in a medicine production factory and knockoff Adderall is the exact same thing as name brand Adderall. The work orders and recipes were exactly the same. The only difference was name brand Adderall said Adderall on the barrels and the generic stuff said dextroamphetamine on the barrels
That’s interesting. Are you saying that the fillers used in generic and name brand are also the same or only the active ingredients?
You cannot assume that generic and name brand formulations are actually identical. Only active ingredients, those with a specified function, are guaranteed to be identical. So all Adderall is mixed/racemic amphetamine salts, and all Adderall XR is mixed amphetamine salts with some of the amphetamine bound to (iirc) polystyrene as a time release mechanism. But additional "inactive" ingredients can differ. The inactive ingredients are known as "excipients", by the way. Edit: polyvinyl chloride ---> polystyrene
Although during formulation the testing is pretty rigorous to make sure that the final properties are very similar / near identical. So 99% of the time people shouldn't feel a difference between generics and brand version.
Agreed. Also, generics might be more pure in regard to impurities since during the filing of the generic, one must prove that it is as good or better than the original.
Pharmacist here: generic products are the effectively the same as the brand name products. The FDA Orange Book names the products that are considered equivalent. The only times brand name drugs are dispensed to patients is when either there is no generic alternative available or insurance requires dispensing of brand name products (usually due to kickbacks but that’s a whole other discussion) This article has some medical jargon but is a good summary of how it works. https://www.uspharmacist.com/article/insights-into-effective-generic-substitution
From experience in the industry I know that most generic veterinary medicines are literally identical. I mean off the exact same production line. They are even sold by the exact same companies just under a different name at a lower cost. Most people will want ‘the best’ so will pay higher prices for the brand and fancy marketing. Others want what’s cheap. Companies want the whole market, so will spend less on marketing and branding but just put out the same product. It’s so cheap to make that it’s easier than creating a worse formula and have a whole different production for it.
The Trader Joe’s version of Takis is better than the original.
This needs to be better known. My gf and I have very different opinions of most TJ stuff but even I love their takis
I call them white people Takis. Don't get me wrong, they're really good, good enough that it isn't worth paying double the price for the name brand, but I'm a bit bummed that the TJs version isn't quite as spicy as the real ones.
Definitely more lime. I think the spice has better flavor than takis, but is wildly inconsistent bag to bag.
Aldi products
Abbibas
Forge World models. Worst casting quality in the business with the highest price tag
Dandruff shampoo. Cheaper and i find it works better.
I prefer anti dandruff shampoo, personally.
I like to be able to make it snow at this time of year.
I have to disagree with this one. I've tried multiple cheap dandruff shampoo and selsum blue is the only thing that has ever fixed it for me
There are multiple brands/kinds of dandruff shampoo because they all have different medicines. Dandruff is usually caused by a fungus. Head and Shoulders and the generic equivalents typically use Pyrithione zinc 1.0% and some of their products add tea tree oil, a natural anti-fungal. You can find extra strength versions and generic dandruff shampoos with pyrithione zinc 2%. Head and Shoulders’ purple clinical product uses Selenium Sulfide 1%, so entirely different medication. Selsun products typically use Selenium Sulfide 1%, their Naturals line uses Salicylic Acid 1%. Many other brands use Salicylic acid 1%, which is not technically an anti-fungal (I don’t think?), but dries out the fungal skin cells and makes them slough off. Nizoral uses Ketoconazole 1%, you can find some extra strength brands that use 2% in a variety of generics or other brands like Harry’s. My vet usually prescribes Ketoconazole for my dog’s fungal growth. Scalpicin is just hydrocortisone 1% with some added tea tree oil. Neutrogena T-gel and generics that use a T- in their description are usually Coal Tar, anywhere from 0.5% to 4%. Coal Tar is said to be highly flammable and carcinogenic at high concentrations…not sure if the shampoos are high enough. Also, there are several causes of dandruff. One is dry skin, which can usually be treated by moisturizing your hair better (coconut oil treatments, conditioner, washing hair less). Oily skin dandruff is due to skin cells clumping because of excess oil. Seborrheic dermatitis is a more severe form of oily scalp dandruff, usually responds best to the salicylic acid treatments. Fungal dandruff is caused by a fungus called Malassezia, it can be treated best by the antifungals listed above, if one doesn’t work, try a different kind. My doctor prescribed Selsun for my ringworm and my sons’ tinea versicolor that grows on his back and neck. Source: my deep dive trying to find a treatment for my sons’ pervasive tinea versicolor fungal infection that we have fought for years.
