I learned the lesson many, many years ago. I was in the local grocery store around the time lower priced "store brand" items were becoming very common. I was in the isle when a store clerk was restocking shelves. He opened a box which was marked as their store brand fruit cocktail (they called the brand "plain wrap" back then), but it contained cans of Del Monte Fruit Cocktail. Oooops, mispackaged!

We purchase MANY store brand products and most times can't tell the difference between them and the name brands (most likely the same stuff with different labels). Admittedly, some items don't quite measure up, but for the most part, we have no problem with the lower priced store brands.

Regarding the wine test mentioned above ... Lynn is a huge fan of wine and always has a decent sized selection on hand. I personally don't care for wine, although I did put away a few bazillion bottles of Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill in my H/S days!

Anyway, she only buys lower priced wine and many times discovers some that are exceptional. I might add, she knows her wines and has even gone through training on wines when she was in the food business. For a while, she was going to Trader Joe's and buying their "2-Buck Chuck" ... although I think it's more than $2/bottle these days. Lately she's been buying box wine from Aldi and says it's pretty darn good. Granted, she does enjoy the heck out of a high-bucks, quality wine on special occassions, but for everyday wines, she has stumbled on some quality "cheap" wines and has no complaints.