I absolutely get why people choose brands and just stick with them - especially for relatively cheap and occasional things like these. But you do have a point.
There's a washing detergent I usually buy because it tends to be cheap and does the job well. But this weekend in my local supermarket it seemed more expensive than usual and another similar one was on sale. I figured I'd take a look - turns out they're both owned by procter&gamble, their ingredients are identical and they claim to do exactly the same thing with the same amount of liquid. My assumption is they're bottled from the same vat, they're certainly interchangeable for me.
I'm not saying go analyse every product on the shelves instead of just picking up whatever, but if you're not in a rush it's worth checking special offers if they're really similar to what you were going to buy.
And it's definitely worth being aware of the megacorporations that own the brands on the supermarket shelves - most of the well known brands are owned by a few umbrella organisations and not really competing at a high level.
I doubt this is a surprise to anyone, but as a couple of examples PG [0] own BOSS Black, Christina Aguilera, Hugo and Old Spice fragrances; as well as Bold, Daz, Fairy, Flash and Lenor detergents. There are nowhere near as many competitors as there are brands on supermarket shelves.
There's a washing detergent I usually buy because it tends to be cheap and does the job well. But this weekend in my local supermarket it seemed more expensive than usual and another similar one was on sale. I figured I'd take a look - turns out they're both owned by procter&gamble, their ingredients are identical and they claim to do exactly the same thing with the same amount of liquid. My assumption is they're bottled from the same vat, they're certainly interchangeable for me.
I'm not saying go analyse every product on the shelves instead of just picking up whatever, but if you're not in a rush it's worth checking special offers if they're really similar to what you were going to buy.
And it's definitely worth being aware of the megacorporations that own the brands on the supermarket shelves - most of the well known brands are owned by a few umbrella organisations and not really competing at a high level.
I doubt this is a surprise to anyone, but as a couple of examples PG [0] own BOSS Black, Christina Aguilera, Hugo and Old Spice fragrances; as well as Bold, Daz, Fairy, Flash and Lenor detergents. There are nowhere near as many competitors as there are brands on supermarket shelves.
[0] full list: http://www.pg.com/en_UK/brands/all-brands.shtml