During my unemployment phase in life, I cut back on nearly every expense and this included not going to Costco. I’d easily spend $1000 per month at Costco on wine, fish, and other great food but with a bleak uncertain future I opted to skip shopping there. Instead I opted to experiment and try some generics to see if they had improved any in the last 10 years.

Much to my surprise, I found some items that were fairly comparable so I began experimenting in greater detail by widening my selection of generics and unfortunately, I found some items where generics just won’t do. The first was dish soap as I bought a cheap generic and was disappointed to barely get any suds when I poured some on sponges during dish washes. The second disappointment was toilet tissue and nothing more needs to be said about that.

The most surprising item that I’ll likely never go back to name brand was laundry detergent. It seems stores are selling store branded generics on laundry detergent and bleach that is now nearly identical to the name brand product except it generally sells for about 40% to 50% less! Sorry Gain and Clorox but you’ve lost a customer forever to store branded generics. The last laugh might be on me if it’s the same product just rebranded in which case I won’t be paying full price anymore!

I actually wonder how many times this is being repeated across America. How many people have discovered some generics that are just as comparable as the name brands? Clearly, everyone will have their preferences and while I may be unwilling to accept generic dish soap, there are some that will accept it but it’s interesting to think how the growth and profit lines are changing for many brands.