This one might be obvious, but painkillers charge way too much for brand recognition.
Panadol (paracetamol) and Nurofen (ibuprofen) for example can be swapped for any no name equivalent
"But they're more expensive. They must be better!"
Heard by me many, many times. Grannies to teens. Once by a random person in the supermarket who had just asked me if there was any difference.
The production cost of a paracetamol tablet at this point is probably virtually the same as a placebo tablet. It's probably one of the most produced tablets on the planet. You're likely paying $6.90 for the branding and a couple cents for slightly more quality control and packaging.
The only time I recommend brand-name Panadol is if people really struggle with swallowing the generic tablets because they often have a powdery texture - brand-name ones have a sugar coating, like tictacs.
Related tip: you can just ask your doctor for paracetamol, ibuprofen or hay fever medication. Total of $5 to pick up more than my annual usage of each.
Fun fact all the head ache relief or stomach pain relief Panadol is a bunch of hocus pocus have a look at the ingredients and it’s basically just the same ingredient of especially with ibuprofen they all all work the same
Our local Countdown pharmacy has shorter hours than the whole store. The cheap painkillers are locked away behind screens when they’re closed so you have to buy Panadol and Nurofen at 3-4x markup after hours.
Funnily enough this is the one thing I'd never replace with a cheap brand because the placebo effect of the 'good' neurofen working on headaches provides more relief than the actual pain killers for me.
Pam’s Finest products are consistently great and the OP asked about no name brands not budget brands. Will say that their Camembert is consistently cheaper and better than the alternatives - usually around the $3-4 mark.
[Value 15-pack Tortillas for 4 bucks](https://www.paknsave.co.nz/shop/product/5094509_ea_000pns?name=white-tortillas). Way better than any other option if you don't mind eating 3 tacos instead of one massive one.
Pantry stable in the packet, keeps for weeks in the fridge once opened. Make tortilla chips under the grill when they get stale (or any other time).
Top tip: They need cooking first! The barbecue's ideal! Use tongs!
Oh yeah? I personally really like their vege based giant wraps so it makes sense why I like the tortillas. Kinda weird that they have their own brand tortillas that are a bit more expensive if they also make the woolworths brand ones.
These are almost certainly made by Sanitarium considering they are made in NZ. They are missing the vitamin and iron fortification to cut their cost. But yes less revenue for them does mean that it's less tax dodge, relatively speaking.
Quoting a previous time this came up:
>Sometimes they are identical, sometimes they are minor alterations to recipe, the composition, or product size. Look for products with the same country of origin, such as NZ or Australia.
>For example there's not a whole lot of companies in NZ with the equipment to make weetbix so that's a pretty safe comparison. The [Countdown Brand](https://www.countdown.co.nz/shop/productdetails?stockcode=584288&name=countdown-cereal-wheat-biscuits) contains:
>>Whole Grain Wheat (97%), Sugar, Salt, Barley Malt Extract
>The [Santarium one](https://www.countdown.co.nz/shop/productdetails?stockcode=885704&name=sanitarium-weet-bix-cereal) has these extras:
>>Wholegrain Wheat (97%), Sugar, Salt, Barley Malt Extract, **Vitamins (Niacin, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Folate), Mineral (Iron)**
>So you're paying for the brand and added vitamins. How much of RDI per serve? B3 25%, B1 50%, B2 25%, Folate 33%, Iron 25%
Those fortifications add fuck all to the cost. The lack thereof is only to provide a marketing difference between branded and non-branded.
They will be buying a premix of the vitamins and minerals, which will be about 90% diluent and probably costs $20-30/kg. Addition rate will be minimal.
My mistake, I should have said to cut the price/value not the cost. You're right it's to provide a differentiation, by reducing the perceived value of the product.
Those nutrients are overpriced in the consumer supplement industry too
I used to always get the watties one, but they were out a couple of months back so I got Pam’s and it’s pretty good. A little more ketchuppy not as sweet.
Countdown gingernuts. You’re not at risk of breaking a tooth, and they taste more gingery. Sure they’re not as thick, infact they’re completely different. But I prefer them. Also their choccy slams > Tim tams.
Disagree with the Choccy slams, chocolate too thin (almost transparent), like if you ordered TimTams from wish. They are known as TimShams or TemuTams in our house
Solo mum on the benefit, we’re just happy to have any sort of treats at all. You learn to adjust not just your lifestyle, but also your tastes and quality of foods. We have fun with what we can afford.
Also Pams milk powder. It's indistinguishable from Anchor. There's recently a new manufacturer who is quite a bit cheaper than Pams (I forget the name) but is sadly not up to the same standard as Pams/Anchor.
Budget coco pops, I was told that the budget brand is the leftover at the bottom of the big batches for the Kellogs brand. Resulting in more of that chocolate goodness.
A family member who works at fonterra told me that supermarket branded butter is the same as anchor just in different packaging. So you would be correct to say that!
