Brand Names Vs. Generics: Worth Switching?

You can save lots of money on groceries by using store brands instead of brand names. But are the store brands as good?

Early Show consumer correspondent Susan Koeppen set out to find out, and reported the results Wednesday.

Bottom line: There's no doubting the impact on your bottom line, but differences in taste or quality depended on the user, and the particular type or brand of item.

Koeppen got Danielle and Richard Miller of Monroe Township, N.J. to secretly swap in generics for brand names the family usually uses to see if their kids would notice. She also tasted-tested a few products herself. And she got co-anchor Harry Smith in on the taste-testing act.

Tod Marks of Consumer Reports told Koeppen, "More and more consumers are opting for more store brands and with good reason."

Namely, he says, savings of 15- to-50 percent.

"One-out-of-five products sold in a supermarket is a store brand or private label product," Marks points out. "That amounts to over 65 billion dollars a year."

The Millers quietly substituted store brands of items such as bottled water, ketchup and mustard, frozen hamburgers, grated cheese, and Pop Tarts, even toilet paper, glass cleaner, dishwasher soap and dryer sheets, for brand names.

The results? Mixed. Their son, Ryan, didn't notice some differences, but others caught his attention -- and not positively.

The results were similar with Susan's taste tests of corn flakes, Cheerios, shredded wheat and French fries. Ditto Smith's go-round with peanut butter, soda and pretzels -- types of items Koeppen says attract fierce brand loyalty.

But there's no disputing the savings on the products Smith tried:

Soda, 2-Liter:
Name Brand: $1.50
Store Brand: .89

Pretzels, 16 ounces
Name Brand: $2.64
Store Brand: .99

Peanut Butter, 28 ounces
Name Brand: $3.79
Store Brand: $3.59