TheSamba.com :: View topic - Somebody give me the run down on 'Generic Brands'

Mon May 12, 2008 7:52 am

So I have a cold so I went to buy some DayQuil whatever, since the generic version that for instance the brand Target sells, I was wondering who actually makes it because I know Target doesnt have a plant that makes this shit.
Does that mean they buy it cheaper from Nyquil and throw their own label on it? How does it work out where its worth it for a store to have their own brand of something when they already sell the OG version. This goes for anything a store sells as a generic brand. Just wondering.

Mon May 12, 2008 8:01 am

It's just like making golf clubs. There's only 5 foundries worldwide that does it and the difference between the Pings and the Rawlings is the metal provided by the manufacturer for the foundry to make their product. The same goes with any generic, the company having the product made provides the ingredients.

Higher dollar products may have higher quality ingredients even though both will have the same ingredients and come out to be the same product.

Mon May 12, 2008 8:31 am

I see. That was a great way to put it. On certain items the bottle has the same exact shape and all.

I always buy the generic cereal like the fake Rice Crispies. I could never tell the difference.

Mon May 12, 2008 8:34 am

Skim wrote: I see. That was a great way to put it. On certain items the bottle has the same exact shape and all.

I always buy the generic cereal like the fake Rice Crispies. I could never tell the difference.

try the generic captain crunch and come back and tell us that.

Mon May 12, 2008 8:38 am

For drugs, I think a lot of generic brands are not made by the original companies. I see a lot of house brand drugs have a disclaimer saying "This product is not manufactured or distributed by <whatever company they are cloning>" I remember seeing an article in the newspaper a while back about one of the companies that produces house brand drugs, how they go in and reverse-engineer things to come up with the formulas without any industrial espionage.

Mon May 12, 2008 9:06 am

When I worked in bakeries, the difference between the name brand and the generics was the plastic bag, nothing else.

One reason you do it is because if you make the store brand you usually control the shelf, so your products get the best placement. In the bread business you usually want to be at the end of the shelf closest to the front of the store. So you set the bread aisle up so that your brand was closest to the front, the generics were next, and the housewife had to walk all the way past your bread and then the cheap bread to get to your competition's bread. If you didn't have the generic and got buried in 3rd position you were pretty much fucked as far as selling much bread in that store.

You cut your price to get the business, but it's better to not make as much than it is to send the trucks out half empty, and overall you sell a lot more of your premium product too.

Mon May 12, 2008 10:19 am

With the drugs, it's straight chemistry. The generic has to be tested and certified to have the same efficacy as the one it is replacing.
Whenever you buy medicines off the shelf, always look at the active ingredients. Combination remedies like Nyquil are a huge ripoff. They typically have a pain reliever (acetaminophen) and one of several kinds of decongenstant, and an antihistamine etc. Look that shit up and then go to the store and buy big bottles of the single ingedient store brand. Take pills for what symptom needs treating, and be done with it. It costs much less, works the same and you're not taking a medication for a symptom you don't have.

With foods, its much different. Sometimes the generic is good, sometimes not. I have yet to find a generic raisin bran as good as Post, but that's just my preference.

Mon May 12, 2008 12:19 pm

You know, an odd thing about generics and private labels was that the richer the customers the better the cheap stuff sold. I worked at a bakery on the Southside of Chicago, right next to the Robert Taylor Homes in fact, and we couldn't give the generic bread away in the stores around there. You got up to the North Shore where the rich white folks lived and they jumped all over that cheap stuff.

Mon May 12, 2008 12:24 pm

coad wrote: You know, an odd thing about generics and private labels was that the richer the customers the better the cheap stuff sold. I worked at a bakery on the Southside of Chicago, right next to the Robert Taylor Homes in fact, and we couldn't give the generic bread away in the stores around there. You got up to the North Shore where the rich white folks lived and they jumped all over that cheap stuff.

Makes you wonder why they are rich. :wink:

Mon May 12, 2008 12:31 pm

53 0val wrote: coad wrote: You know, an odd thing about generics and private labels was that the richer the customers the better the cheap stuff sold. I worked at a bakery on the Southside of Chicago, right next to the Robert Taylor Homes in fact, and we couldn't give the generic bread away in the stores around there. You got up to the North Shore where the rich white folks lived and they jumped all over that cheap stuff.

Makes you wonder why they are rich. :wink:

Bah, if getting rich means eating Kornie Flakes instead of Corn Flakes to save a nickel then I'll just stay poor.

Mon May 12, 2008 12:36 pm

I take tramadol which is generic for Ultram...2 tablets 3 times per day (for the last 13 years)...Supposedly they're the same but I can tell one helluva difference if I take the Ultram...Little more potent it seems...