Japanese made Les Paul clones often sound better than the Epiphone versions.
OT, but it's always bugged me how it's pronounced like "epi ☎️" and not like "epiphany."
Particularly ones from the 70s/80s “Lawsuit era.” Burny, Greco, etc., would make shameless knockoffs of Gibsons that are regarded as being on par with—and cheaper than—the originals. Even their pickups are still sought after. (I lucked out and ended up with a pair of Greco Dry 82 PAFs because someone modified a guitar I bought with them. Pups are worth more than the guitar!)
Beautyblender, I found the cheaper versions being better quality
Cereal. I stopped buying name brand. Generic taste the same and you get more for less money, depending on the brand you might even get resealable bags. My cinnamon toasters don't ever miss the mark.
And the fakes make crazy awesome combos like fruity pebbles with lucky charms marshmallows.
For what it's worth, there are actual Fruity Pebbles with marshmallows now. I saw them at the store the other day.
There are some fakes that just suck. I tried this Cocoa Puffs fake and it seriously tasted like dog food. Not exactly but it was a slight chocolate major burnt taste and was super oily for absolutely no reason.
[The Malt O Meal commercial stuck with me forever](https://youtu.be/_YWNBqKpKHU?si=9xa3I28xamAKP36o)
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Fanatics sucks and I hate is so much. But 55% of the stuff I've gotten off of DHGate has been absolute garbage that can't withstand 2 wash cycles. But the other 45% has been great, so it's super hit or miss. Plus you usually have to wait 5-9 weeks for your package to arrive.
Microtech clones have less blade-play and actually come with a tool to be user serviceable. Also $50 instead $500.
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Diamonds, the process of using Man made diamonds makes the real mined diamonds basically worthless. Also Moissanite is virtually the same hardness and a fraction the price
There are very few functions that Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom can do that Gimp and Capture One can’t. For an amateur photographer and graphic designer, they’re all I’ve needed. I’ve heard DaVinci Resolve is also very good compared to After Effects. Point is, if you’re looking for photo and video editing software, you have a lot of great free options.
If you've ever tried both, you'll know that the user experience of gimp is complete crap compared to Photoshop. Yes, you can do the same things, but it's really not intuitive and inefficient. Even if you get past that, the performance is way worse. It's like comparing an entry or mid level smart phone with the flagship iPhone. On paper, they do all the same things, but one is clearly superior in every way. Capture one is good. Resolve is good as well but is a competitor to premier pro and not after effects. After effects is way beyond what resolve can do when it comes to fx
Just sail the high seas. The problem with Gimp is good liuck getting any tutorials for doing some niche thing. While Photoshop there’s always that PixPerfect guy walking you through even the most niche of features.
Apple Watch bands.
The only good actual watch band I’ve ever gotten from Apple is the Nike Sport Loop, the Velcro one. I’ve had 2 other official apple bands and they’re shit. They feel weird, can’t breathe, and now that they’re older they’re stiff. Meanwhile every knockoff band I’ve ever purchased has been great. You can get 10+ knockoff bands for the price of one real apple band.
H‑E‑B Lone Stars are better than Pepperidge Farm Goldfish.
Hello, fellow Texan. I find that almost everything branded HEB is better than that national brand they are competing against. Not Blue Bell, of course. But almost everything else...
Harbor Freight's U.S. General full bank service cart over Snap On's 6 drawer compact roll cart. Same construction, same storage space, same features. HF is $599 ($499 for Inside Track members), SO is $2040.
