(Hah … the WordPress text editor is telling me that it's “Saving Draft” … that's actually what I'm going to talk about!)
This past weekend I took a trip to Costco to pick up a few things. Some places my wife and I hesitate to get generic (store) brand because it was weak, didn't work, tasted nasty, contained ingredients that gave her a headache, and so forth. This is a side effect of the manufacturers creating an acceptable product at a much lower cost. Something has to give to meet price.
I don't have the same reservations with Costco's store brand, Kirkland. Their products are almost always more than just inexpensive and acceptable. They're quite competitive on quality.
So, I ventured into a product area that probably puts generic to the test more than just about anything else.
I bought Kirkland beer. A case of Kirkland Handcrafted Ales was $18.99, which was a good $5 cheaper than name-brand competitors like Sam Adams (which is tasty, don't get me wrong).
One of my fraternity brothers in college often said that there are two kinds of beer: good beer, and better beer. Now that I'm (more than) a bit older, I've reached the conclusion that there is such a thing as bad beer, too. But let's give Kirkland brew a fighting chance: is it good, or better?
I was pleasantly surprised with the taste — definitely at least at par with most name brands in the “expensive” section of the grocery store. The IPA had a nice bite to it, and the others were true to form. By no means were they alcoholic dishwater. (The labels on the bottle are plain, but who cares?)
It's true that not all generic items are created equal, but in my experience Costco's store brand is high enough quality across the board that you can feel confident at least giving it a shot.
Even with beer!
Who would have thought that to be the case?
Well, maybe somebody did, but I wouldn’t have. Honestly, my perceptions of generic beer would typically be less than good:)
However, hearing that their beer is actually comparable to other brands shouldn’t be too suprising to me since I do like their other store branded products. When I see the Kirkland brand, I usually think it’s a solid product.
Interesting report!
I didn’t even know there was such a thing as generic beer. It stands to reason that Costco’s would be good though! And I’ve had good luck with store brands in general.
I love Costco… they save me so much money. At first I was worried about the membership cost, but I more than recover that with all the great discounts. Costco is a great company, but like many nationwide businesses it can have some weak spots.
Alot of times Costco just slaps the Kirkland label on original products. Coffee for example that has a Kirkland label is made by Starbucks.
I’ve found that the Kirkland brand of dog food is cheaper AND rated higher than the name brand stuff. We have greyhounds, and found out that we could save money AND give our dogs better food at the same time — in fact, the money we’re saving on dog food alone pays for the membership easily!
Kirkland beer? I wonder who actually makes the beer and if Kirkland bought a private label brand? If so, I wonder who the company is and if any of us can have our own private label beer.
If so, I’d call it, “Good Enough Beer”. Tagline would be, “It Gets The Job Done”.
I love the Kirkland brand Organic strawberry preserves. Yum! (Maybe I will get the beer for my husband to try.)
Target has a good generic brand as well that rivals premium brands.
Very interesting to have generic beer…I think there is generic wine though so I guess beer should follow.
I’ve eyed the Kirkland brand beer a number of times while strolling down the (huge) Costco aisles, but I never knew if it was any good. I’ll have to give it a shot next time (though it will be difficult to pass up the Sam Adams mixed lot).
I’m a big Costco fan. Everything with the Kirkland name on it is high quality. They have the best return and warranty policies around.
For our first baby, we used Kirkland formula exclusively. They ‘re-packaged’ the formula, aka raised the price. We switched to the Target brand. The Kirkland brand is still slightly cheaper, but the convenience factor of Target (there’s one 0.5 miles away versus 7.5 miles for a Costco) plus the general annoyance against Costco of having masked a price increase with a packaging change led us to the change. So far so good.
But I do agree in large part that Costco (Kirkland) brand has some pretty good stuff.
I’m holding out for the Costco generic beer.
I think Kirkland brand diapers are better quality than the big name brand diapers.