Mon May 12, 2008 3:40 pm

Major Woody wrote: With the drugs, it's straight chemistry. The generic has to be tested and certified to have the same efficacy as the one it is replacing.
Whenever you buy medicines off the shelf, always look at the active ingredients. Combination remedies like Nyquil are a huge ripoff. They typically have a pain reliever (acetaminophen) and one of several kinds of decongenstant, and an antihistamine etc. Look that shit up and then go to the store and buy big bottles of the single ingedient store brand. Take pills for what symptom needs treating, and be done with it. It costs much less, works the same and you're not taking a medication for a symptom you don't have.

With foods, its much different. Sometimes the generic is good, sometimes not. I have yet to find a generic raisin bran as good as Post, but that's just my preference.

I worked pharmacy for 20 years, and there was seldom any difference at all in brand vs generic.

On those rare occasions where there was a problem, it was usually caused by an allergy to one of the binders, fillers, or dies used in the tablet, capsule, etc.

The active ingredients are the same, and all have been tested, approved, and certified by the FDA. In the case of many, many generics, they are made by the same manufacturer as the brand name. The perfect example of that is/was Percocet. Same exact thing, from the same exact factory, owned by the exact same company. There's money to made on both, so they take advantage of the opportunity.

There's also no generic available for meds until their original patent runs out. It used to be 7 years, but I think that changed. I've been out of the business for a decade, and there's no doubt been several changes that I'm not aware of.

The real disparity is between what you pay the vet for meds, and what you pay your local pharmacy. Vets charge in the neighborhood of 1000% markup on some things, while on others they sell the exact same things that humans take, for about 10% of the cost. There was a big stink about it a few years ago when it was discovered that something like 500 sheep could be medicated with the same exact drug as humans take, for less than 1% of the cost.

Mon May 12, 2008 3:49 pm

Skim wrote: I see. That was a great way to put it. On certain items the bottle has the same exact shape and all.

I always buy the generic cereal like the fake Rice Crispies. I could never tell the difference. So were my old Marthis Francis Gibraud's really Levis?

Mon May 12, 2008 3:51 pm

I know it doesn't help you cold Skim, but the Kirkland batteries at Costco are made by Duracell and the appliances by Whirlpool.

Wed May 14, 2008 10:09 am

coad wrote: You know, an odd thing about generics and private labels was that the richer the customers the better the cheap stuff sold. I worked at a bakery on the Southside of Chicago, right next to the Robert Taylor Homes in fact, and we couldn't give the generic bread away in the stores around there. You got up to the North Shore where the rich white folks lived and they jumped all over that cheap stuff.

Knowledge is power! I have never understood why po-folks seem to spend so much of their money down at the 7-Eleven. If anyone in this country can't afford to shop at convenience stores, its the po-folks. Get your ass off the couch, clip some coupons and look at what you're paying for. My oldest daughter is seven and already aware of what an advertisement is and to regard all of them as suspect.

Wed May 14, 2008 10:52 am

Major Woody wrote: coad wrote: You know, an odd thing about generics and private labels was that the richer the customers the better the cheap stuff sold. I worked at a bakery on the Southside of Chicago, right next to the Robert Taylor Homes in fact, and we couldn't give the generic bread away in the stores around there. You got up to the North Shore where the rich white folks lived and they jumped all over that cheap stuff.

Knowledge is power! I have never understood why po-folks seem to spend so much of their money down at the 7-Eleven. If anyone in this country can't afford to shop at convenience stores, its the po-folks. Get your ass off the couch, clip some coupons and look at what you're paying for. My oldest daughter is seven and already aware of what an advertisement is and to regard all of them as suspect. It's because 7-11 sells lottery tickets at every register and Piggly Wiggly doesn't.

Wed May 14, 2008 11:15 am

My understanding, for the drugs, is that it is the process that is patented, not the active ingredient. So if someone else figures out another way to produce the same chemical, that becomes the generic brand. Sometimes this makes a difference to the quality of the product, sometimes not.

The other case is that the original patent has run out so anyone can now produce the same drug, maybe of the same quality, maybe not. The original manufacturer, however, has had several years of market domination and has become the name brand everyone trusts and so can get away with charging more.

Wed May 14, 2008 11:51 am

jolo wrote:

The other case is that the original patent has run out so anyone can now produce the same drug, maybe of the same quality, maybe not. The original manufacturer, however, has had several years of market domination and has become the name brand everyone trusts and so can get away with charging more. Or in the case of Claritin, the patent on Loratadine was running out, so they were going to lose their corner on the market. They started lobbying the FDA to make it an over the counter drug at that point. Now, even with the generics, they are selling more name brand Claritin than they were when it was prescription only.

Wed May 14, 2008 12:02 pm

I have horrible allergies and have to take pills every day. What's weird is after taking a certain brand for awhile it doesn't
seem to work anymore so then I switch to another brand with the same ingredients and they work.

Wed May 14, 2008 12:10 pm

ocdbeetle wrote: I take tramadol which is generic for Ultram...2 tablets 3 times per day (for the last 13 years)...Supposedly they're the same but I can tell one helluva difference if I take the Ultram...Little more potent it seems...

I would NEVER EVER put anything in my mouth that had the name TRAM on it!!!