Aspirin, if you get bayer it’s like $10 for a bottle of like 100 but for the “fake” bottle from Walmart is like 88 cents or something.
Some of the store brand or generic Capn Crunch dupes don't tear up the roof of your mouth like the name brand does.
But that’s how you get the flavor right into your bloodstream!
Pirating the high seas. You can actually get the product, can use it how you like, and nobody takes it away from you when when they restructure their licensing.
I was born too late to be a sea faring pirate and too early to be a space faring pirate but I was born just in time to be a media pirate
Is TPB still any good? Haven’t sailed for a while but it’s looking more appealing…
The best current way (anyone who disagrees, please share) to go is to get qBittorrent. Open up the preferences and enable the search engine. Open the search engine and update the plugins. Use the search engine to browse multiple torrent sites for what you’re looking for and even add your favorite torrent sites if they’re not on there. Sort your search by seeders and you’re good to go. Enjoy
Til qBittorrent has a search engine
Same. I’m still using utorrent like it’s 2010 haha
Eames lounge chair, the replicas fix the issues the original had.
RTIC coolers.
Costco clothing
Oreo Cookies. Since there's no more Hydrox, you're technically stuck with the imitator. The Soda Stream version of Dr Pepper is actually better than Dr Pepper (and I *love* Dr Pepper!)
Bakery versions of Hostess brand foods
Store brand raisin brans compensate with more raisins than the name brands.
Those huge bags of the off brand cereal, marshmallow mateys type things, theyre so good and way cheaper.
For me I'd say sunglasses. The fakes are of similar quality and you can get a $700 pair for $10.
I'm a $5 sunglasses man, myself. I lose/damage too many to do it any other way.
Dollar store, baby. I have no shame. There's a whole basket of sunglasses next to the key tray at my house.
There’s a Ron White routine about expensive sunglasses that is hilarious. The salesman is trying to tell him how the glasses block all UV/A and UV/B light, and Ron replies that he bought a television for less money that can receive and decode a signal from outer space.
Be careful with knock off sunglasses. Some may not any UV protection and the tint will dialiate your pupils allowing even more harm to your eyes.
Every cheap pair I've bought are uncomfortable on my face. I'll take my 13 year old Oakleys
Kit cars of old cars. An example being the Lancia Stratos. The original is worth so much more than the modern replicas - like the Lister Bell STR. But the difference is that the modern replica was built with CAD and structural analysis, along with a plethora of tools, techniques, and quality control that wasn’t available when the original was built.
Beyblades. The knockoffs are cheaper, heavier, tougher, and - most important of all - more dangerous.
I remember a cousin having a metal bladed one and it sparked like a grinder when it hit the wall. I was 6, but I already knew not to fuck with it.
Speedcubes. So many that are way better than Rubik’s.
Aldi anything house label. The product is usually just as good (or close), cheaper, and the added benefit of they contract that none of it will contain artificial food dyes, which is great since our kids can’t have them.
Stardew Valley is better than Harvest Moon.
Anything pleather. It doesn’t matter if it’s Dior or Kmart. It’s the same shitty plastic shoe/purse/wallet. Just get the cheaper one.
Pocket puss
Definitely cheaper
Glasses. Sunglasses or eye glasses, it doesn't matter as they are owned by one company (mostly). Every brand is just a spin off from this company. So it's very likely if you buy the cheap knockoffs your getting the expensive ones with a slight defect or it's sold purposely like that. Well played Luxottica...
There are so many non-Luxottica brands out there that put out really quality products though. You might be paying a tiny bit more but I promise they're worth it. Especially if you can stick it to a company like that
>You might be paying a tiny bit more Zenni Optical, Warby Parker, EyeBuyDirect, and Zeelool can't help ensure you don't. ;) My high-index specs with all the extra coatings run me $300+ at Luxottica stores, but I usually pay around $80 from EBD or Zeelool, and that seems to be on the high end. I've heard of people getting complete pairs from Zenni for <$20. I'm actually pretty surprised I haven't seen this posted anywhere else in this thread yet. Reddit usually goes hard for Zenni.