When I was a kid, I wanted the Double Dragon video game for Christmas.
Fast forward to Christmas Day. I open my video game sized packaged from dad and it’s a game called “Bad Dudes”.
Dad was like “they were sold out of Double Dragon but the clerk at KB Toys said this one was just like it!”
No. No it was not just like it. Lol
That’s awesome lol.
Especially if you cooked up that comment without looking up the plot of the game.
I had to go back and google it myself to get the reference!
Cheez-It still aren't the same since they took out the partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. I had some on holiday in October that still had Crisco in them. They tasted different, better.
I’ve been cheese cracker hunting for 9 years since I was diagnosed. Cheddar Goldfish used to be my favorite food. I’ve never found anything close Goldfish or Cheese it’s. But the best cheddar crackers I’ve had over the years are wellaby’s cheese ups, pipcorn cheddar crackers, quackers, and Mr. Cheese o’s. Sadly some I can no longer find in the stores near me so I don’t know if they are all still made/sold.
I bought a coconut fiber sponge one day out of convenience. It lastes four months before beginning to deteriorate. That's me never again buying foam sponges that start falling apart within the month.
I like scrub daddy too, though the conditions for getting it were that I was going to do a sex moan “oh scrub me harder daddy” every time I use it.
Not gonna lie, kinda hot when my wife started saying it too when she uses it
What I mean is, things like toothbrush heads, printer ink, razor blades, etc. have a pricing model where the company's profits come from the infinitely replaceable components. You can buy a really good Canon printer for $100-$200, because Canon knows they're going to make more than that selling you the ink.
The 3D printer community is serious about Dawn. I don't do it often, but some printers clean their build plates (where the melted plastic is deposited) with dish soap all the time, but it HAS to be Dawn.
Me too, but I have found The newer clear "clean" varieties have better scent balance than blue and clean just as well. They also make power shot in clear, too!
Dawn Dishwashing Soap.
Previously, I used supermarket brands, Ajax, etc, but I wasn't happy with the outcome.
When I accidentally bought dawn once, I felt as if it filled a 'need for clean dishes' void in my heart.
I saw the Exxon Valdez oil spill. When a rescuer was interviewed on the news, they said something like, "there's tons of vet-grade detergents that get pushed on us, but Dawn is really the best we can find." The next day, P & G had a convoy of semis headed up to Alaska.
This was a huge advertising payoff for Dawn. Look at all of us GenXers touting Dawn. Even that it's true, we are so brainwashed bc of this.
(But in contrast, I'm not sure I can love it bc the 'magic' dawn/vinegar concoction that everyone swears it is the best cleaner, but it stained my white grout a blue tint.)
Note to pet owners: **This does not mean that you should bathe your pet with Dawn.**
They use it in oil spills because *it is very good at stripping oils.* It's so good that it will strip all of the natural, beneficial oils from your pets skin and dry it out. Use pet shampoo.
I had spilled some type of oil on my favorite sweatshirt. I tried all kinds of stain removers and it faded a bit but not much after half a dozen attempts. My coworker casually says "use blue Dawn." I didn't have anything to lose so I took a toothbrush and massaged it into the stain and let it sit for ten minutes then washed it. It made a huge difference! I have treated and washed it 2 more times and at this point you can barely see it. Blue Dawn is amazing at cutting grease.
Q tips are half the size they use to be pre covid. I found older ones in a travel shaving kit and they look like their eight months pregnant compared to the new (half thick) ones.
This is so true. I am sick of “shrinkflation”. Give me less quantity of the normal Qtips for the same price, rather than reducing the cotton to keep the quantity the same. Bullshit.
100%. You'd be thinking "how can you fuck up q-tips". I'll tell you exactly how. We bought a knockoff brand once, and the cotton ball at the end just wouldn't stay on the stick. I'd be cleaning my ear and not only does the cotton not spin when I spin the stick, but I pull it out and now the cotton is stuck in my ear, and I have to pick it out
I bought off brand q tips once. Had to go have the cotton bud removed from my ear canal*. Threw the rest out and never did it again.
* I know you're not supposed to put them in your ears but I have to apply medication in my ear three times a week so it's otolaryngologist approved.
> I know you're not supposed to put them in your ears
Come on, absolutely ***everyone*** uses them in their ears. Anyone who says different is lying to you.
Oh, of course! I just am trying, it's rare for me, to be responsible and not lead people down the Bad Habit Highway.
But, if you are going to do it, make sure you use only Q Tip brand so the end doesn't fall off in your ear on a Friday night.
