Last week, I went to a Shop Rite supermarket in Lincoln Park, New Jersey to see how store brands would compare to national brands. I set up a table, some samples, and the shoppers flocked to offer their opinion

There is no question: to save money buy the store’s own brand.

According to the Private Label Manufacturers Association, one in five products purchased in grocery outlets is a "store brand" product. Store brand sales now exceed $40 billion each year. Why do store brands cost less? Supermarkets offer a similar product with less money spent on advertising and packaging which is then passed on to the shopper, and in some cases the savings are almost 50%.

There are two things to remember about store brands.

First, be sure to check out the ingredient listing carefully: if it (and the nutritional information) is identical there is a good chance the store has copied the same formula, and the product will be identical.

Second is that every store brand these days has a 100% satisfaction guarantee – if you don’t like the product, bring it back for a refund.

What’s your opinion about store brands? Have you found any exceptional store brand foods? Or store brands that we should avoid at all cost? Share your store brand food stories!

General Mills, the nice folks who bring us many of our breakfast cereal favorites just announced that they are raising prices – again! The increase, according to the company will just be a few percentage points (Kellogg's raised their prices 5% earlier this year) but the reason is that they are making their boxes smaller! These changes will take effect June 25, 2007.

The reason? Higher prices for corn, wheat and cocoa according to the company, but cereal companies who already have huge margins, need to give us a break already. We most certainly, based on past history, can expect the other companies to follow the Big G's lead. By the way…what ever happened to that congressional inquiry into the price of breakfast cereals that was started back in 2002?

The profit margins of individual cereals are a closely guarded secret - but if we take a look at industry statistics (Source: UBS Warburg), the average cereal delivers about 17 % profit. While that might not sound like a lot, it's important to note that in cereals the packaging, shipping, sales, promotion and advertising total 48 % - just about triple (15 %) the cost of the raw material inside the box.

So what can we do?