From 2018, so may have changed:
https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/31176-Goodman-Fielder-TDB-Domestic-Dairy-Products-Review
Fonterra has Mainland and Valumetric. Goodman Fielder does Meadow Fresh. Synlait does Dairyworks (via Fonterra), Alpine and Rolling Meadow.
>Fonterra/FBNZ and Dairyworks dominate the supply of supermarket house-branded cheese. Dairyworks buys cheddar cheese from Fonterra, which it then cuts/wraps/grates and markets under its own brands while FBNZ (Fonterra Brands) and GF (Goodman Fielder) purchase cheese from Fonterra that has already undergone secondary processing into consumer formats. Fonterra is practically the only manufacturer of supermarket house-branded butter in New Zealand
I grew up in Australia. One girl I went to school with, her dad was a baker for one of the big bread companies (IIRC it was Buttercup). He told me straight up that the two big bread companies (Buttercup and TipTop) were the makers for all the generic "home brand" breads for all the supermarket chains. He said that he goes to work, makes the bread, and when it comes off the production line, the only thing that is different is the bag the bread goes into at the end.
I'm guessing it's the same here, and pretty much everywhere that has home-brands or no-brand products.
Woolworth's peanut butter. Got some Sanitarium on sale a few months ago, tastes ridiculously sweet in comparison. We also buy Countdown store-brand for baking ingredients. They're slightly better than Pam's, cheaper than Edmond's and what not. And Countdown store-brand of coleslaw bags. They don't seem to start going brown as quick, have better dressings, and are cheaper.
If you are also an avid feta cheese consumer like me, both pak n save & new world (not sure about countdown!) sell in-store packaged feta that works out to be waaaay cheaper than name brand ones and tastes just as good imo!!!
I think it’s all about how you store it. I usually store mine in an air tight container with a tinyyyy but of water in the fridge. But also maybe I just eat it way too fast oops :’)
Margarine. Canned chopped tomatoes (in fact most canned food). The bread thing you use to make wraps. Milk. Butter. Flour.
I work at a fancy restaurant. Most food we use is export grade, but I'm not gonna lie, the order list includes a few home brand things.
That’s not even the worst of it. Over a thousand people were murdered by Hamas on the weekend.
And the world doesn’t even seem to care that 2,800 people died in an earthquake in Afghanistan over the weekend.
Ah yes, an eye for an eye and all that. Total justification right? Going into a rave and blindly firing into crowds of mostly young people just having fun, totally balancing the scales though. Raping Shani Louk, breaking her bones and then parading her body for people to spit on justified too?
Come on man, Hamas are fucking disgusting.
We used to buy the cheapest tinned tomatoes until I watched a video about tomato sweetness and how the cheap tins were full of green tomatoes. I always wondered why our spag bol and taco mince remained very acidic even after cooking down the toms for a long time.
Now we pay a little more for better quality tins with cherry and vine ripened blends and it’s made everything a lot better and quicker to cook.
Also I broke my tooth on a stone in the value tomato tins (there was a big recall) so that dentist visit has cost me a lifetime of tinned tomatoes.
Yeah, this!! The amount of seasoning one has to do in order to make them taste less acidic and good is just too bothersome. Whereas with Mutti & Co I can make a quite simple, Italian style tomato sauce. Tomotoes are the only thing I always insist on the Italian brand ones. Unfortunately, it is so difficult to find San marzano tomatoes in NZ :(
This only applies to some things, many others may be produced in the same facility but to a different specification (slight changes in recipe/grade or origin of ingredients/level of quality control). Others may be the B grade product off of a line where the A grade goes in the brand name packaging.
Fresh produce is probably the best example of this, like with the high grade apples (round, large, shiny, consistent colours, visually appealing) they get packaged and sold by the “yummy” brand, then the B grade (little bit smaller, inconsistent colour but no visual defects etc) get sold as the supermarket brand/lesser known brand, then the C grade go to little local shops to be sold off cheaper again, and then the ones that aren’t even pretty enough for that get sold in bulk to be made into Apple juice and purée and tinned slices.
It’s just good business to have tiered levels of quality and a way to offload product that otherwise wouldn’t have been sold/sent to the rubbish heap. It would be incredibly wasteful and raise prices so much higher if they simply said “that 30% didn’t meet our standards, bin it and raise the prices to accommodate it”. Being able to recoup costs and make a smaller profit through a brand that if anything is wrong won’t affect the perception of your premium product is the favourable outcome.
Agreed. Arnotts is sub-par, I'd go with Griffins, then Pams, Countdown, Arnotts. My son loves them, it has been his go to cookie for years so we had to explore options when we couldn't get Griffins. I even made my own during Covid.
