The No Name Brand

I really like the No Name brand.

No Name is a generic brand of grocery and household products sold by Loblaws, no frills, Real Canadian Superstore, Your Independent Grocer, Valu-Mart, Zehrs, Fortinos, Provigo, Extra Foods, Super-Valu, Maxi, SaveEasy, and Atlantic Superstore.

You will recognize them due to their yellow packaging and plain black lettering.

What I like about the company is the following:

#1. No jazzy packaging. They're not trying to sell you with fancy graphics.

#2. The description of the product inside is just that. "Cola", "Mayonnaise", "Pure Olive Oil", etc.

#3. The quality of the product is above par. It may say No Name on the outside, but the inside is better than some brand name companies I've tried. I think its because No Name is a brand name and put effort into making a quality product and completely ignore the need to advertise. They don't need to advertise because Loblaws owns the brand and its just there in the store, giving you the choice between brands such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, President's Choice and No Name Cola. (All colas rot your teeth, make you fat on the sugar and use vanilla for the flavour so it doesn't really matter which one you choose.)

#4. Often the product is exactly the same, just different packaging. Lets take an example like Marshmallows. Now you could choose to buy Kraft Marshmallows or No Name Marshmallows. But its the same recipe. You look at the ingredients and the nutritional info and what you learn is that its the same stuff inside the marshmallows. One brand doesn't taste any better than the other. The same is true for many other No Name products. Rice is rice. Cheddar Cheese is Cheddar Cheese. Chocolate Cake Mix is Chocolate Cake Mix. Makes no difference.

#5. Price. You can't beat the No Name prices. They're guaranteed to be the lowest because they spend nothing on advertising or fancy packaging.

Conclusions? Why pay more for a product just for the packaging? To impress someone? Pfff. Fine, buy the brand name stuff when you have guests over. But don't tell the rice was No Name. They will never know the difference.

No name companies (not just the "No Name" brand") often produce very good products and when put to the test are sometimes even better than the brand name product. Check out the video review below for "Sunny Baby" cloth diapers vs a no name cloth diaper. They make look the same, but the mother finds many faults in the design of the Sunny Baby diapers.