Brand loyality

Brand loyality

How loyal are you to a specific brand. Do you find yourself fiercely defending your favorite brand. Or are you one of those people that buy whatever's best at the time, regardless of the brand.

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

You can't really see what's inside many of the packages ...

Exactly.

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

A lot of milk brands have gone to opaque containers, for example. They claim that light is actually bad for milk, and therefore a container that blocks light will keep the milk fresh longer (presuming the same level of refrigeration and all that).

Seeing all the juices and milk in (transparent) bottles in the US is strange.

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

But I do think people are overly-concerned with dates on milk. They'll spend 10 minutes looking through the milk display to find a container that has a later date. All that work for a difference of one day?

If you're unlucky there'll only be one or two days of difference, but it's certainly not unusual to find a difference of five days. But surely anyone can do a quick scan of the dates in seconds, you exaggerator. We usually just buy sterilized milk ourselves. I drink significantly less milk than I used to and you don't have to worry about anything expiring until you actually open it.

Btw, I'm not really sure how that works as an example of how transparency would matter. I've never seen sour milk look any different from regular milk — only smell. I suppose if you kept the bacteria growing long enough it'd turn brown or something…

Originally posted by Frenzie:

Btw, I'm not really sure how that works as an example of how transparency would matter. I've never seen sour milk look any different from regular milk — only smell. I suppose if you kept the bacteria growing long enough it'd turn brown or something…

I think a Sam Adams employee transferred to the dairy career. That would make the most sense.

Originally posted by Frenzie:

If you're unlucky there'll only be one or two days of difference, but it's certainly not unusual to find a difference of five days.

Not at our store. We work hard to make sure that doesn't happen. Since about half the people will just grab the first jug they see, all we have to do is make sure any milk that's more than a day older is in the first place those people would grab.

As far as 10 minutes ... we have 3 doors of 2% milk (the most popular variety here), each door has 4 shelves and each shelf holds 24 gallons of milk. And yes, I've seen a few people go to great lengths to get the milk that's all the way at the back, if the date was different. Scanning the back rows can't be done in seconds, especially if you check the top and bottom shelves.

If it's curdled (and yes, that has happened once or twice), you can see that. As far as just generally sour, no.

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

Not at our store. We work hard to make sure that doesn't happen. Since about half the people will just grab the first jug they see, all we have to do is make sure any milk that's more than a day older is in the first place those people would grab.

As far as 10 minutes ... we have 3 doors of 2% milk (the most popular variety here), each door has 4 shelves and each shelf holds 24 gallons of milk. And yes, I've seen a few people go to great lengths to get the milk that's all the way at the back, if the date was different. Scanning the back rows can't be done in seconds, especially if you check the top and bottom shelves.

Right, I forgot about American grocery stores while I wrote that. You must be talking about those unpleasant vending-machine-like shelves. I'm afraid that from my perspective most differences turn out negatively for the US. Most important, edible cheese, bread, fruit, and vegetables are significantly more expensive. Wine and beer are too, but those I don't need. I guess Americans must not cook at home much, even though everyone has a really nice kitchen. All the processed food is probably cheaper than here, but it's also lower quality. I compared a bunch of labels and sometimes the only difference seems to be HFCS instead of sugar, or HFCS instead of nothing. The logical conclusion would seem to be that HFCS is the primary reason American (affordable) food sucks, unless the ingredients are all just lower quality I suppose. And while checking out everything's packed in a dozen plastic bags even if you have only three items and they look at you strangely if you bring your own bag. /rant

There is good food out there, but you have to know what you're getting. By and large the pre-made convenience meals aren't that good. There are exceptions, they're smaller, high-quality vendors (both of which mean the price is higher). I'm not a vegetarian, but there's one brand of organic vegetarian foods we carry that I'd buy just for the taste. But it does cost twice as much as other brands.

Fructose is actually supposed to have fewer calories than a corresponding amount of cane sugar - but does the food actually need to be that sweet to begin with? Same with salt of course ... a lot of products are now using sea salt as it has less sodium, but to me they didn't need that much salt in the first place so why would I care they have less sodium?