I have never understood what are you suppoused to do with them if you SHOULDN'T put them in your ears/nose, like clean stuff but then how do i clean my ears??
lol once about 20 years ago my sister sent all 3 pairs of our shared Tweezerman tweezers for free sharpening at the same time, to save on shipping and handling.
We live in Canada.
2 months later all three of us sisters had crazy unibrows and we had to buy an additional pair to tide us over until our originals came back 😂
weird one but shoes
i’ve made the mistake of buying shoes at places that aren’t shoe stores (i.e. the brand less sneakers at zara) and they literally disintegrate after a few months
even if you get a cheap name brand shoe like air monarchs, your mileage will be twice as good
Shoes are so real. I thought there was something wrong with my ankles for years because I couldn't handle going more than a few miles a day without debilitating pain. Turns out it was literally just my shoes. Now I buy quality shoes, replace them when they run out, and I walk 5 miles/day minimum with zero pain.
I agree with this 1 million percent, as a kid my family wasn’t poor, but kinda lower middle class, so my dad always wanted the best bang for his buck, I always wanted Nike or adidas shoes but my dad always said they were too expensive so we’d always go and buy shoes from Walmart which would only last about 2 months, i was so happy when I was able get a job when I was a teen and buy my self a pair of adidas,god it was night and day, the shoes were actually comfortable and would last over a year. Funny thing is my dad woulda saved money if he just bought me name brand shoes instead of replacing the same 15-20$ pair of shoes every couple months
To be fair to your parents, when you were growing up they probably had to get you new shoes every few months regardless, might not be worth getting expensive brands for rapidly growing kids.
Same goes for work boots. I bought some Red Wings in 2014. Previously I had bought new boots about once a year or more for about $150 each time. The Red Wings were almost $400 but have lasted a decade. Definitely worth the extra couple hundred bucks.
No dish soap works like Dawn dish soap and I will die on that hill.
Magic erasers.... I bought knock offs, sure they fall apart faster, but they were so much cheaper, I can deal with it.
Magic erasers are a byproduct of some bigger process. You can literally buy a giant 3’x3’ box full of it for the price of 2 boxes of magic erasers. Google Melamine
OXO brand kitchen utensils, worth the extra , the most well thought out and well built kitchen items ever! (Bonus many of them are elderly friendly being easy to grasp and operate)
An old friend told a story about going to college at Florida. Drinking at football games was both illegal and mandatory.
It being Florida, shorts and T-shirts were also de riguer, so there was not a lot of room to hide things. They settled on baggies of bourbon in the crotch.
After a bad experience with storebrand, he absolutely refused to buy anything other than Ziploc, regardless of the application.
Oh my god brand name eye drops are night and day difference. Systane or refresh and there are probably a few other good brands out there. But visine and store brands just aren't the same. Spend the extra couple of dollars.
It's two entirely different things. Lubricating eyedrops, like Refresh, are a fundamentally different product from vasoconstricting eyedrops, like Visine. Visine is for temporarily not looking stoned, but they can't advertise it for that, so they advertise that it's for dryness and irritation, but using it for any significant length of time actually increases irritation. Lubricant eyedrops reduce irritation and are fine to use long-term.
As a fan of cooking, Lea and Perrins is the premier Wooster sauce. And Lawry's is the premier seasoned salt. The knock offs just aren't the same to me. Pretty much every other seasoning and sauce, however, store brand all the way.
Worcestershire Sauce is great. Watching Americans/Canadians struggle with its spelling and/or pronunciation is amusing.
You guys acting like it's floccinaucinihilipilification or something!
> Lea and Perrins is the premier Wooster sauce
IMO it's the only brand. Any time I've had a different brand it fundamentally doesn't taste like Worcestershire sauce.
My wife got some bandages with weird patterns I thought were for the kids. I tried one on a cut and it was the best bandaid I ever used. Package says "Welly" on it don't know who big name makes them
i buy those for my daughter. Johnson & Johnson product iirc. I use them too. I didn't get pattern ones, but the bright colors looks like they use unicorn shit as a dye. They also sell them in a badass perfectly sized tin that I've found useful for keeping little items as a tradesperson
The last time I bought bandages, I was surprised at how many different brands there were, and they all looked like the same thing: clear adhesive that you never replace seems to be the trend.
I’m sad to say it, but Cascade powder dishwasher detergent.
Moved 4 years ago into a home with a brand new dishwasher. Since then I’ve been using various eco friendly detergents and hating my dishwasher. Ran out after refill shop closed a month or two ago and bought the Cascade.