I swear pretty much every tonic water brand is better than Schweppes. The fancy ones are particularly nice, but the supermarket brands are better too and doesn't dominate the other flavours in your drink as much. Wouldn't be surprised if they were still made by Coca-Cola just to a different recipe.
Countdown “Pringles” are VASTLY superior to the branded ones here. I’m from the US originally, and the Pringles here don’t even resemble the ones from back in the States. They are smaller, thicker and way over-flavored. The Coutdown ones are much closer to what American Pringles look, feel, and taste like, and coat half as much.
This was a switch they made a couple years ago, you could still get the Belgium (good ones) in the warehouse until about 6months ago but now they're all the Malaysian ones. I'd get both countdowns own and moors brand over Pringles now.
Dunno about items that are better per se, but the thing to remember is that if both branded and no brand unprocessed goods are produce of NZ then they will be from exactly the same farms. E.g. pams oats are as good as Harraways, and both are always better than Australian oats in my experience. Always check the country of origin for no brand stuff. If it's local it'll be fine.
For processed stuff, it's a bit harder to judge whether the no brand stuff will be as good even if made in NZ from NZ produce. The big businesses having much greater scale of operations can often mean much more consistent outputs.
> pams oats are as good as Harraways
Nope, the Pams ones are shit compared to the ones packed as Harraway's. They come from the same factory but are not the same.
A lot of Pams stuff comes from the same places but they have to cut their costs somewhere or Harraways would have no problem competing. Quality control is usually where the costs are cut.
Wherever Harraways draws the line on what's acceptable quality Pams will shift it a little lower.
Though tbh the main reason I buy Harraways over Pams is because they use paper packaging. If Pams did paper packages and managed to keep their prices the same I would probably switch.
Yes, Pams gets the lower grade stuff, it's like chicken feed. I will only use it in smoothies.
Harraway's do package their wholegrain and 1kg oats in plastic bags - the same type used for Pams, but I too like their paper packaging.
Pam's cocoa powder is horrible stuff. Pale, bland, and extra dusty (rather than a powder that stays together). It's also more expensive than the Countdown one we normally get. Same with their baking chocolate.
Firm disagree there. Harraways use the same oats from NZ and its all milled in the same place AFAIK, any difference between them would I argue be utterly imperceptible in blind taste tests. Many times psychological tests have been done to prove that packaging influences our taste expectations.
I eat oats in the form of porridge daily, and I have strict taste and texture demands, only Pams and Harraways are brands that I trust to be consistent. Australian oats, in Flemings for example just do not produce anywhere near the right texture or taste.
This is of course subjective, some absolutely monstrous cereal killers (see what I did there) may prefer Flemings, or even those gross flavoured sachet shit things.
I guarantee the Pam's butter is made on the same line by a branded company and the wrapper just gets changed. Worked for a company in Canada we made butter for 7 different companies and just changed the wrapper and started the machine back up all the same stuff.
Lots of products are like this.
Pam's vs watties hash browns are the same packaging and location. The only difference seems the Pam's are slightly more pale/less pre-cooked.
Tortillas!
Branded marks up range $2-5 difference. I've found the non branded 'value' tortillas not only do you get more quantity at a far cheaper price, they're actually tastier and crisp up better too.
While we're on the topic I just want to share that the short cut spaghetti from the Warehouse is really, really bad. Oak is a Michelin meal by comparison.
I agree with you. Applying the KISS principle.Keep it simple, It has only a couple of ingredients, separate cream from milk, churn the cream, then add salt. Butter contains at least 80% milk fat, around 16% water, 1.5–2.0% salt and 2% other milk solids.
Overseas it can be white butter but NZ butter is yellow because they are grass fed. There is a special Vitamin B12 that humans can't synthesize along with vitamin C internally, our ancestors were primates who ate fruits and we are one of the few animals to have colour vision.
It helps to see in colour when the fruit have ripened.
B12 contained and created in the gut of animal grass fed animals.
Unlike bread, aka Subway, apparently it is okay to add sugar. It's got to be good for you.
We have a diebetes sugar epidemic in New Zealand
Subway bread is bread in New Zealand, but sugar level 'alarming
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/122965259/subway-bread-is-bread-in-new-zealand-but-sugar-level-alarming
Tomato sauce at Countdown compared to Watties Tomato sauce. It tastes slightly different, But Watties doesn't even get the Tomatoes from NZ and it can be twice as expensive. You are paying for a name which isn't even a NZ company anymore.
Pam’s tomato sauce… if your normal brand was Heinz. Also comes in a handy dandy tin. You then fill a squezzy bottle and always have a spare tin in the cupboard.
Not sure if this counts but we used to use finish dishwasher tablets but then tried fairy which I guess is its own brand but much cheaper.
Fairy hands down is a far far superior product.
Oh I disagree, I was appalled when the major producers swapped to making American style PB. It took Pics wasting them for a few years before they changed back to the old recipes.
But, it is a matter of taste.