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

There is good food out there, but you have to know what you're getting. By and large the pre-made convenience meals aren't that good. There are exceptions, they're smaller, high-quality vendors (both of which mean the price is higher). I'm not a vegetarian, but there's one brand of organic vegetarian foods we carry that I'd buy just for the taste. But it does cost twice as much as other brands.

Could you clarify what you mean by convenience meals? I've been talking about regular breakfast and lunch things like bread, cheese, and peanut butter. I've never tried what Americans call a TV dinner, but I wouldn't recommend most of the microwave dinners they sell here either.

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

Fructose is actually supposed to have fewer calories than a corresponding amount of cane sugar - but does the food actually need to be that sweet to begin with?

I'm talking about flavor, not calories, but you're completely right: if they didn't stick so much sugar in everything then you shouldn't need to worry about the calories in the first place — not that I do. Most American bread in a regular price range is inedible because it's like some kind of messed up sugar bread, when it shouldn't have any sugar to begin with. That said, the HFCS bread clearly tasted worse than the bread that was sweetened with honey which wasn't nearly as awful, albeit still kind of bad. Dominick's rye bread was the only cheapish bread I actually kind of liked that was in any sane kind of price range, but really it primarily made me yearn more for real rye bread. They actually sold some real bread at… Trader Joe's I believe, but that was at insane prices. You can also get decent bread at real bakeries, but those were also significantly pricier. Still, that's what I'd recommend. Alternatively you could live exclusively on bagels I suppose.

Btw, over here I buy low sugar products because I don't like the oversweetened flavor of oh so many products, and take very special care that they didn't replace it with some awful sweetener.

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

Same with salt of course ... a lot of products are now using sea salt as it has less sodium, but to me they didn't need that much salt in the first place so why would I care they have less sodium?

We're in total agreement. But no matter how bad it is here, unfortunately it's probably at least twice as bad in the US.

Brand loyalty is something dreamed up by the company PRpeople and brain people into thinking they thought of it themselves.

Originally posted by rjhowie:

Brand loyalty is something dreamed up by the company PRpeople and brain people into thinking they thought of it themselves.

Have you EVER seen an Apple fanboy? Dissing all the other products and fiercely defending their Apple product. Also, they always buy Apple products despite it being overpriced.

Originally posted by wikipedian:

Have you EVER seen an Apple fanboy? Dissing all the other products and fiercely defending their Apple product. Also, they always buy Apple products despite it being overpriced.

not to mention how shitty it is.

Originally posted by Frenzie:

Could you clarify what you mean by convenience meals?

Frozen entrees or dinners. While popularly called "TV dinners" the brand that term was coined for (Banquet) doesn't officially qualify as a dinner. That, and few people eat them while watching TV any more - these days it's more about Dad just got home from work and the kids have to be at their soccer game in half an hour, so we don't have enough time to actually cook. So you grab several entrees from the freezer, throw them in the microwave for a couple of minutes (yes, there are instructions available for cooking more than one at a time) and the kids don't have to play with an empty stomach.

(Dinner is supposed to be a larger meal, the majority of the single serving frozen entrees are only about 10 ounces.)

I'm not a huge bread person (either way you want to interpret that - I'm not huge, and I don't each much bread), probably the main reason I avoid most fast food places. My parents get their bread at a local bread shop.

I know one of the spaghetti restaurants in town actually takes pride in how sweet their bread is, I don't think garlic bread should be sweet. But other than that particular anecdote I've had no reason to pay attention to the sugar content in breads.

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

Frozen entrees or dinners. While popularly called "TV dinners" the brand that term was coined for (Banquet) doesn't officially qualify as a dinner. That, and few people eat them while watching TV any more - these days it's more about Dad just got home from work and the kids have to be at their soccer game in half an hour, so we don't have enough time to actually cook. So you grab several entrees from the freezer, throw them in the microwave for a couple of minutes (yes, there are instructions available for cooking more than one at a time) and the kids don't have to play with an empty stomach.