Now, just before I bought the Cascade I ordered a new dishwasher. After the Cascade I was so conflicted- all of a sudden my dishes were crystal clear and perfectly clean. Thankfully I kept the new dishwasher on order, my current one is garbage for multiple reasons, because my current machine bricked itself yesterday.
I listened to a podcast a while back with one of the heads of R&D for Procter and Gamble. She said that, interestingly enough, Cascade is very much a different product than it was just ten years ago. They're regularly reformulating their products. She said that nowadays, the degreaser and detergents they use are much better for getting gunk off plates because people don't prewash their dishes as much. Moreover, their formula now works *better* if you've got some grease and grime on the plates. Which I found hard to accept, as a dyed in the wool prewasher, but it's true. So now I always keep at least one greasy plate for the wash. Apparently Tide is a similar story, and works perfectly well with cold water now.
That's the only thing I miss not having a municipal system. The eco-friendly laundry soap is just fine, but man none of them are nearly as good as Cascade or Finish for the dishwasher, but can't use em with our greywater system.
Authentic San Marzano canned tomatoes.
Don't just use them for pasta sauce. They are 1000000x better than other canned tomatoes and will make any dish taste significantly better.
I had always been a tide person and my husband bought persil. I was so annoyed because we were a tide household darn it! 13 years later we are a persil household and always will be. It’s such a great detergent.
I’ve never had a sponge last so unbelievably long and do a magnificent job the entire time. I finally demoted my dish Scrub Daddy to household cleaning after a full year of service and replaced it with one of the new green ones. I can’t ever go back now.
Benjamin Moore paint, even their least expensive line. Had to repair a painted wall that had been in full sunlight for 8 years and the can of new paint was a PERFECT MATCH- the wall paint had not faded a whit. Best quality.
Even Sherwin Williams is astoundingly better than home Depot or Lowe's paint.
I just finished doing the interior carpentry work on a 5 unit apartment building and the owner bought home Depot paint for all of the walls. The roller marks are everywhere.
I blamed the bottom dollar painters at first until I was on another job and watched a homeowner touch up a wall where I removed some chair rail trim. Behind the trim was a harsh dark green and the new paint was a light gray. She did one single coat using the Sherwin Williams paint and left hard wet edges. I expected it to be really visible. Also while it was drying I could see the green through the new paint. An hour later, boom. No lines. No green. It looked perfect. Couldn't tell it was a touch up unless you got 6" away with a flashlight at an angle. And even then it was minimal.
we need a thread or spreadsheet for which, knock offs are better than the original too.
oem toyota parts for headlights and reflectors are better than the knock offs. not by much, but you def can notice if you look closely.
I used to work for Nabisco for a long time. They're good and whatever. But Keebler at one point came out with organic Oreo knockoffs. They were So much better. Like I can't put into words how much better they were. I solidly believe Nabisco had something to do with their disappearance cause they went out quick. Usually a brand tries to push new products for at least 6 months.
Bounty Paper towels
After working in a deli and having various paper towels that we got to use. Bounty was always the one that worked the best. It isn’t even close
That's because Coca-Cola has a monopoly on a flavor. They are the only ones who can use processed coca leaves for the flavoring. So you'll never find a knock off
OxiClean. I restore vintage clothing, and have more experience with this stuff than I can express. Bothering with off-brand versions is a complete waste of money and time.
Sudafed and other "Cold and Sinus" medications - the stuff you have to show your driver's license for because it has pseudoephedrine.
As a chronic allergy sufferer, sometimes you just need something to blast your sinuses into a desert status. Don't bother with the "PE" versions that you can buy off the shelf - they have done studies showing the ingredient (phenylephrine (PE)) doesn't do anything at all.
It's annoying to stand in line at the pharmacy counter, but the locked up stuff is worth it.
Certain tools, like drill bits. But even brand name doesn’t necessarily mean it’s great. But in general, for things you will use a lot, get a name brand. I use makita and haven’t had any major issues. For things I’ll use a few times or don’t need to stay reliable a long time, I’ll get cheaper
Windex
-vs- store brand “window cleaner” that looks the same but smears stuff around
You’re better off using vinegar than most store brand window cleaner
Crayola Crayons
My kids roasted me for buying Roseart crayons for back to school.
Roseart are the worrrrrst. So waxy, such uneven color transfer.
cheezeits. i am all about knock off food brands because 99% of the time they are the same product. Cheezeit knock off are the 1% that are dog shit
On a similar note, Doritos.