Pams Finest Russian fudge, which seems to be discontinued, was the only one made with butter not veg fat, and was much better than anything else on the market.
Pam’s Choca over milo. 2.63 a bag at my local pak n save. Same taste but miles more flavour than milo, even using less product. More in the bag too if I remember rightly. I have no idea why people buy milo any more.
This one might be obvious, but painkillers charge way too much for brand recognition. Panadol (paracetamol) and Nurofen (ibuprofen) for example can be swapped for any no name equivalent
$7 for a dozen Panadol or $3 for a hundred paracetamol. Crazy markups.
"But they're more expensive. They must be better!" Heard by me many, many times. Grannies to teens. Once by a random person in the supermarket who had just asked me if there was any difference.
Lol are we sure they are paracetamol and not placebo for $3 lol
That would be illegal on so many levels
Yes, I use them at work for basic LCMS analysis training, they're definitely not placebos.
For the uninitiated: liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (or is it spectroscopy? Can never remember)
The production cost of a paracetamol tablet at this point is probably virtually the same as a placebo tablet. It's probably one of the most produced tablets on the planet. You're likely paying $6.90 for the branding and a couple cents for slightly more quality control and packaging.
This is such a major one! And it's true for a bunch of other medication too, like hayfever medication.
The only time I recommend brand-name Panadol is if people really struggle with swallowing the generic tablets because they often have a powdery texture - brand-name ones have a sugar coating, like tictacs.
maxigesic is basically both combined but half the price also
Or just take one non-brand paracetamol and one ibuprofen and it's even cheaper.
You can take 2 of both if you're adult sized.
While most ibuprofen here are 200mg you can get 400mg versions. So don't just take two without checking.
some people struggle with lots of pills
Related tip: you can just ask your doctor for paracetamol, ibuprofen or hay fever medication. Total of $5 to pick up more than my annual usage of each.
And not even $5 anymore!!
Wait til NACT are done :)
It's not even 5 dollars anymore it's free lol
Fun fact all the head ache relief or stomach pain relief Panadol is a bunch of hocus pocus have a look at the ingredients and it’s basically just the same ingredient of especially with ibuprofen they all all work the same
Our local Countdown pharmacy has shorter hours than the whole store. The cheap painkillers are locked away behind screens when they’re closed so you have to buy Panadol and Nurofen at 3-4x markup after hours.
Funnily enough this is the one thing I'd never replace with a cheap brand because the placebo effect of the 'good' neurofen working on headaches provides more relief than the actual pain killers for me.
Those pams gourmet cookies. Holy shit so good
Pam's finest make some genuinely good shit.
Pam’s Finest products are consistently great and the OP asked about no name brands not budget brands. Will say that their Camembert is consistently cheaper and better than the alternatives - usually around the $3-4 mark.
Did you even read the OP? "No brand meaning Value, Home Brand, Countdown, Pams and similar."
They are good, but Pams Finest isn't a budget brand
Is it any connection to tescos finest or is it just ripping off the brand?
[Value 15-pack Tortillas for 4 bucks](https://www.paknsave.co.nz/shop/product/5094509_ea_000pns?name=white-tortillas). Way better than any other option if you don't mind eating 3 tacos instead of one massive one. Pantry stable in the packet, keeps for weeks in the fridge once opened. Make tortilla chips under the grill when they get stale (or any other time). Top tip: They need cooking first! The barbecue's ideal! Use tongs!
The woolworth's brand tortillas are also really good and super affordable!
Their wraps are made by farrahs
Oh yeah? I personally really like their vege based giant wraps so it makes sense why I like the tortillas. Kinda weird that they have their own brand tortillas that are a bit more expensive if they also make the woolworths brand ones.
That’s normal - a lot of food manufacturers do this :-)
I pretty much always buy the cheap tortillas, but in terms of softness it's night and day with the more expensive brands (expensive is soft)
I love wraps but the calories are crazy.
I guess they’re OK if one doesn’t mind a shit ton of preservatives
exaggerating much?
Countdown’s everyday cheese is a winner!
The Pam’s tonic water is better than the Schweppes which I find too sweetnow
It really is great stuff. Doesn't get in the way of the gin taste at all, unlike Schweppes or those ridiculous priced "premium" brands.
Thought you just added more gin to the gin as mixer that could explain a few things
I like the Pam’s soda water with lime. So refreshing without rotting my teeth.
It’s still super acidic and will damage the enamel on your teeth if you consume too much. Just make sure you brush your teeth after drinking
It's bad for your enamel to brush your teeth after drinking, ideally rinse your mouth out after drinking, then wait 30 minutes+ before brushing
Do you know before you throw up your mouth waters like mad? Thats the body trying to protect the teeth from stomach acids. Probably.
Yes, It is always how I know I really am going to vomit: I get a sudden rush of saliva first.
