"Best Selling" or "Most Popular" products that don't deserve it?

[61653 HTAFC]

Inspired by a mention of ketchup in the Supermarkets Discussion thread (and also insomnia), let's discuss examples of products that are the market leader (or close) for their sector despite being (in one's opinion) inferior to a less popular competitor.

A few examples to start us off:
Heinz Tomato Ketchup:  This was the example that prompted the thread, the dominance has always baffled me. It has a habit of separating in the bottle, so if you forget to shake it before use you end up with a dribble of horrid watery mess that sogs your chips. There used to be lots of different brands as an alternative (Hammonds was always a favourite) but these days the choice is limited to Hellmans or the supermarket own-brand.
PG Tips teabags: Another baffling one, great for turning boiling water into dishwater. I don't actually know a single person or household where this is the brew of choice, but pretty much every office break room has a big box of the stuff. Quite fitting that they used to use chimps to advertise it, as you'd have to be quite un-evolved to choose this rubbish!
Nescafe: Much like the above, popular in break rooms and seems to sell well despite having a flavour profile akin to licking a 9-volt battery that's been marinated in mud.
Heinz Baked Beans: I don't have an agenda against Heinz, honest... in fact their tinned soups are among the best and kept me alive during my student days... but their beans really don't deserve their dominance in my opinion. The sauce is too watery in both taste and consistency, and I'd choose the bargain basement own-brand ones if my only choice is that or Heinz. Branston Beans are far nicer. Beanz Meanz Heinz? Not in my home it doesn't!

Does anyone else have examples of products that seem to survive purely on being recognised as the "default" rather than actually being good...? Or am I just weird?*

*=I already know that I am, but this isn't the reason!

 

[PsychoMouse]

Agreed on Heinz ketchup, mind you I don't eat enough of it to be able to tell the difference between a £4 bottle of Heinz vs a 60p bottle of Aldi stuff. Ironically however I think Heinz mayo is much better than Hellman's but then again I usually just buy the cheap stuff.

Everybody knows / should know that Branston is the superior bean.

Hovis is poor for sliced white break vs Warburtons and Robert's

 

[VauxhallandI]

Every alternative brand of Ketchup I’ve tried is rubbish so I’d have to disagree on that one.

 

[Bantamzen]

Walkers crisps (the regular type). Despite them running their current advertising campaign on crisp butties*, they simply aren't up to the job. They are in the same weak crisp to buttie structural category as Golden Wonder. Give me Seabrooks any day of the week over these, they perform way better when placed between two slices of white bread & butter, with a salad cream accompaniment.

(*I don't wish to engage in any discussion as to what to call them, if you don't call them butties you are wrong... )

 

[Magdalia]

PG Tips teabags: Another baffling one, great for turning boiling water into dishwater. I don't actually know a single person or household where this is the brew of choice, but pretty much every office break room has a big box of the stuff. Quite fitting that they used to use chimps to advertise it, as you'd have to be quite un-evolved to choose this rubbish!

I only survive by consuming gallons of tea. I have shopped in various different supermarkets over the years, in every one of them their own label tea has been far superior to PG Tips.

Nescafe: Much like the above, popular in break rooms and seems to sell well despite having a flavour profile akin to licking a 9-volt battery that's been marinated in mud.

Perhaps this explains why I don't drink coffee. But I'm a bit concerned about the experiments that are taking place in your kitchen.

Heinz Tomato Ketchup:  This was the example that prompted the thread, the dominance has always baffled me.

I don't touch any tomato ketchup and have never understood why so many people ruin their food with it.

Heinz Baked Beans: I don't have an agenda against Heinz, honest... in fact their tinned soups are among the best and kept me alive during my student days... but their beans really don't deserve their dominance in my opinion.

But I do buy Heinz Baked Beans and think their reputation is justified.

 

[themeone]

Red Bull - can't see it's much different or any better than the cheapo energy drinks from Aldi and others.

For me it's not so much the "best selling" brands aren't good, they're just massively over-priced compared with alternatives.

 

[SteveM70]

For the last 35 years I’ve always bought Heinz salad cream. Don’t use that much of it, but often a bit of it in a sandwich instead of butter. I remember my parents having own brand stuff when I was a kid and it being horrible. Recently the rampant inflation of the Heinz version has got to the stage that it was about four times the price of the supermarket versions so I tried a bottle of Sainsbury’s salad cream and guess what, it’s really nice

 

[RuddA]

Heinz baked beans are the last ones I would buy, don't like the sauce. Branston would be my first choice, and then anything else before Heinz.

My daughter likes tomato ketchup. She dislikes any of the English ones so we always buy from the Polish shelf instead.

 

[yorksrob]

I used to love Heinz beans, however the problem is that they've been forced to take out the sugar and salt in recent years, which means they now taste like cardboard.

 

[wilbers]

Mr Kipling, while the slogan is "exceedingly good cakes" I'd rather give most of them a miss.

Alpen - pricey and doesn't have much too it - I go for Aldi's nutty muesli, costs a lot less and has plenty of fruit and nuts in it.