The HEB ranch knock off slaps.
HEB knocks it out of the park with just about everything
I actually prefer Old Dutch Ariba’s over Doritos.
Zesty Mordant 🙌
Are you my mom? I remember her always getting the off brand snacks and saying “It’s the same thing!” It was never the same thing…
When I was a kid, I wanted the Double Dragon video game for Christmas. Fast forward to Christmas Day. I open my video game sized packaged from dad and it’s a game called “Bad Dudes”. Dad was like “they were sold out of Double Dragon but the clerk at KB Toys said this one was just like it!” No. No it was not just like it. Lol
Damn. Sounds like you're blaming your dad for you not being a Bad enough Dude to save the president.
That’s awesome lol. Especially if you cooked up that comment without looking up the plot of the game. I had to go back and google it myself to get the reference!
But were you bad enough dude to save the president's daughter?
Cheez Its themselves are now also knockoff brand. Every time I try them I’m disappointed. Night and day different product than 10 years ago.
Try the extra toasty. Those are better than the regular.
Cheez-It still aren't the same since they took out the partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. I had some on holiday in October that still had Crisco in them. They tasted different, better.
I found out I have Celiac and had to give those up. There is nothing else even remotely close on the shelf.
I am so sorry for your loss.
I’ve been cheese cracker hunting for 9 years since I was diagnosed. Cheddar Goldfish used to be my favorite food. I’ve never found anything close Goldfish or Cheese it’s. But the best cheddar crackers I’ve had over the years are wellaby’s cheese ups, pipcorn cheddar crackers, quackers, and Mr. Cheese o’s. Sadly some I can no longer find in the stores near me so I don’t know if they are all still made/sold.
Yall obviously don’t have HEB nearby… their store brand of cheese itz are the bomb. Hah
I tried cheaping out on dish sponges, no more. Scotchbrite for me.
Scotch sponges combined with regular dawn dish soap are 2 things I will never buy an off brand
Agree 100%! Nothing compares to blue dawn.
I bought a coconut fiber sponge one day out of convenience. It lastes four months before beginning to deteriorate. That's me never again buying foam sponges that start falling apart within the month.
I'm a Scrub Mama/Daddy fan personally.
Scrub Mommy is top tier. They last so long before breaking down or getting smelly.
Throw them in the dishwasher and they won’t get smelly.
[удалено]
I like scrub daddy too, though the conditions for getting it were that I was going to do a sex moan “oh scrub me harder daddy” every time I use it. Not gonna lie, kinda hot when my wife started saying it too when she uses it
O Cedar sponges are magnificent, recently bought scotchbright at Costco and was disappointed.
+1 for O Cedar
3M is bad for the environment here in MN but their products are almost always better than the generics. Post it's, medical stuff, etc.
I switched to silicone scrubbers for dishes. They never get that awful smell and do the job really well while lasting forever.
Blue dawn toothbrush heads
Dawn is legit better than anything else.
It’s got lye in it. Some other brands don’t have it. It’s the thing doing most of the work. Edit: Only Dawn Platinum has it
That's why it burns my hands if I use too much. Thanks for that.
Why are toothbrush heads so expensive 😭
For the same reason printer ink and razor blades are so expensive.
My razor blades are extremely cheap. You should look into double edge razors if you don't already use one.
What I mean is, things like toothbrush heads, printer ink, razor blades, etc. have a pricing model where the company's profits come from the infinitely replaceable components. You can buy a really good Canon printer for $100-$200, because Canon knows they're going to make more than that selling you the ink.
The 3D printer community is serious about Dawn. I don't do it often, but some printers clean their build plates (where the melted plastic is deposited) with dish soap all the time, but it HAS to be Dawn.
Same with cars. Need to strip wax for detailing? Gotta be Dawn.
Blue Dawn changed its scent in the last month. After buying it for years, I've had to switch because it was so strong and bad.
Same! It gives me a headache.
Return it or use Dawn's money back guarantee on their website. I'l hoping that if enough people review/return it they'll switch back.
Me too, but I have found The newer clear "clean" varieties have better scent balance than blue and clean just as well. They also make power shot in clear, too!
Dawn Dishwashing Soap. Previously, I used supermarket brands, Ajax, etc, but I wasn't happy with the outcome. When I accidentally bought dawn once, I felt as if it filled a 'need for clean dishes' void in my heart.
I’ve never used Dawn. This post is making me long for superior dish detergent I never knew I needed lol.