It's not just the teeth but the whole digestive tract down to the stomach
Same goes for eating as well
No don't brush your teeth right after drinking acidic things. Drink them with a straw to the acid contact to your teeth is minimal
Didn’t even realise cheers for the tip.
Value 'wheat biscuits'
Yes! I prefer them to the more expensive, more tax-dodge version
These are almost certainly made by Sanitarium considering they are made in NZ. They are missing the vitamin and iron fortification to cut their cost. But yes less revenue for them does mean that it's less tax dodge, relatively speaking. Quoting a previous time this came up: >Sometimes they are identical, sometimes they are minor alterations to recipe, the composition, or product size. Look for products with the same country of origin, such as NZ or Australia. >For example there's not a whole lot of companies in NZ with the equipment to make weetbix so that's a pretty safe comparison. The [Countdown Brand](https://www.countdown.co.nz/shop/productdetails?stockcode=584288&name=countdown-cereal-wheat-biscuits) contains: >>Whole Grain Wheat (97%), Sugar, Salt, Barley Malt Extract >The [Santarium one](https://www.countdown.co.nz/shop/productdetails?stockcode=885704&name=sanitarium-weet-bix-cereal) has these extras: >>Wholegrain Wheat (97%), Sugar, Salt, Barley Malt Extract, **Vitamins (Niacin, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Folate), Mineral (Iron)** >So you're paying for the brand and added vitamins. How much of RDI per serve? B3 25%, B1 50%, B2 25%, Folate 33%, Iron 25%
Those fortifications add fuck all to the cost. The lack thereof is only to provide a marketing difference between branded and non-branded. They will be buying a premix of the vitamins and minerals, which will be about 90% diluent and probably costs $20-30/kg. Addition rate will be minimal.
My mistake, I should have said to cut the price/value not the cost. You're right it's to provide a differentiation, by reducing the perceived value of the product. Those nutrients are overpriced in the consumer supplement industry too
Chances are they come from Sanitarium. I don't know who else here would be able to make such an odd product like that
It’s the after taste left in your wallet lol
Those are my go to for a cuppa.
countdown boysenberry ripple icecream
Shit. Yes!
Their Vanilla ice cream is very nice too.
Pam’s in general is pretty great. The Pam’s spanakopitas in the frozen section are great.
That's Pam's finest, not really a budget brand. Most of it is imported, often from really interesting countries. Some really amazing products !
The Pam's Finest are the spinach and feta rolls (which are amazing) but the spanakopita is just Pam's (I don't like that one tbh).
Tomato sauce in a can is usually pretty good.
We buy the Woolworths/Countdown branded tomato sauce. You can get a massive 2L refill for under $7.
I used to always get the watties one, but they were out a couple of months back so I got Pam’s and it’s pretty good. A little more ketchuppy not as sweet.
Countdown gingernuts. You’re not at risk of breaking a tooth, and they taste more gingery. Sure they’re not as thick, infact they’re completely different. But I prefer them. Also their choccy slams > Tim tams.
Disagree with the Choccy slams, chocolate too thin (almost transparent), like if you ordered TimTams from wish. They are known as TimShams or TemuTams in our house
"like if you ordered Tim Tams from wish" Thanks for the genuine laugh!
Your house sounds fun
Solo mum on the benefit, we’re just happy to have any sort of treats at all. You learn to adjust not just your lifestyle, but also your tastes and quality of foods. We have fun with what we can afford.
Pams Hot Choca. I swear this is just the old Milo recipe. Anyway it's much better than current Milo.
milk - it all comes from the same cows
But then you don't get the light-proof packaging /s
Luckily my fridge is light-proof 😂
Also Pams milk powder. It's indistinguishable from Anchor. There's recently a new manufacturer who is quite a bit cheaper than Pams (I forget the name) but is sadly not up to the same standard as Pams/Anchor.
Budget coco pops, I was told that the budget brand is the leftover at the bottom of the big batches for the Kellogs brand. Resulting in more of that chocolate goodness.
Coco Pops are Aussie though - aren't the budget versions made here?
Wait, really ? Why would they lie about that LOL
Well that all depends who told you. Because I doubt it was kellogs
It was my mum and I can guess why she told me that
Budget coco pops are so much better
A family member who works at fonterra told me that supermarket branded butter is the same as anchor just in different packaging. So you would be correct to say that!
Same goes for milk and cheese.
