What is a product that you won’t accept a generic alternative for?

Super glue.

Cyanocrylate adhesives were accidently discovered in WW2 while trying to develop a clear plastic. Later Eastman-Kodak held the patent and then sold it to Loctite on the 1960s.

Loctite 404 is so much better than anything else available on the market. It bonds better, it's stronger, it lasts longer and the bottle applicator is more controlled and easier to use. If you want it to last years, you can actually store in in the refrigerator when not being used.

I buy nearly everything generic but generic Band-Aids have terrible adhesive so I always buy name brand.

Edit: Oh, and frozen pizza. I’ve had too many generics with crusts that might as well have been made of cardboard.

I think Dawn dish soap gets mentioned in these often.

SD cards, SSD, USB drives, any form of computer memory really and replacement batteries too eg for cameras. I suck up the cost and buy directly from a reputable manufacturer.

Mine is Q-tips…. Let’s just say you shouldn’t put a flimsy cotton stick in your ear unless you trust it’ll come out in one piece

Huy Fong Sriracha. As the shortage has made painfully clear. When I dream at night, I'm eating food covered in sriracha and tinkering with my roomful of Raspberry Pi projects.

And don't talk to me about disgruntled pepper farmer rivalries or whatever bullshit. Just please give me back my sriracha. :(

Permanently Deleted

Irish butter, in particularly Kerrygold, are so much better than american butter.

Garbage bags. I don't particularly care WHICH brand, but I won't do generic. The consequences if the bag rips open are horrifying.

Victorinox Swiss Army knives. If you want a tiny, multipurpose pocketknife, they cannot be beat.

And they're cheap enough from TSA eBay sales, why would you accept a crappy knockoff?!

Pretty much every signature soda drink. Pepsi, Coke, Mountain Dew... none of the knock-offs taste right and some are just nasty. Oddly, root beer seems to be the one flavor everyone can do well, maybe because it's a more common flavor with no patents on the general idea? I dunno but I don't think I've ever had a 'bad' root beer.

Pop-Tarts. No store brand toaster pastry tastes like Pop-Tarts.

Nutella,

I only buy it once or twice a year but no other chocolate spread tastes nearly as good.

Q-Tips. Paper shafts, plenty of fuzz on the ends.

I honestly can't think of anything. I own many "name brand" products but it's usually a pay-once-cry-once situation. It's not like I keep buying more of the same product after I already have one.

For consumables pretty much every product I use is the generic version of some well known one. I'm not paying double the price for something that's 20% better. For example the generic version of my favourite cookies is 95 cents and the name brand is 3.4€. It's not that much better.

My dad always bought the no-name cookies for us, according to him every major brand had a deal with discount supermarkets to sell their brand name product under a cheaper no-name alias.

That might be true in some cases but the stuff he bought was mostly just cheap knock-offs that didn't even come close to the original.

You're absolutely wrong about Advil. Advil has a tasty candy coating.

Spam, off brand spam just isn’t worth it

Certain skin products for me. It makes such a big difference to get some well recommended brands rather than risk it with a random one.

Cetaphil and Cerave are usually solid, and otherwise I refer to the CDA when unsure:

https://dermatology.ca/recognized-products/skincare/ (note that you can scroll within the list to see everything)

The list is for stuff that is

• Low potential for irritation
• Fragrance free or unscented
• Do not contain the most common allergens
• Non-comedogenic

But I specifically look for non-comedogenic and fragrance free. The latter because my old workplace had this as a requirement, and now I prefer it

Coffee. I found a coffee shop I loved 20 years ago and have been buying beans from them ever since. Sure, it's 2x-3x times more expensive, but it's worth it to me.

Toothpaste. I have sensitive teeth and the off brands just don't cut it. Heck, some of the name brands don't.

3d printing filament. Printed Solid named their line after their dog, so I have to. I will still branch out for stuff on sale, but the majority of my stock is Printed Solid.

Trader Joe's stuff is hard to find emulated else where.

Netherlands represent!

Coca Cola
Hela curry ketchup
Albert Heijn frikadelbroodje
Ben & Jerry's ice cream

Oreos

Contact lens solution (any name brand)

Kraft mac and cheese, all the store brands are superficially similar but taste bland and or have weird textures.

Most foods. Store brands are (nearly) always lacking in something. Be it tiny sized canned beans, or jam whose only flavour is ‘sweet’. That shit is cheap for a reason.

Doesn’t apply to everything (depending on where you live), some things you can’t cut corners on without advertising it. 2% Milk is 2% milk.

But largely, low cost food has been made low cost via haircuts and shortcuts.

Heinz ketchup, everything else is garbage in a bottle!

Dr. Bronners liquid Castille soap. I've tried others but they are not as concentrated or as moisturizing. Great diluted for shaving legs.