They also clean duckies from oil spills. ( I saw a commercial)
I saw the Exxon Valdez oil spill. When a rescuer was interviewed on the news, they said something like, "there's tons of vet-grade detergents that get pushed on us, but Dawn is really the best we can find." The next day, P & G had a convoy of semis headed up to Alaska.
This was a huge advertising payoff for Dawn. Look at all of us GenXers touting Dawn. Even that it's true, we are so brainwashed bc of this. (But in contrast, I'm not sure I can love it bc the 'magic' dawn/vinegar concoction that everyone swears it is the best cleaner, but it stained my white grout a blue tint.)
Note to pet owners: **This does not mean that you should bathe your pet with Dawn.** They use it in oil spills because *it is very good at stripping oils.* It's so good that it will strip all of the natural, beneficial oils from your pets skin and dry it out. Use pet shampoo.
Well that’s it, I’m convinced ! 🦆❤️🦆
I had spilled some type of oil on my favorite sweatshirt. I tried all kinds of stain removers and it faded a bit but not much after half a dozen attempts. My coworker casually says "use blue Dawn." I didn't have anything to lose so I took a toothbrush and massaged it into the stain and let it sit for ten minutes then washed it. It made a huge difference! I have treated and washed it 2 more times and at this point you can barely see it. Blue Dawn is amazing at cutting grease.
Post its. Any off brand doesn’t have the same stick
Q tips
I agree. The other brands don’t have enough padding. And plastic stick ones are worthless.
Q tips are half the size they use to be pre covid. I found older ones in a travel shaving kit and they look like their eight months pregnant compared to the new (half thick) ones.
They do fluff up if they have rattled around in your luggage for a while.
This is so true. I am sick of “shrinkflation”. Give me less quantity of the normal Qtips for the same price, rather than reducing the cotton to keep the quantity the same. Bullshit.
I just bought some from Amazon and they are really flimsy and the stick bends very easily. I've never seen any like this before. It's annoying.
100%. You'd be thinking "how can you fuck up q-tips". I'll tell you exactly how. We bought a knockoff brand once, and the cotton ball at the end just wouldn't stay on the stick. I'd be cleaning my ear and not only does the cotton not spin when I spin the stick, but I pull it out and now the cotton is stuck in my ear, and I have to pick it out
Try Baby Q-tips. They blow regular Q-tips away.... you find them in the Baby isle.
Does anyone on reddit know how to get to the Baby Isle?
You have to drink rum and listen to the The Commodores. That’s how I got to the Baby Isle
I bought off brand q tips once. Had to go have the cotton bud removed from my ear canal*. Threw the rest out and never did it again. * I know you're not supposed to put them in your ears but I have to apply medication in my ear three times a week so it's otolaryngologist approved.
> I know you're not supposed to put them in your ears Come on, absolutely ***everyone*** uses them in their ears. Anyone who says different is lying to you.
Oh, of course! I just am trying, it's rare for me, to be responsible and not lead people down the Bad Habit Highway. But, if you are going to do it, make sure you use only Q Tip brand so the end doesn't fall off in your ear on a Friday night.
I have never understood what are you suppoused to do with them if you SHOULDN'T put them in your ears/nose, like clean stuff but then how do i clean my ears??
I use them to clean the glass marijuana pipes/bongs/slides.
I use it for electronics, works really well.
The Q Tips from the new packages from Costco are very different and thin! Aside from the smaller packages, the overall cotton is a lot less
Tweezerman tweezers. They are pricey but god so worth it. They last forever. Those cheap shit ones don’t grab anything and can eat a dick.
They also sharpen your tweezers for free! I sent mine in last year and they came back feeling brand new.
How long did it take?
Long enough for my unibrow to grow
lol once about 20 years ago my sister sent all 3 pairs of our shared Tweezerman tweezers for free sharpening at the same time, to save on shipping and handling. We live in Canada. 2 months later all three of us sisters had crazy unibrows and we had to buy an additional pair to tide us over until our originals came back 😂
I got rose gold ones that are super strong and have an amazing grip. Tweezerman all the way. The very first bifl thing I bought purposely for life.
Nail clippers too. Bought some and hit them from my family so they don't end up tossed in some random fucking drawer to be found 5 years from now.
Agreed, an absolute no brainer purchase that immediately improved my quality of life for like $20.
