For example, if you insist on buying Advil instead of store brand ibuprofen. I mean, you’d be wasting your money in that example, but you do you
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.
Lots of them, yes. But most of them aren’t designed there. And yes, I am aware that there are reputable Chinese brands, but the Chinese genetics are not those.
Now, is all these news nothing but propaganda?
Literally yes, not because chinese companies don’t spy on you, literally all companies spy on you. You prove it by linking a video about samsung. Google and Apple do the same shit. The fact that software is riddled with spyware has nothing to do with the hardware being manufactured in China. China isn’t some big bad, moving production elsewhere will change nothing. Lastly you should be far more concerned about western companies spying on you, the ones that cooperate with your local government and leave backdoors in their OS for NSA and the like. What do you think the CCP is gonna do to you? You’re outside of their jurisdiction completely.
So yes it js just propaganda, in a sense that it’s trying to make you think this kind of behavior is somehow unique to Chinese companies or a result of tech being manufactured in China.
especially when you know that that country is heavily invested in cyberwarfare, espionage and censorship.
Which country isn’t? The US does more spying on its own citizens than China could ever dream of doing. The UK is currently trying to pass a bill to break e2ee.
Even their constitution states that every Chinese product ( software or hardware ), must send data it collects to the government.
This is false as far as I know, can you provide a source? China has some of the strictest laws on data protection, you can read more about it here: https://academic.oup.com/idpl/article/12/2/75/6537091?login=false
This is like Apple saying your Android spies on you… lol ( I believe they did say that )
Not sure where you were going with this. My point is you don’t hear any of these concerns raised about any other and as we both agree it’s not something unique to China.
The real reason why you hear a lot of talk about moving production out of China lately is simply because Chinese manufacurers have narrowed the the gap a lot in terms of chip designs and are becoming an actual threat to western comanies’ profit margins.
I’m hoping you’re a victim of spellcheck and meant generics.
Yes, I meant generics. Spelling on phone keyboards is rather difficult when your thumbs are as wide as mine…
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.
Kraft mac and cheese, all the store brands are superficially similar but taste bland and or have weird textures.
What about compared to homemade Mac and Cheese?
Well I mean it’s hard to compare. Homemade is clearly on another level. The boxed stuff is a very quick meal to put together out of the box. Homemade takes a while to do properly. I almost see them as like different foods.
Kenji’s 3 ingredients Mac and cheese. As fast (almost faster), as KD. Way better.
https://www.seriouseats.com/ingredient-stovetop-mac-and-cheese-recipe
Homemade mac n cheese tastes like regular old cheese. Kraft’s got something extra in there that makes it better.
What about Annie’s? Or call we even compare them?
I was really just comparing to generic. Annie’s isn’t generic. I still prefer Kraft, but I’d take Annie’s over generic too.
Yep. I’m from Europe and of course this is kind of not understanding American culture enough to not compare different qualities of mac&cheese. That reminds me, we came back home from the US and had mac&cheese in a restaurant in Germany. They served us Kraft with fried onions and parmesan flakes on top. At that moment I understood Germans will never understand American cuisine…
You should never ever in a million years find restaurants serving Kraft mac and cheese in America. That’s wrong. It’s a cheap food you fix up at home when you’re feeling too lazy to cook for real. Most of us like it because we grew up eating it. Real Mac and cheese is so much better.
Exception: some places explicitly put it on the kids’ menu as something that even finicky eaters will find familiar.
Yeah, well we were a month in KC just before and ate the most amazing food. It was so crazy to get that thing from the restaurant when we got back.
Annie’s is next level.
Epicurious put out a fun video last week having a few chefs compare boxed mac and cheese products. You might find it interesting https://youtu.be/uambW2W6zmQ
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/uambW2W6zmQ
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
I prefer Velveeta shells and cheese to all the other boxed Mac and cheese dinners. That said, if I have someone to act as a dishwasher, I will make a banging baked Mac and cheese that blows any box out of the water. I don’t mind the cooking, or prep. Cleanup is always a chore.
No doubt. Homemade is infinitely superior. Almost a different kind of food. Just comparing it to generic store brands.
Growing up I always saw kids in American shows/movies enj it so I assumed it was delicious. I was 10 when the finally began selling it here, my parents were also curious so they bought enough for 5 people. IT TASTES LIKE VOMIT. My parents never bought it again. 12 years later my sister bought it again because she didn’t remember the taste and I gave a try again because I thought maybe just maybe I would like it better since my tastes hace changed, AND IT STILL TASTES LIKE VOMIT. so we ended up making our own with real cheese and pasta and it was actually cheaper than the boxed crap
I had the exact same experience when they first started selling pop tarts here. I guess american nostalgia food only tastes good when you actually grow up with it. Even grilled cheese tasted only ok to me
Old Bay seasoning
batteries (when I have to use disposables)
Command hooksLegit 3M command hooks are the shit. 3M products seem to be like that. Yeah, more expensive, but always worth it. Nice to see a company stay focused on quality vs. last quarter’s spreadsheets.