Sensodyne Pronamel Intensive Enamel Repair Toothpaste. I've reversed three cavities that were forming by using this toothpaste.

Persil detergent. I use other detergents but always have this on deck for tough stains or funky items.

Jockey women's cotton underwear. There's a specific cut that they have that's flattering and comfortable.

Bahlsen Schoko-leibniz. The store brand ones don't have nearly as nice chocolate.

Conversely, after eights are garbage and the supermarket version comes with nicely tempered chocolate that does a very satisfying crackle when you bite.

Milk. Great Value’s brand just tastes so darned awful for some reason I can’t place. I live in the midwest, and Prairie Farms is pretty common as a brand here.

There are some others, many dairy products now that I think about it, but there’s also some medicines like Mucinex which I prefer to use over generic brands. I’m otherwise not very picky.

This has become a rarity for me but I don't like any french onion dip other than Dean's French onion dip.

I don't eat it very often because my tastes have changed but if I had to go to the store and buy some right now if they didn't have deans I wouldn't get it.

• Kleenex
• toilet paper
• paper towels
• potato chips
• daisy sour cream
• batteries
• tampons
• butter
• olive oil
• ziplocks
• pumpkin puree
• contact lenses

This is a combined list from my wife and I.

Tool. I only use Dewalt and Kobalt

Mortons salt. Somehow that little metal spout is just worse in every store brand I've tried.

Coffee and tea. Otherwise I always buy store brand because it comes from the same factory.

Birth control

This shit was asked a week or two ago. Go away advertiser.

Off brand Bagel Bites are a big nope for me.

I've tried a lot of generic ibuprofen meds (E: including gel ones) but nothing acts both as fast and effectively as advil gel pills. It very well may be a placebo, but I don't really care so long as it works.

Top The Tater. Accept no substitutes

Coffee. It's always from a proper indie roaster and not the store brand

Shave gel. Some soaps. Some said Old Baby Bay seasoning and I am 100% behind them on that. Toilet paper. Menstrual pads. Ritz crackers (the consistency, the flavour, the texture/mouth feel). Certain electronics. Definitely tools (I've broken so many pairs of diagonal side cutters and the ones that have held up the best and had the best warranty are knipex). And yeah. I buy Advil (the candy coating makes it easier for me to swallow dry and I'm pretty prone to need it for lots of pains because I'm basically a walking talking broken vessel).

i know they prolly come from the same tap, but im not chuggin' a bottle of generic pepto

Clancy’s Cheese Curls. I dislike all other brands of cheese curls.

Used to be 3M duck tape. But that has totally gone to shit.

Metamucil Bulk Fiber

All the generics are awful in taste or consistency (for instance not being as finely ground it seems). And weirdly in Kirkland Signature's case, foamy.

Stupid expensive for what it is. But the effect is worth it.

Edit: sigh, autocorrect, you are the worst.

Cottage Cheese. Prairie Farms is my go to

Redbull.

Old Bay seasoning
batteries (when I have to use disposables)
Command hooks

Condoms

Tempo. Every other tissue I tried messes up the whole laundry, if I missed only one pant pocket.

Greek yogurt

VH soy sauce over store brand. Has to be. VH is king, store brand is so bad it doesn't even count as soy sauce, and I'm a broke dude who buys store brand everything possible. Also mini-wheats, store brand mini wheats are terrible. Other store brand cereals are good but with mini-wheats they dropped the ball.

SOS Pads and Scotch Tape

Heinz ketchup, Hellman’s Mayonnaise, Coca Cola, Western Digital hard drives back when platters were a thing.

Hanes crew socks. All the alternatives just don't feel good on my feet.

Used to be Heinz but now they've replaced tomato with more brown sugar or something so it tastes bland.

Tech products. It's not worth the risk of getting some Chinese spying crap. Even chargers and cables have the risk of damaging your hardware.

Davines shampoo

Braun S9 Pro electric razor

Cola Zero / Pepsi Max (generic alternatives rarely have sugarless options anyway)

Lipton probably but I can let it slip sometimes. Many alternatives just don't taste right, but they are at least drinkable.

Hair and skincare, especially since it's not even more expensive if I buy from a local store that sells those products in bulk.

I usually actually prefer the local knockoffs, it's usually better and uses locally sourced ingredients. Like soft drinks from the US taste sickeningly sweet and I really don't like them but there are plenty of locally made soft drinks that are great.

Peanut butter. Generic peanut butter is downright nasty. Skippy or Jiff for me.

A lot of condiments. Ranch dressing and ketchup for sure.

Bickford’s cordials. Whether with water or soda water, other flavours are just yuk.

Frozen burger patties. You can taste the money going down the drain.

Milk, eggs, cheese, pretty much anything dairy. Almost everything else the generic is great

Bananas.