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Comment by paganel | Hacker News Reader

What I ended up doing in order to avoid this is that I’ve been buying from the same brands for some time now, i.e. the same soap, the same shampoo, the same butter (truth be told, for butter I fluctuate between two brands), the same chocolate, the same detergent etc. This way I don’t fall for tricks like the one you mentioned because I almost don’t care about any other brands and products than the ones I’m really interested in. I also get to save a lot of time in the supermarket because each time I visit it I know exactly what I want.

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You're not exactly beating the system. That's just plain old brand loyalty, which companies love. You've stopped shopping based on quality or value, and they can turn a profit without investing anything into marketing.

I don’t want to beat the system because I know it’s a lost battle from the get-go ans I also don’t really feel the need of being “lured” into buying a product. That’s also one of the reasons why I still don’t use an ad-blocker, as I’m almost totally blind to advertising, both online and offline. I do think though that this tactic has made me purchase less stuff over time, I consider that as a win.

With an adblocker, pages load faster and you save data. If you’re already blind to ads then it shouldn’t matter...

paganel is saving time by no thinking about the issue, so 'winning' in some sense.

However... you don't know what the brand is. The brand may be the store brand, which... while it's brand loyalty, is almost always the cheapest, and usually don't have any marketing expense beyond the product in the store in the first place.

I've learned to love most store brands, and... it may be my mind rationalizing it, but I think they've actually become much better quality wise than they were 20 or 30 years ago. But again may be a trick of the brain.

Biggest issue I see is that store brands often don't have the same level of variety. Chips - store brand may have 4 flavors - other vendors may have 10-12 on the shelf above. If I really want a specific flavor, I'll get a name brand, otherwise, just go with store brand (or.. with chips, hopefully skip altogether!)

Store brands have certainly gotten much better. I generally try and buy as many store brands as I can. There are a few items where I like the flavor of a brand name better, but not many.

Some grocery chains even have two tiers of store brand. For example, the Loblaws/Zehrs stores in Ontario have yellow "No Name" packaging for the basic level, and "President's Choice" for the premium. Some products are only available in one tier or the other, but for a lot you do have both.

My localish store brand is also quite good. I buy the store brand for all of the staples.

One place that I can't quite find a non-brand name replacement I like is laundry detergent. I've tried the cheaper brands, store brands, etc..., and always end up back on Tide.

Not really beating the system, more using it to our advantage. The half price offers in the UK big 4 come around often enough that paying full price, or even 3 for 2 is almost never needed on basics. We'd go to Tesco once in a while just for promotions, come out with 6 months worth, then do the regular shop at Aldi.

I remember reading that many of the costs of the in store offers and promotion are actually pushed to the supplier. Leaving Tesco, Asda etc on same margin as before. I suspect this hits smaller suppliers disproportionately.

I'm very much the opposite. I have in mind what I want to pay for a certain item, butter for example, and I'll buy whatever brand is being promoted that week for my target price. As long as it's not absolute garbage of course.

Maybe it's different in the UK than in other places, but the large supermarket chains are constantly running so many promotions that you can, if very brand disloyal, always shop smart based on bogofs and alike.

Personally I go with whatever brand taste we like best. Of course I consider the nutritional value when looking at taste. These days we deliver most of our food to our house and the local supermarket that offers the service will have organic options of the same product but only to delivery subscribers. It’s weird but we are in Japan where things are weird. I can get sausage links with food coloring to make them more appealing or without but looking much less desirable. I don’t know if the prices differ since wife does all the ordering.

> I have in mind what I want to pay for a certain item, butter for example, and I'll buy whatever brand is being promoted that week for my target price.

I do this and it drives my wife nuts. For example, she likes Diet Coke. I see it as diet soda and will buy whatever diet soda is on sale. I only eat fish or steak when it's on sale, otherwise it is chicken all week.

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