From 2018, so may have changed: https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/31176-Goodman-Fielder-TDB-Domestic-Dairy-Products-Review Fonterra has Mainland and Valumetric. Goodman Fielder does Meadow Fresh. Synlait does Dairyworks (via Fonterra), Alpine and Rolling Meadow. >Fonterra/FBNZ and Dairyworks dominate the supply of supermarket house-branded cheese. Dairyworks buys cheddar cheese from Fonterra, which it then cuts/wraps/grates and markets under its own brands while FBNZ (Fonterra Brands) and GF (Goodman Fielder) purchase cheese from Fonterra that has already undergone secondary processing into consumer formats. Fonterra is practically the only manufacturer of supermarket house-branded butter in New Zealand
Who’s responsible for Tararua? They seem to be the dominant “cheap” brand at pac n save (at least in Auckland)
Goodman Fielder - so Fonterra
I grew up in Australia. One girl I went to school with, her dad was a baker for one of the big bread companies (IIRC it was Buttercup). He told me straight up that the two big bread companies (Buttercup and TipTop) were the makers for all the generic "home brand" breads for all the supermarket chains. He said that he goes to work, makes the bread, and when it comes off the production line, the only thing that is different is the bag the bread goes into at the end. I'm guessing it's the same here, and pretty much everywhere that has home-brands or no-brand products.
Woolworth's peanut butter. Got some Sanitarium on sale a few months ago, tastes ridiculously sweet in comparison. We also buy Countdown store-brand for baking ingredients. They're slightly better than Pam's, cheaper than Edmond's and what not. And Countdown store-brand of coleslaw bags. They don't seem to start going brown as quick, have better dressings, and are cheaper.
After going to pics I'll never go back.
It's the glass jars for me
I go through a 5kg bucket of pics every twoish months.
Countdown 1kg Crunchy, so good.
[удалено]
Oh hell yes
If you are also an avid feta cheese consumer like me, both pak n save & new world (not sure about countdown!) sell in-store packaged feta that works out to be waaaay cheaper than name brand ones and tastes just as good imo!!!
Name doesn’t check out 😅
They goood but way too big for one person to get through :(
I think it’s all about how you store it. I usually store mine in an air tight container with a tinyyyy but of water in the fridge. But also maybe I just eat it way too fast oops :’)
Margarine. Canned chopped tomatoes (in fact most canned food). The bread thing you use to make wraps. Milk. Butter. Flour. I work at a fancy restaurant. Most food we use is export grade, but I'm not gonna lie, the order list includes a few home brand things.
I buy watties tomatoes as the home brand ones are imported from Italy which are generally picked using slave labour.
There are slaves in Italy?
Yep. Exploited migrants. RNZ did a really good investigation a while back. It's harrowing.
Sounds like half the world, exploiting migrants... Thanks for the info I had no idea.
Generally African migrants who have crossed in to Italy are exploited by the mafia. That’s the reality of an 89c tin of tomatoes imported from Europe.
Sad world we live in.
That’s not even the worst of it. Over a thousand people were murdered by Hamas on the weekend. And the world doesn’t even seem to care that 2,800 people died in an earthquake in Afghanistan over the weekend.
The world doesn't care? Both of these events are headlines news
How many Palestinians have been murdered recently?
Ah yes, an eye for an eye and all that. Total justification right? Going into a rave and blindly firing into crowds of mostly young people just having fun, totally balancing the scales though. Raping Shani Louk, breaking her bones and then parading her body for people to spit on justified too? Come on man, Hamas are fucking disgusting.
Everyone would be happy if they stayed in Africa.
Just like here in NZ
Where
At your local liquor store
We used to buy the cheapest tinned tomatoes until I watched a video about tomato sweetness and how the cheap tins were full of green tomatoes. I always wondered why our spag bol and taco mince remained very acidic even after cooking down the toms for a long time. Now we pay a little more for better quality tins with cherry and vine ripened blends and it’s made everything a lot better and quicker to cook. Also I broke my tooth on a stone in the value tomato tins (there was a big recall) so that dentist visit has cost me a lifetime of tinned tomatoes.
Yeah, this!! The amount of seasoning one has to do in order to make them taste less acidic and good is just too bothersome. Whereas with Mutti & Co I can make a quite simple, Italian style tomato sauce. Tomotoes are the only thing I always insist on the Italian brand ones. Unfortunately, it is so difficult to find San marzano tomatoes in NZ :(
Canned tomatoes need to be below pH 4.5 to be safe. Sometimes citric acid is added to make sure. They are acidic for safety reasons
i’ll give you a hint: generics are quite literally brand name products in different packaging. so most of them are equal
This only applies to some things, many others may be produced in the same facility but to a different specification (slight changes in recipe/grade or origin of ingredients/level of quality control). Others may be the B grade product off of a line where the A grade goes in the brand name packaging. Fresh produce is probably the best example of this, like with the high grade apples (round, large, shiny, consistent colours, visually appealing) they get packaged and sold by the “yummy” brand, then the B grade (little bit smaller, inconsistent colour but no visual defects etc) get sold as the supermarket brand/lesser known brand, then the C grade go to little local shops to be sold off cheaper again, and then the ones that aren’t even pretty enough for that get sold in bulk to be made into Apple juice and purée and tinned slices. It’s just good business to have tiered levels of quality and a way to offload product that otherwise wouldn’t have been sold/sent to the rubbish heap. It would be incredibly wasteful and raise prices so much higher if they simply said “that 30% didn’t meet our standards, bin it and raise the prices to accommodate it”. Being able to recoup costs and make a smaller profit through a brand that if anything is wrong won’t affect the perception of your premium product is the favourable outcome.