Baked beans is another I go for Aldi's own brand (although they have changed it about 6 weeks ago).

Same with all branded stuff I use regularly, try the own brand versions and if its better stick with it, if its much of a muchness then only get the branded version if on offer, and if its non-trivially worse then thats one of the few to only get the branded versions (things like After Eight mints).

 

[Bread & cheese]

Heinz organic beans are good.

And they have the added attraction that they are
Heinz Organic Baked Beans In Tomato Sauce
HOBBITS!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

(*I don't wish to engage in any discussion as to what to call them, if you don't call them butties you are wrong... )

At risk of taking my own thread off-topic, my rule for the term "butties" is that to qualify as a "buttie" the sandwich must (a) actually have butter on the bread, and (b) have a warm filling which causes said butter to melt into the bread. So it's a chip buttie but a crisp sandwich, or a bacon buttie but a ham sandwich. Think that's just a weird quirk of my family though!

Agree on the crisp thing regarding Seabrook versus Walkers. Don't think I've had a bag of Walkers since packed lunches for school... and they use the wrong colours for their cheese & onion and salt & vinegar varieties!

I don't touch any tomato ketchup and have never understood why so many people ruin their food with it.

"Less is more" is certainly a good rule of thumb, I'll give you that!

 

[Broucek]

Starbucks. Flavoured dishwater... But then I drink espresso. I guess if you add a ton of milk and syrup the coffee probably tastes OK.

And, to be fair, Starbucks has triggered a HUGE improvement in the general ambience of cafes in the UK and elsewhere....

 

[SteveM70]

Starbucks. Flavoured dishwater... But then I drink espresso. I guess if you add a ton of milk and syrup the coffee probably tastes OK.

And, to be fair, Starbucks has triggered a HUGE improvement in the general ambience of cafes in the UK and elsewhere....

Interesting. I drink a lot of espresso and I find Starbucks the best (or more accurately least bad) of the big chains. I rarely use them though, as I prefer to support independent shops and only got to Starbucks when I can't find anything else, or at the motorway services.

Costa, on the other hand, is just awful. Harsh, bitter, just vile

 

[yorksrob]

Starbucks. Flavoured dishwater... But then I drink espresso. I guess if you add a ton of milk and syrup the coffee probably tastes OK.

And, to be fair, Starbucks has triggered a HUGE improvement in the general ambience of cafes in the UK and elsewhere....

Interesting. I drink a lot of espresso and I find Starbucks the best (or more accurately least bad) of the big chains. I rarely use them though, as I prefer to support independent shops and only got to Starbucks when I can't find anything else, or at the motorway services.

Costa, on the other hand, is just awful. Harsh, bitter, just vile

I prefer a mug of Gold Blend myself !

 

[nlogax]

In my experience the only foodstuffs that merit buying the big brands are breakfast cereals as supermarket own brands make fairly ropey versions of the originals.

Interesting. I drink a lot of espresso and I find Starbucks the best (or more accurately least bad) of the big chains. I rarely use them though, as I prefer to support independent shops and only got to Starbucks when I can't find anything else, or at the motorway services.

Costa, on the other hand, is just awful. Harsh, bitter, just vile

Couldn't agree more. As much as I hate myself for going to Starbucks some of their basic unadulterated coffee is decent compared to the high street competition and Costa is particular grim stuff.

I prefer a mug of Gold Blend myself !

Can I at least tempt you with lightly used espresso machine? I'm getting rid of mine!

 

[yorksrob]

Can I at least tempt you with lightly used espresso machine? I'm getting rid of mine!

Thanks, but it all sounds a bit high-tec to me

 

[birchesgreen]

This refers mostly to cosmetics but i'm sure its applicable to food as well. Once my friend who worked in the industry told me she never bought the top selling brands or market leaders because they spent so much money on marketing and advertising to get to that position it took away funding from the actual product itself.

 

[johntea]

What fascinates me about Starbucks is how slow the service is (at leasst in my local branch), last time I ordered a coffee it took close to 20 minutes despite the fact there must have been at least 7 members of staff!

Also how you have to give your name rather than just a simple order number, then decipher the posh sounding menu lingo, I just want a coffee!

Hence why I usually just go to McDonalds

 

[gg1]

Cathedral City cheese - supposedly the best selling cheddar in the UK but really no better than supermarket own brands and vastly inferior to Colliers or Davidstow

 

[birchesgreen]

What fascinates me about Starbucks is how slow the service is (at leasst in my local branch), last time I ordered a coffee it took close to 20 minutes despite the fact there must have been at least 7 members of staff!

Also how you have to give your name rather than just a simple order number, then decipher the posh sounding menu lingo, I just want a coffee!

Hence why I usually just go to McDonalds

Yes they spelt my wife's name wrong today, she actually spelt it out for them twice!

 

[Herefordian]

Kellogg's cereal. It's nice, but way overpriced.

I find Aldi cereal tastes just as good and it's half the price.

