I'll go generic on most things but here are the brand name must have's for me:

Breakstone's Cottage Cheese
Sargento Vermont Sharp White Cheddar deli slices

The good old saying "Moms buy Jif." (even though i am not a mom and never could be)

Usually the only think I have to buy name brand is peanut butter. I usually find quality products that are off brand when I'm not in a hurry.

The jap are known to produce product of distinctive "wow"-ness. Like WII, in the diary aisle there is this hokkaiddo milk which has an very concentrated milk favor.

speaking of groceries, since i live in asia, i would like to report that in the heaven of counterfeit items(China).....the state of the art product of the week is, chemically produced fake EGGs, which can bounce like a tennis ball, is sold in store as the real Mccoy.

I almost always test the cheap ones first.
But bran names are usually best.

Tried a cheaper brand of canned tuna once, but found a fin it so I immediately went back to the brand name.

So aye, I buy what works but most often that is brand name stuff.

Unfortunately compulsively cheap. If there's a brand name I'll always avoid it if there's an alternative available. I've spent time dickering over the 12 cents vs 15 cents ramen. Even if its horrible I'll usually suffer it a couple times just to see if I can take the pain and "get used to it". Or I'll try another store until I find a cheap store version that's a passable imitation. Actually purchasing the name brand is almost always a last resort, and usually reserved for products where there is simply no other alternative, or the off-brands induce physical illness.

I usually head straight for the major brands, since I can usually only see a 10-cent difference in price a lot of the time, but when I'm feeling a bit short on cash, I look at the other alternatives more closely. I don't buy off-brand cookies, for one. Those forever-cookies are bad enough with brand names, and the generic versions taste like cardboard. Generic baking ingredients are cool, as I really can't taste the difference between brands of white granulated sugar and such. I do sample cheaper brands though, and if I like them, I get those instead of the brand names. Store-brand pop, for example, isn't all that bad. Meijer's cream soda is amazing refrigerated. It's right up there next to Pepper and Barq's. <3

SARGENTO'S LIGHT STRING CHEESE IS THE ONLY WAY TO GO.

I love discovering new food, I really do but since I'm a student my spirit of adventure is a bit suffocated. When I go home though...ah...my trips to the supermarket make me feel like I just might be content with becoming a jiggly jiggly man.