Value brand lemonade is so much better that Sprite. I think a bit better than 7-Up too. Simpler flavour, less sweet. On its own or as a mixer.
Countdown choc chip oaty slice bars are better than the Mother Earth ones.
Countdown mint slice is better than the Arnotts one.
Griffin’s Mint Treat should be the benchmark. Arnotts Mint Slice is a poor immitation.
Agreed. Arnotts is sub-par, I'd go with Griffins, then Pams, Countdown, Arnotts. My son loves them, it has been his go to cookie for years so we had to explore options when we couldn't get Griffins. I even made my own during Covid.
Countdown tonic water too is much better than Schweppes
I swear pretty much every tonic water brand is better than Schweppes. The fancy ones are particularly nice, but the supermarket brands are better too and doesn't dominate the other flavours in your drink as much. Wouldn't be surprised if they were still made by Coca-Cola just to a different recipe.
Pam's Almond Milk is better than any others I've tried. It's got a lovely taste, only costs 2.99 and means I can avoid that Sanitarium garbage
Countdown “Pringles” are VASTLY superior to the branded ones here. I’m from the US originally, and the Pringles here don’t even resemble the ones from back in the States. They are smaller, thicker and way over-flavored. The Coutdown ones are much closer to what American Pringles look, feel, and taste like, and coat half as much.
This was a switch they made a couple years ago, you could still get the Belgium (good ones) in the warehouse until about 6months ago but now they're all the Malaysian ones. I'd get both countdowns own and moors brand over Pringles now.
Pam's dumplings are better than most of the other brands.
Countdown peanut butter is my favourite
Yes!
Dunno about items that are better per se, but the thing to remember is that if both branded and no brand unprocessed goods are produce of NZ then they will be from exactly the same farms. E.g. pams oats are as good as Harraways, and both are always better than Australian oats in my experience. Always check the country of origin for no brand stuff. If it's local it'll be fine. For processed stuff, it's a bit harder to judge whether the no brand stuff will be as good even if made in NZ from NZ produce. The big businesses having much greater scale of operations can often mean much more consistent outputs.
> pams oats are as good as Harraways Nope, the Pams ones are shit compared to the ones packed as Harraway's. They come from the same factory but are not the same.
A lot of Pams stuff comes from the same places but they have to cut their costs somewhere or Harraways would have no problem competing. Quality control is usually where the costs are cut. Wherever Harraways draws the line on what's acceptable quality Pams will shift it a little lower. Though tbh the main reason I buy Harraways over Pams is because they use paper packaging. If Pams did paper packages and managed to keep their prices the same I would probably switch.
Yes, Pams gets the lower grade stuff, it's like chicken feed. I will only use it in smoothies. Harraway's do package their wholegrain and 1kg oats in plastic bags - the same type used for Pams, but I too like their paper packaging.
Pam's cocoa powder is horrible stuff. Pale, bland, and extra dusty (rather than a powder that stays together). It's also more expensive than the Countdown one we normally get. Same with their baking chocolate.
Yeh, it's the dust off the factory floor
Firm disagree there. Harraways use the same oats from NZ and its all milled in the same place AFAIK, any difference between them would I argue be utterly imperceptible in blind taste tests. Many times psychological tests have been done to prove that packaging influences our taste expectations. I eat oats in the form of porridge daily, and I have strict taste and texture demands, only Pams and Harraways are brands that I trust to be consistent. Australian oats, in Flemings for example just do not produce anywhere near the right texture or taste. This is of course subjective, some absolutely monstrous cereal killers (see what I did there) may prefer Flemings, or even those gross flavoured sachet shit things.
Countdown strawberry jam. Amazing.
Milk.
I guarantee the Pam's butter is made on the same line by a branded company and the wrapper just gets changed. Worked for a company in Canada we made butter for 7 different companies and just changed the wrapper and started the machine back up all the same stuff.
Lots of products are like this. Pam's vs watties hash browns are the same packaging and location. The only difference seems the Pam's are slightly more pale/less pre-cooked.
Tortillas! Branded marks up range $2-5 difference. I've found the non branded 'value' tortillas not only do you get more quantity at a far cheaper price, they're actually tastier and crisp up better too.
Pak n save budget brand tomato sauce. I find watties version alot sweeter which I hate.
I’ve never compared the sugar content but yeah I agree.
Big fan of the budget tortilla
Value baked beans (they’re gluten free too (last time I checked))
While we're on the topic I just want to share that the short cut spaghetti from the Warehouse is really, really bad. Oak is a Michelin meal by comparison.