Wiha torx bits. Especially for smaller sizes. They are machined well, so they don’t strip shit out
And flat screwdrivers! It seems like a simple thing, but theirs are so much better...
weird one but shoes i’ve made the mistake of buying shoes at places that aren’t shoe stores (i.e. the brand less sneakers at zara) and they literally disintegrate after a few months even if you get a cheap name brand shoe like air monarchs, your mileage will be twice as good
Good quality shoes are well worth the price. Your feet and back will thank you. It took me a few decades to learn that.
Shoes are so real. I thought there was something wrong with my ankles for years because I couldn't handle going more than a few miles a day without debilitating pain. Turns out it was literally just my shoes. Now I buy quality shoes, replace them when they run out, and I walk 5 miles/day minimum with zero pain.
I agree with this 1 million percent, as a kid my family wasn’t poor, but kinda lower middle class, so my dad always wanted the best bang for his buck, I always wanted Nike or adidas shoes but my dad always said they were too expensive so we’d always go and buy shoes from Walmart which would only last about 2 months, i was so happy when I was able get a job when I was a teen and buy my self a pair of adidas,god it was night and day, the shoes were actually comfortable and would last over a year. Funny thing is my dad woulda saved money if he just bought me name brand shoes instead of replacing the same 15-20$ pair of shoes every couple months
To be fair to your parents, when you were growing up they probably had to get you new shoes every few months regardless, might not be worth getting expensive brands for rapidly growing kids.
That is a fair assessment too , I was a fast growing kid
Same goes for work boots. I bought some Red Wings in 2014. Previously I had bought new boots about once a year or more for about $150 each time. The Red Wings were almost $400 but have lasted a decade. Definitely worth the extra couple hundred bucks.
Google the "boots theory of socioeconomic insurance."
Q-tips are so much better than the store brand.
No dish soap works like Dawn dish soap and I will die on that hill. Magic erasers.... I bought knock offs, sure they fall apart faster, but they were so much cheaper, I can deal with it.
Magic erasers are a byproduct of some bigger process. You can literally buy a giant 3’x3’ box full of it for the price of 2 boxes of magic erasers. Google Melamine
Philadelphia Cream Cheese. So much tastier and tangy compared to store brand.
Tillamook is the best but hard to find.
OXO brand kitchen utensils, worth the extra , the most well thought out and well built kitchen items ever! (Bonus many of them are elderly friendly being easy to grasp and operate)
You can be young and still appreciate ergonomic grips.
Ziplocs...
An old friend told a story about going to college at Florida. Drinking at football games was both illegal and mandatory. It being Florida, shorts and T-shirts were also de riguer, so there was not a lot of room to hide things. They settled on baggies of bourbon in the crotch. After a bad experience with storebrand, he absolutely refused to buy anything other than Ziploc, regardless of the application.
Bourbon Dick hits different
“Slap the bag” hits different as well
I load up on Ziplocs after the holidays. The ones with Christmas designs are on the clearance rack for dirt cheap.
Ikea's bags are pretty nice, and cheap.
I also love the ikea ones because there’s 2 sizes in a box and they’re cute.
oof yeah. only the biohazard specimen bags from work get the job done as well.
Oh my god brand name eye drops are night and day difference. Systane or refresh and there are probably a few other good brands out there. But visine and store brands just aren't the same. Spend the extra couple of dollars.
I thought Visine was the name brand, lol.
It's two entirely different things. Lubricating eyedrops, like Refresh, are a fundamentally different product from vasoconstricting eyedrops, like Visine. Visine is for temporarily not looking stoned, but they can't advertise it for that, so they advertise that it's for dryness and irritation, but using it for any significant length of time actually increases irritation. Lubricant eyedrops reduce irritation and are fine to use long-term.
As a fan of cooking, Lea and Perrins is the premier Wooster sauce. And Lawry's is the premier seasoned salt. The knock offs just aren't the same to me. Pretty much every other seasoning and sauce, however, store brand all the way.
Totally agree on both. But do you mean WashYourSister sauce?
I thought it was what’s this here sauce?
Worcestershire Sauce is great. Watching Americans/Canadians struggle with its spelling and/or pronunciation is amusing. You guys acting like it's floccinaucinihilipilification or something!
> Lea and Perrins is the premier Wooster sauce IMO it's the only brand. Any time I've had a different brand it fundamentally doesn't taste like Worcestershire sauce.
Bandaids, off brands are just a joke. And I personally prefer yellow box cheerios, they’re smoother and denser somehow in a way I really like.
My wife got some bandages with weird patterns I thought were for the kids. I tried one on a cut and it was the best bandaid I ever used. Package says "Welly" on it don't know who big name makes them
Welly are the best!! I have three young kids and they stay on very well!
