Many Still Have a Hard Time Choosing Generic Brands
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Hemera/Thinkstock(CHICAGO) — They may not have the big recognizable names but generic brand products deliver big savings.
Yet, a study by economists from the University of Chicago and Tilburg University in the Netherlands points out that many Americans are still forking over their money for name brands and wasting $44 billion annually in the process.
The study says that millions are duped by misleading ads even when they can buy generic products for far less.
But not everybody is fooled.
According to the researchers, the smarter the consumer — that is, those who are more educated — the greater the chance they’ll pick the generic version of a product rather than the name brand.
For instance, only nine percent of pharmacists buy Bayer, Advil and Tylenol with the rest opting for generic brands. Meanwhile, the average consumer will select the name brands 26 percent of the time.
Meanwhile, just one in five professional chefs will pay full price for name brand salt, sugar and baking powder, as compared to 40 of average households.
The researchers used Nielsen tracking data based on 77 million shopping trips by about 125,000 households.
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