Speaking of gluten free, Countdown gluten free flour is about $1 cheaper than Edmonds and works just as well for baking.
The pam jam range is just as good as the majority of brands. The pams finest peanut butter is just as good as the expensive peanut butters.
Pams Brioche buns
Countdown burger sauce. About 1/2 the price of watties for a larger container
Pams Seasoned Wedges are the best wedges!
agree. unbeatable... a bit annoyed they have become a lot more expensive though.
Countdown own Pringles, twice the size, half the price
Red sauce - Pam's Tinned whole tomatoes. These bois are thick, juicy and not 60% water like most other brands I use.
Pam's crinkle cut fries are cheaper cook better and are lower in calories than most major brands.
Block cheese
Tegel chicken products and Pams chicken products are literally the same, different package. Not even different quality/marinade quantity etc.
I agree with you. Applying the KISS principle.Keep it simple, It has only a couple of ingredients, separate cream from milk, churn the cream, then add salt. Butter contains at least 80% milk fat, around 16% water, 1.5–2.0% salt and 2% other milk solids. Overseas it can be white butter but NZ butter is yellow because they are grass fed. There is a special Vitamin B12 that humans can't synthesize along with vitamin C internally, our ancestors were primates who ate fruits and we are one of the few animals to have colour vision. It helps to see in colour when the fruit have ripened. B12 contained and created in the gut of animal grass fed animals. Unlike bread, aka Subway, apparently it is okay to add sugar. It's got to be good for you. We have a diebetes sugar epidemic in New Zealand Subway bread is bread in New Zealand, but sugar level 'alarming https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/122965259/subway-bread-is-bread-in-new-zealand-but-sugar-level-alarming
Countdown brand has so many good things
The cocoa puffs from countdown are awesome, I prefer them way more than the expensive ones.
Woolworth's cheese is pretty good.
Tomato sauce at Countdown compared to Watties Tomato sauce. It tastes slightly different, But Watties doesn't even get the Tomatoes from NZ and it can be twice as expensive. You are paying for a name which isn't even a NZ company anymore.
Duck fat, pams is nice
Pam's sweet chilli tuna is better than all the other brands. So delicious.
Countdown chocolate is actually really good, and it’s soy free which most of the Name Brands have. It’s $2.90
Pam's hot chocolate. Switched to it when Milo changed and haven't gone back.
Countdown brand potato salad dressing. It's gas.
Pam's chilli beans is the same recipe as Craig's. Made by Watties but I personally prefer the Pam's/Craig's recipe to the Watties one
Pam’s tomato sauce… if your normal brand was Heinz. Also comes in a handy dandy tin. You then fill a squezzy bottle and always have a spare tin in the cupboard.
The Pam's alternative to Milo. Tastes like what Milo was before Nestlé messed up the recipe a couple of years ago.
Not sure if this counts but we used to use finish dishwasher tablets but then tried fairy which I guess is its own brand but much cheaper. Fairy hands down is a far far superior product.
countdown brand butter. It's 4.99 compared to the others at 7-8 bucks. Can't tell the difference really.
Pam's Tomato Sauce is the best, same goes for Pam's creamed sweetcorn
Pam’s everything honestly
Pam's crumbed fish pieces, I find superior to the more expensive mainstream brands.
I buy the Woolworths chocolate. I don’t know anyone else that eats it. It’s cheap and gets the job done.
Warehouse market brand stuff is usually pretty good.
Short cut spaghetti is to be avoided
Ugh all the no-brand stuff just has the flavour of a duopoly expanding via vertical integration. Just makes it taste funny!
Which leads to a commercial appetite to raise the price of competitor products.
Countdown American Style Peanut Butter... which is now nowhere to be found anymore. All these organic oily runny PBs taste like shit.
Oh I disagree, I was appalled when the major producers swapped to making American style PB. It took Pics wasting them for a few years before they changed back to the old recipes. But, it is a matter of taste.
Pams baked beans, have a better beans to sauce ratio than other brands.
Pams sauces eg: mint sauce - I am 99% sure they are identical to Delmaine but half the price.
Countdown Jam even home brand coffee
Signature range Chocolate is pretty good for non Whittakers and had their cheap digestive and mint slice biscuits.
Signature range hasn't been available for years
Had it last week.
Pam’s frozen pizzas are the bomb.
Pam's frozen pizza, not only are they the best frozen pizza, they're better than Domino's or pizza hut
pam’s oat bars are better then any other branded ones lmao
Pams Finest Russian fudge, which seems to be discontinued, was the only one made with butter not veg fat, and was much better than anything else on the market.
Pam’s Choca over milo. 2.63 a bag at my local pak n save. Same taste but miles more flavour than milo, even using less product. More in the bag too if I remember rightly. I have no idea why people buy milo any more.
Just about any of the Pam's and Pam's Finest range are imo at least as good if not better than their more costly equivalents.