Okay, I understood you correctly then. The ones over here are alright, but unless you choose the vegetarian option they're usually too low on vegetables and almost always too salty. What we do is definitely much better tasting: we cook in such a way that we always have leftovers for at least one day so we don't have to cook on a daily basis. Of course that's a lot easier to do when it's just the two of you. I have a friend who lives alone and cooks large batches twice a week or so and freezes them. Again it's cheaper and better-tasting, though it sounds like it might get a bit monotonous in the long run.

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

I'm not a huge bread person (either way you want to interpret that - I'm not huge, and I don't each much bread), probably the main reason I avoid most fast food places. My parents get their bread at a local bread shop.

With the exception of Subway and to a lesser extent Jimmy John's (it's good bread, but I'm just not too big on white bread) I'm certainly not aware of any fast food places that have any kind of decent bread. Besides you wouldn't call the two I mentioned fast food, even though it's fast.

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

I know one of the spaghetti restaurants in town actually takes pride in how sweet their bread is, I don't think garlic bread should be sweet. But other than that particular anecdote I've had no reason to pay attention to the sugar content in breads.

I've never had to. The only bread that's sweet is… sugar bread.

As far as the garlic bread goes, it doesn't sound too great but I haven't tasted it. It was annoying how much they put sugar in everything in Italy though. I asked for "orange juice", they gave me some kind of lemonade (or orangeade I suppose). They'd also put sugar on and in their bread and croissants. But they didn't do that for dinner, only for breakfast.

There are plenty of sweetened orange drinks out there (perhaps the most famous being Sunny D) but really I never saw the point. Real orange juice tends to be plenty sweet enough.

There's plenty of breads that are supposed to be sweet - banana nut bread, pumpkin bread, sticky buns, cinnamon rolls, "monkey bread", etc. I consider most of them as a dessert item. I'm not one of those who puts honey on buttermilk biscuits either, but it is quite popular, and a lot of the "country style" restaurants that serve biscuits will have honey on the table for those so inclined.

Of course if you get down to it, any yeast breads will have to have a small amount of sugar in them for the yeast to grow.

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

There are plenty of sweetened orange drinks out there (perhaps the most famous being Sunny D) but really I never saw the point. Real orange juice tends to be plenty sweet enough.

Half the juice or less with a bunch of water, sugar, and perhaps a coloring agent? Sounds like a cost-saving mechanic to me.

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

There's plenty of breads that are supposed to be sweet - banana nut bread, pumpkin bread, sticky buns, cinnamon rolls, "monkey bread", etc. I consider most of them as a dessert item.

+1

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

I'm not one of those who puts honey on buttermilk biscuits either, but it is quite popular, and a lot of the "country style" restaurants that serve biscuits will have honey on the table for those so inclined.

I don't know what those are, but they look like (buttermilk) scones. I do sometimes put honey on my bread and certainly have no problem with that: the problem's when eating the bread with something hearty like cheese. Some people actually put chocolate sprinkles on their cheese, but I find that a rather unattractive concept.

I know that in Europe the term biscuit tends to mean what we call a cookie. In this country, a biscuit tends to be a small bread (and not sweet) that uses baking powder (a mixture of baking soda and cream of tartar) or some other chemical leavening agent. (My grandparents were French-Canadian, they also tended to call cookies biscuits. But what we call cookies are unleavened, while biscuits are leavened.)

I don't speak UK English but US English: I'm more familiar with baked potatoes than with jacket potatoes. However, that doesn't mean I'm familiar with all American food, and I would assume that scones mean the same thing here and in Ireland as in the UK. Cookie is actually derived from Dutch koekie* or koekje and mostly means the same thing (also compare German Kuchen).

* Same pronunciation.

They do sell something called scones, other than the fact they're sweet I couldn't say much about them generally. The ones I've had tended to be triangular in shape, but as I haven't encountered them much I couldn't say if that's a general rule.

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

They do sell something called scones, other than the fact they're sweet I couldn't say much about them generally. The ones I've had tended to be triangular in shape, but as I haven't encountered them much I couldn't say if that's a general rule.

The ones I have tend to be round and buttery....