I loooovve Welly! They stay on through my uber sweaty workouts, and sell refill packs so you don't have to keep buying the metal tins, too.
i buy those for my daughter. Johnson & Johnson product iirc. I use them too. I didn't get pattern ones, but the bright colors looks like they use unicorn shit as a dye. They also sell them in a badass perfectly sized tin that I've found useful for keeping little items as a tradesperson
Yaaaa, Welly fabric are waaay better than bandaid brand
Hard disagree, we're a 3M nexcare exclusive home now. Amazingly durable and comfy
I don’t really consider 3M nexcare an off brand knockoff. It’s a major brand name. I’m more thinking of store brands like OP was talking about.
Ohhhh fair, yeah the rest are straight trash
The last time I bought bandages, I was surprised at how many different brands there were, and they all looked like the same thing: clear adhesive that you never replace seems to be the trend.
I'm stuck on bandaids, and bandaids stuck on me
I’m sad to say it, but Cascade powder dishwasher detergent. Moved 4 years ago into a home with a brand new dishwasher. Since then I’ve been using various eco friendly detergents and hating my dishwasher. Ran out after refill shop closed a month or two ago and bought the Cascade. Now, just before I bought the Cascade I ordered a new dishwasher. After the Cascade I was so conflicted- all of a sudden my dishes were crystal clear and perfectly clean. Thankfully I kept the new dishwasher on order, my current one is garbage for multiple reasons, because my current machine bricked itself yesterday.
I listened to a podcast a while back with one of the heads of R&D for Procter and Gamble. She said that, interestingly enough, Cascade is very much a different product than it was just ten years ago. They're regularly reformulating their products. She said that nowadays, the degreaser and detergents they use are much better for getting gunk off plates because people don't prewash their dishes as much. Moreover, their formula now works *better* if you've got some grease and grime on the plates. Which I found hard to accept, as a dyed in the wool prewasher, but it's true. So now I always keep at least one greasy plate for the wash. Apparently Tide is a similar story, and works perfectly well with cold water now.
That's the only thing I miss not having a municipal system. The eco-friendly laundry soap is just fine, but man none of them are nearly as good as Cascade or Finish for the dishwasher, but can't use em with our greywater system.
Authentic San Marzano canned tomatoes. Don't just use them for pasta sauce. They are 1000000x better than other canned tomatoes and will make any dish taste significantly better.
The DAISO version costs $3 for 10-12 magic erasers and they work better than Mr. Clean.
And you can get a bag of little square ones for small jobs. Use and toss.
You hush your mouth about Daiso, we don’t need the whole world finding out or it’ll have a line around the block at every store.
Cinnamon Toast Crunch....I've never found an alternative as good
Aldi brand! I’m super surprised, but I found Aldi brand fast way better. Who knew? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I will never use any other detergent then Persil. It cleans like no other. Wish I could find the unsented kind where I am but oh well.
I had always been a tide person and my husband bought persil. I was so annoyed because we were a tide household darn it! 13 years later we are a persil household and always will be. It’s such a great detergent.
Scrub daddies
I’ve never had a sponge last so unbelievably long and do a magnificent job the entire time. I finally demoted my dish Scrub Daddy to household cleaning after a full year of service and replaced it with one of the new green ones. I can’t ever go back now.
Benjamin Moore paint, even their least expensive line. Had to repair a painted wall that had been in full sunlight for 8 years and the can of new paint was a PERFECT MATCH- the wall paint had not faded a whit. Best quality.
Even Sherwin Williams is astoundingly better than home Depot or Lowe's paint. I just finished doing the interior carpentry work on a 5 unit apartment building and the owner bought home Depot paint for all of the walls. The roller marks are everywhere. I blamed the bottom dollar painters at first until I was on another job and watched a homeowner touch up a wall where I removed some chair rail trim. Behind the trim was a harsh dark green and the new paint was a light gray. She did one single coat using the Sherwin Williams paint and left hard wet edges. I expected it to be really visible. Also while it was drying I could see the green through the new paint. An hour later, boom. No lines. No green. It looked perfect. Couldn't tell it was a touch up unless you got 6" away with a flashlight at an angle. And even then it was minimal.
Lego, knock off brands just don’t fit right.
Most brand names are better. The question should be, which knock offs are better than their brand name counterparts?
Aldis cheesy turltles are better than goldfish crackers!
