How can I find quality products that have been rebranded?

December 6, 2008 7:53 PM

Examples of how to save money by purchasing rebranded products?

I am just guessing some more expensive brand names might be available under a more generic name as a rebrand.

Any ideas?

posted by tarvuz to shopping (14 comments total)

Nearly everything @ trader joes.
posted by mmdei at 8:10 PM on December 6, 2008

Costco sells a lot of items under their Kirkland brand that usually retail for much more. My personal favorite is scotch.
posted by palionex at 8:35 PM on December 6, 2008 [1 favorite]

A lot of the private label (generic) products you buy at the store are made by the same companies that make the brand name products. In fact, these stores seem to be pushing them more now. And not all private label products have been outsourced to another company to manufactuer--a grocery store chain might have a manufacturing plant where they develop their own products.

See: Examples of Trader Joe's food compared to the "real" thing; limited list of manufacturers who create these products
posted by toaster at 8:42 PM on December 6, 2008

To elaborate on mmdei's answer: http://www.chow.com/stories/10947

Also, I am certain that Trader Joe's Mediterranean Hummus is repackaged Sabra Hummus...delicious!
posted by wuzandfuzz at 8:44 PM on December 6, 2008

Dammit, beaten to the punch!
posted by wuzandfuzz at 8:48 PM on December 6, 2008

ALDI is similar to Trader Joes (one of the guys who started ALDI apparently now owns Trader Joe's) but for regular, non-organic groceries.

Being broke and wanting pizza, some friends of mine and I decided to go to ALDI for a pizza kit rather than the regular Grocery store. Spending 4 bucks at HT or 1.25 at ALDI, well... obvious. Brought the ALDI brand home and though it said "Mama Somebody" on the outside, it was all labeled Chef Boyardee on the inside.

Pretty good food and bread, eggs, & milk are super cheap. Not big on variety, but for staples they're perfect. But stay away from the cola unless you like RC. *shudder*

You won't find every product as a generic version, btw. Take a look at the back of a bottle of Listerine. They're extremely quick to point out that the Listerine forumlation is never sold as a store brand.

Also, many stores can buy their generic brands from Spartan Stores. Spartan Stores have their own chain of grocery stores, but manufacture and supply many others as well. Brands like Top Care (health and beauty) and Full Circle (organic foods) are both made by Spartan. Where I live, both Harris Teeter and BiLo sell Top Care as their store brand.
posted by aristan at 9:13 PM on December 6, 2008

Trader Joes relabels and sells Unibroue beers seasonally for less than half the price. Sadly everyone around here has figured this out and my local store has a 1 or 2 bottle limit per customer.
posted by fshgrl at 10:27 PM on December 6, 2008 [1 favorite]

You may also find regional grocery outlets where you get the overstocks from a range of big brands and private label from non-regional grocers: ours will have Safeway and Meijer, none of which has a store within a time zone of us.

Now, if you're looking at Britain, the store brand single malt is usually from good places. Esp. Islay, with so few distilleries. And Oddbins' own-label stuff is very good.
posted by holgate at 11:27 PM on December 6, 2008

Bosch and Siemens appliances (in Europe). Bosch is slightly cheaper but many of the models are exactly the same.
posted by juva at 12:44 AM on December 7, 2008

Since L'Oreal owns Lancome, some of the formulas for Lancome products are extremely similar to L'Oreal products which can be found at the drugstore for much lower prices. A lot of times the only difference is fragrance or fillers which don't affect the results of using the product. I think the age/wrinkle creams, lipsticks, and eyeliners are very similar.
posted by bluefly at 4:23 AM on December 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

This isn't a rebrand, but I buy all my organics, expensive jams, jellies, soups at Big Lots. They sell a lot of canned goods that don't/won't sell at the store for half off.
posted by aetg at 6:14 AM on December 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

Many "brand name" drugs (prescription and OTC) have perfectly good generic or store-brand equivalents. I use "Wal-phed Sinus" (Walgreen's brand) for my sinus headaches, which works even better than the more than twice as expensive Sudafed Sinus.

Ask your pharmacist to find more options.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 6:24 AM on December 7, 2008

SuperSquirrel is right, you can get many drugs "generic" but it is not the same as "rebranded." They are supposed to be "bioequivalent" but there are some generics drugs, such as generic Prozac that have been anecdotally reported to not be comparable to the brand-name.
posted by radioamy at 5:46 PM on December 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

thanks guys!
posted by tarvuz at 8:26 AM on December 8, 2008