Originally posted by jbrothernew37:

You could choose to get Laid...or is it Layed?

We get Lay's here as well. While the Hot&Sour Fish Soup chips/crisps may be "intense and stimulating", I have only tried Lobster & Cheese Lay's myself. It was kind of cheesy or lobstery I guess.

It says Lay's but looks like Pringles.

You can get them baggy as well if you prefer, that is marginally cheaper. While the Chinese consume a lot of potatoes, that doesn't seem to extend to these kind of fried products. At least they don't seem that popular in stores or elsewhere I've seen, whatever the flavour.

Originally posted by Wikipedia:

Beside Magic Masala, Flavors popular in India are "American Style Cream and Onion" and "Spanish tomato tango". "World Classic Salted" is available as well. Recently, Lays India introduced a contest to name new flavors, and then invited the public to taste and vote on the best of them. The new flavors in production now are HipHop Honey and Chili, Cheesy Mexicana, Mango Mastana, and Tangy Twist. The winner of the contest was "Mango Mastana".

Flavors featured in Thailand include Nori Seaweed, Basil, Squid, Spicy Chili Squid, Seafood and Mayonnaise, and Spicy Seafood. In Thailand there are Classic, Sour Cream & Onion, Cheese & Onion, Mexican Bar-B-Q, and Japanese Nori Seaweed. Temporary international flavors have also been introduced, such as French Mayonnaise, Balsamic Vinegar and Salt (England), Garlic Soft Shelled Crab (Hong Kong), Soy Sauce, Salmon Teriyaki (Japan), Lobster, Bacon & Cheese (America). Other traditional "Thai" flavors include Tom Yum, Thai Chili Paste, Thai Seafood Dip, Chili and Lime.

Lay's China has four ranges of flavors: Cool & Refreshing (Cucumber, Kiwi, Blueberry, Cherry Tomato, and Lime), Classic Flavors (American Classic, Italian Red Meat, Mexican Tomato Chicken, Texas Grilled BBQ, and French Chicken), Intense & Stimulating (Numb & Spicy Hot Pot, and Hot & Sour Fish Soup), and Stax (Authentic Original, Finger Licking Braised Pork, Seafood Barbecue, Spicy Seafood, Tomato, Crispy Roasted Chicken, Black Pepper Rib Eye Steak, Cucumber, Kiwi, Blueberry, and Lime).

Flavors in Vietnam include Original, Brazilian BBQ, Beijing Roasted Duck, Manhattan Steak, Nori, and Mornay Shrimp.

In Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam, the flavors are Salmon Teriyaki, Classic Salty, Nori Seaweed, Grilled Chicken Paprika, and Fiesta BBQ.

Originally posted by jax:

Originally posted by jbrothernew37:

You could choose to get Laid...or is it Layed?

We get Lay's here as well. While the Hot&Sour Fish Soup chips/crisps may be "intense and stimulating", I have only tried Lobster & Cheese Lay's myself. It was kind of cheesy or lobstery I guess.

if your lucky you can get both?

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

I always found it disingenuous when they say "No MSG*", then if you read the asterisked note it says "except for trace amounts found naturally in yeast extract". For those who are actually allergic (or otherwise respond badly), that's no help.I know, legally "no" means less than half of the unit of measure (as in, it rounds off to 0), but sometimes that's not good enough.

Trace amounts would in most cases have no ill effect, but then again MSG would usually be added in "trace" amounts (wonder if there is a legal definition of "trace").

Otherwise I would agree, it is disingenuous, and likely due to the common perception that anything natural is healthy and anything artificial is not. MSG is an essence of the umami (savoury) taste, like sugar and salt are essences of sweet and salty. Thus sugar is bad for you, but fruit extracts or honey is seen as healthy. Using these "natural" products incur a greater cost to the producer, but allows a higher profit. Likewise many foodstuffs are naturally very high in glutamate, it would make little sense to fret about MSG whilst daily ingesting huge quantities of fermented fish.

That said, sugar, salt, vinegar, MSG, chilli are good masking agents. When something is doused in them it is hard to discern the real state of the food you are eating.