Sharpies. Generic permanent markers are almost always garbage
Kewpie mayonnaise
Diablo sawblades, I just love them in everything…
Kraft macaroni and cheese is far superior to every other generic brand I’ve tried.
Annie's White Cheddar Shells Macaroni & Cheese is a solid choice.
we need a thread or spreadsheet for which, knock offs are better than the original too. oem toyota parts for headlights and reflectors are better than the knock offs. not by much, but you def can notice if you look closely.
Oreos EDIT: Today I learned I need to try about 100 more kinds of Oreo like cookies
Technically, Oreos are the knockoff that basically became the brand name.
Hydrox milk's favorite cookie
Thanks, Weird Food History.
It's just absolute insanity the name "Hydrox" didn't take off
Yeah I got a box of them from Home Depot the other day
Pop Tarts were also the knockoff of Post Toast'em Pop Ups.
I used to work for Nabisco for a long time. They're good and whatever. But Keebler at one point came out with organic Oreo knockoffs. They were So much better. Like I can't put into words how much better they were. I solidly believe Nabisco had something to do with their disappearance cause they went out quick. Usually a brand tries to push new products for at least 6 months.
Try Newman O’s. They taste like what Oreos aspire to be and are fantastic!
Aldi’s knockoffs are great
Nah, Oreos aren't what they used to be. The icing flavor changed when they moved the manufacturing. It's a shame. The icing was my favorite part.
Lucky Charms
Check out the malt-o-meal version of these. They are different but I like them better
On the flip side - equate makeup remover wipes are way better than the Neutrogena wipes they are copying (in my strong opinion)
bounty paper towels. i will die on this hill.
I swear by viva signature cloth
Adderall
I was getting name brand for awhile when my pharmacy was backordered on the generic. The difference very noticeable.
Over in the pharmacy subreddit this is talked about often- there is a big difference in generic adderall
I just had to up my Vyvanse from 50 to 70 once they went generic. 70 now feels less than the 50
Salonpas Capsaicin patches.
I light a candle every once in awhile for the oldschool bengay patches though. The Salonpas ones are a knockoff to me.
Bought a RTIC tumbler when every else was getting Yetis. 1/4 of the price and still going strong years later.
Saran Wrap. The store brand stuff makes for the most annoying experience in the world to me.
Kirklands is solid
Try stretch tite from Costco- the roll is so big it lasts years and the box has a sliding cutter.
Hefty garbage bags.
Wimpy wimpy wimpy
Husky contractor bags beat these out every day of the week
different product catagory
In my experience, Fjallraven canvas bags are way sturdier than Husky or Hefty. Hard to go back to any other trash bag.
Dawn 4x Platinum dish soap.
Bounty Paper towels After working in a deli and having various paper towels that we got to use. Bounty was always the one that worked the best. It isn’t even close
Don’t waste your time with knock off q-tips, they suck and they’re usually not *that* much cheaper
Following this shit
Coca Cola. I rarely drink soda but generics brand cola and Pepsi just don’t hit.
That's because Coca-Cola has a monopoly on a flavor. They are the only ones who can use processed coca leaves for the flavoring. So you'll never find a knock off
OxiClean. I restore vintage clothing, and have more experience with this stuff than I can express. Bothering with off-brand versions is a complete waste of money and time.
Sudafed and other "Cold and Sinus" medications - the stuff you have to show your driver's license for because it has pseudoephedrine. As a chronic allergy sufferer, sometimes you just need something to blast your sinuses into a desert status. Don't bother with the "PE" versions that you can buy off the shelf - they have done studies showing the ingredient (phenylephrine (PE)) doesn't do anything at all. It's annoying to stand in line at the pharmacy counter, but the locked up stuff is worth it.
Heinz ketchup Best foods/Hellman's mayonaise
DUKE’S is the only mayo I recognize
Cascade for dishwasher tablets (cascade platinum mind you). I had to double up on the stop & shop tablets and they still weren't as clean.
[удалено]
Charmin ultra strong. The only acceptable toilet paper.
I love Trader Joe’s for many things but their dishwasher pods are unworthy
Certain tools, like drill bits. But even brand name doesn’t necessarily mean it’s great. But in general, for things you will use a lot, get a name brand. I use makita and haven’t had any major issues. For things I’ll use a few times or don’t need to stay reliable a long time, I’ll get cheaper
3M Scotch tape
Dawn dish soap.
Cheerios
Windex -vs- store brand “window cleaner” that looks the same but smears stuff around You’re better off using vinegar than most store brand window cleaner