 

[SteveM70]

Cathedral City cheese - supposedly the best selling cheddar in the UK but really no better than supermarket own brands and vastly inferior to Colliers or Davidstow

If you want a nice, tasty bit of cheddar Lidl do two in their regional ranges (a Scottish one in a blue packet and a Welsh one in red) that are excellent

 

[Bletchleyite]

Any Dyson product. Grossly overpriced, glitzy tat.

The absolute worst are those hand dryers where you put your hands inside so unless you have a very steady hand you end up touching the device and so transferring germs onto your hand from the handy reservoir of dirty water. But none of it is worth the outrageous price usually charged.

What fascinates me about Starbucks is how slow the service is (at leasst in my local branch), last time I ordered a coffee it took close to 20 minutes despite the fact there must have been at least 7 members of staff!

Also how you have to give your name rather than just a simple order number, then decipher the posh sounding menu lingo, I just want a coffee!

Hence why I usually just go to McDonalds

McD's coffee has an excellent reputation to be fair to it. The upside of the 'Bucks is that you can get filter, I prefer that over espresso based drinks, though half the time it's off.

At risk of taking my own thread off-topic, my rule for the term "butties" is that to qualify as a "buttie" the sandwich must (a) actually have butter on the bread, and (b) have a warm filling which causes said butter to melt into the bread. So it's a chip buttie but a crisp sandwich, or a bacon buttie but a ham sandwich. Think that's just a weird quirk of my family though!

Butty is just short for bread and butter, so any sandwich with butter on it, and what are you doing making one without, qualifies. Margarine can get in the sea.

PG Tips teabags: Another baffling one, great for turning boiling water into dishwater. I don't actually know a single person or household where this is the brew of choice, but pretty much every office break room has a big box of the stuff. Quite fitting that they used to use chimps to advertise it, as you'd have to be quite un-evolved to choose this rubbish!

I remember getting a cup of tea at Leeds a while back and being thoroughly disappointed that it was that rubbish rather than the correct Yorkshire tea.

How on earth can you sell any other tea in Yorkshire?

(Though I am quite partial to Murrough's Welsh Brew and always pick a box up when in Wales, and Aldi Gold is also nice)

Nescafe: Much like the above, popular in break rooms and seems to sell well despite having a flavour profile akin to licking a 9-volt battery that's been marinated in mud.

Best instant to me is the Kenco microgrind, otherwise it's Tesco's own gold blend.

Heinz Baked Beans: I don't have an agenda against Heinz, honest... in fact their tinned soups are among the best and kept me alive during my student days... but their beans really don't deserve their dominance in my opinion. The sauce is too watery in both taste and consistency, and I'd choose the bargain basement own-brand ones if my only choice is that or Heinz. Branston Beans are far nicer. Beanz Meanz Heinz? Not in my home it doesn't!

I prefer supermarket normal own brand. I find Heinz have a slightly odd taste to them sometimes.

Starbucks. Flavoured dishwater... But then I drink espresso. I guess if you add a ton of milk and syrup the coffee probably tastes OK.

And, to be fair, Starbucks has triggered a HUGE improvement in the general ambience of cafes in the UK and elsewhere....

The Bucks did to be fair create a market that hasn't existed since the last Lyons coffee house closed, somewhere to go and sit and read/socialise during the day that isn't focussed on alcohol and isn't primarily about selling greasy food. Sure, pubs sell coffee, but they didn't really (bar maybe instant) before Starbucks established itself. For that reason I don't resent them - they didn't come in and kill any existing businesses, because existing businesses weren't quite the same thing, they created a whole new market segment that hadn't been fulfilled for years. (A quaint tea house or similar isn't the same - they're not normally happy for people to sit there for ages nursing a cup).

 

[ainsworth74]

The absolute worst are those hand dryers where you put your hands inside so unless you have a very steady hand you end up touching the device and so transferring germs onto your hand from the handy reservoir of dirty water. But none of it is worth the outrageous price usually charged.

They don't half dry your hands effectively though! That being said the newer version of the Airblade is better as with that one you don't have to put your hands inside it. Still overpriced though at the thick end of £1,000 per unit!

 

[Herefordian]

Mercedes-Benz cars. People pay for the badge.

A neighbour has had nothing but trouble with his.

 

[dangie]

John Smith’s, Boddington’s, Worthington or any beers which are labelled ‘creamflow’, plus Cold (Extra Cold) Guinness.

 

[Russel]

Nescafe: Much like the above, popular in break rooms and seems to sell well despite having a flavour profile akin to licking a 9-volt battery that's been marinated in mud.

I think Nescafe instant coffee is the reason behind a lot of people thinking they don't like coffee.

There is a world of difference between instant and even a basic filter coffee...

 

[VauxhallandI]

They don't half dry your hands effectively though! That being said the newer version of the Airblade is better as with that one you don't have to put your hands inside it. Still overpriced though at the thick end of £1,000 per unit!

Indeed I’ve never had any issues using them and they are by far the quickest and most effective

 

[Bletchleyite]

They don't half dry your hands effectively though! That being said the newer version of the Airblade is better as with that one you don't have to put your hands inside it. Still overpriced though at the thick end of £1,000 per unit!

The newer version is fine. The original version is one of the most stupid pieces of design I have ever seen.