Dude, 3M Extreme Mounting Tape is the stuff. I bought a portable CarPlay unit for my work vehicle, and I mounted it on the dash with the included mounting tape. It didn’t stay up there a day before it was falling off anytime I hit a bump. I went to Lowe’s and got some Extreme Mounting Tape and put it on, and it doesn’t move. AT ALL. The one time I had to take it off, I thought I was gonna pull parts of the dash off with the tape! I live in the south, and not even the summer heat affects it.
South here as well. 3M’s outdoor, double-sticky tape is wild. Hot? Humid? DGAF, it’ll not only stick and hold real weight, it’ll come off easily enough without nasty residue.
No idea how their company works, and their chemists must be the bomb, but they obviously have a tradition of pride in their products. So wish we could get back to that in America. (I’ll punt for Gorilla products though! Solid glues and tapes for many purposes.)
When I was a kid, dad had total disdain for “cheap” products. People would talk, compare notes. Everyone knew what products were solid and which weren’t, wasn’t a price tag thing. Everyone knew KitchenAid, Tupperware and Corning made solid shit. And now look where those companies are. :(
I think it’s more likely that the consistent quality is a side bonus from most of 3M’s customers being other corporations, not individual consumers
If 3M only sold painter’s tape to the public, most of the public will buy it whether it’s crap or not because most of the public only needs to put up with painter’s tape occasionally
However if a large commercial real estate company who goes through palettes of painters tape suddenly has to start ordering 1.5x as many palettes because some of the tape is defective, they’ll threaten 3M with cancelling a multi-million-dollar contract that will hurt 3M’s quarterly spreadsheets.
That is until inevitably someone at 3M gets the idea to start producing a cheaper “consumer grade” painters tape and then everyone who doesn’t have a relative in building maintenance who can swipe a pro grade roll for you is SOL
until inevitably someone at 3M gets the idea to start producing a cheaper “consumer grade”
But they haven’t and they’re a mature company, could have done that at any point. I think that backs my point that they’re focused on quality vs. quarters.
I know everyone here is rightfully cynical of corporate America, but 3M seems to get it, be in for the long haul. I’ve seen plenty of other brands go cheap over the decades. Black & Decker anyone? Craftsman?
OTOH, some brands stick to their guns. Victorinox and Zippo come to mind.
Idk dude, I don’t think old bay seasoning batteries sound very reliable.
blasphemy. they’re powered by tiny crabs
Mortons salt. Somehow that little metal spout is just worse in every store brand I’ve tried.
Sel de Camargue here in the EU.
Black Diamond salt for me, which is what a lot of restaurants use. Worth the extra cost, especially given how potent a small bit of salt is.
Oh I get both. Sometimes I want fine salt and sometimes I want kosher salt. I even have a third one, french sea salt which comes in big irregular chunks. Good stuff. Don’t ever trust someone who says salt is all the same. 🧂🌈
Yes, French sea salt especially for desserts! Put that sucker on some decadent butter cookies.
Bananas.
You have storebrand bananas? Here in the US, I swear Chiquita has a monopoly or some shit. I don’t think I’ve ever seen another brand.
Coffee. It’s always from a proper indie roaster and not the store brand
Yes! This is the only way to go 😀
Switched to beans years ago. Now I can’t drink instant coffee anymore or else I got stomachache.
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.
Redbull.
Tempo. Every other tissue I tried messes up the whole laundry, if I missed only one pant pocket.
Heinz ketchup, everything else is garbage in a bottle!
There was a big scandal in canada a few years ago in cananda where heinz moved its ketchup manufacturing from Canada to the US. Many people switched to french’s, a lot of people seemed to prefer french’s. I’m not sure if it was the boycott but heinz eventually returned to Canada.
I was going to say Heinz beans, but yeah, the ketchup too.
Heinz’s British beans, the ones in North America are way worse.
Oh really? I’d no idea. Yeah, the proper British ones. Pip pip!
Milk, eggs, cheese, pretty much anything dairy. Almost everything else the generic is great
The Kirklands one is good, but doesn’t hold an emulsion. And trying to stir a 3000 litre tub of “hazelnut spread” to re-emulsify it isn’t on my list of desirable morning activities.
Trader Joe’s would like a word
This is very true.
no other chocolate spread tastes nearly as good
That’s because it isn’t a chocolate spread, but rather a nut and nougat spread.
It has 13% hazelnut, the same as many other brands, but also the lowest amount I can buy. There’s a really pricy one that has 30%
I live in France and there are lots of brands that are exactly like Nutella, or even more tasty. Nutella is cheaper yet.
For nougat, the Milka stuff is better. If you want real chocolate, take Caotina.
I used to agree but after finding Kirkland hazelnut spread at costco i’ve switched to that. Its palm oil free and every bit as delicious as nutella.
Bickford’s cordials. Whether with water or soda water, other flavours are just yuk.
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.
Can agree with the gel pills. I still do go for the normal compacted powder pills if I’m not doing much, but for a faster set-in the advil gel works the fastest.
I think that’s just them being gel. There are generic gel pills that in my experience work just as fast.
Most places have a generic gel version. It’s literally the same thing, so it’s worth saving the money.
But of course, you do you.
