Anyone got any inside information ?

[Evans Electric]

Years ago the big petrol companies used to advertise on TV . Who remembers.......

" The Esso sign means happy motoring ,call at the ESSO sign"

Or

" I'm going well, I'm going Shell , I'm going well on Shell, Shell Shell"

All those tankers and more were filling up at a refinery we were working on , Gulf Oil.

 

[Evans Electric]

I wonder about the paint in the DIYs ..half the price of main brands , but is it inferior ?

Bought some emulsion, seemed fine to me.

 

[bengie]

Same thing happens with spuds & grain.....spuds grown here onto a ship across the seas into a port at Egypt for a few days, back to here on same ship (dont even get unloaded) & behold they are now more expensive Egyptian grown spuds.

not true i'm afriad, my brother works for the potato council(formally the british potato council, formally the potato marketing board but i think the next name should be the potato justice league.) and that is a very twisted version of the truth, what actually happens is egypt buy a lot of seed potatoes from the UK(actually scotish) to grow their own potatoes from, they don't simply buy ours then sell them back as their own produce.

you wouldn't believe what goes into growing potatoes over here, they even have a massive reasearch lab where they can tell you exactly where a potato was grown due to vitamins/nutrients etc that are in it.

 

[steptoe]

I wonder about the paint in the DIYs ..half the price of main brands , but is it inferior ?Bought some emulsion, seemed fine to me.

that I know is different,

even some of the branded stuff supplied to B&Q and the likes is different to that supplied to trade.

if you have ever use it back to back its actually pretty obvious,

but it was my cousin told me years ago when he came to paint my house, he brought his own paint and explained to me some stuff I didnt really pay much heed to at the time.

poured his paint out, poured my B&Q same tin stuff out, and it was way way different constitution(is that a word?). !

 

[Lurch]

Yep, was about to mention B&Q paint, it's crap, more like water. Needs about 4 coats to 1 coat of decent paint. Some of the DIY brand paints are OK, but they change ranges and paints that often it's hard to keep up at times. Did a house last year where the customer supplied all the paint, mostly Focus DIY own brands, some cheapish and some special colour stuff (basically all looks like magnolia but a tenner more for a fancier tub) and that was not bad. Could all be different this year though, which is why if I'm supplying the paint I'll use the trade stuff from a trade suppliers as that tends to be a bit less varied in quality.

 

[Apache]

What you forgot to add is that the ships are reefer boats which when the bananas temp is lowered go into a state of sleep then when they are taken out off refrigerated state start giving of a gas which cause them and any other fruit which they come in contact with to ripen

The gas is ethylene oxide. Makes all your other fruit go off if in contact with bananas in the fruit bowl.

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

On a similarity sort of vien....

where you do get manufacturers selling their branded product through a specific outlet, they will often do minor tweaks to a product so that retailer 'X' can call it exclusive.

This is typical with "white domestic goods" fridges, washing machines etc..

I first found this out many many years ago we were replacing our fridge-freezer..

looked around all the big electrical outlets and some smaller independent outlets...

we noticed some models were very similar but had different product code.

So retailer 'X' has product called "Fridge123"

but retailer 'Y' has the near identical product called "Fridge456"

When we asked about this at a small retailer, the bloke told us it is two fold..

So that retailer can quite legitimately call it "Exclusive to retailer X"

and

Be fully confident that they will never have to price match that product because you cannot get it at another reatuiler...

So they can have big signs saying we will price match the identical product and double the differnece...

Knowing their money is safe... and customer thinking it is the lowest price.

However the differences are so minor that if you shop round diligently you could still actually save several pounds if you did your homework right.

e.g.

One fridge-freezer we liked had a 'half moon shaped' door handle from one shop...

but squarer door handle at another...

excluding that they were identical item!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The more recent thing (3 or 4 years ago) a washing machine from John lewis...

"Exclusive brand name item"..

difference one spin speed was at 1500rpm, compared to 1400rpm on the 'identical twin' product sold elsewhere,

Just a minor firmware setting in the wash program, other than that the beastie was physically the same, and all other functions identical!! :|

 

[Apache]

On a similarity sort of vien....where you do get manufacturers selling their branded product through a specific outlet, they will often do minor tweaks to a product so that retailer 'X' can call it exclusive.

This is typical with "white domestic goods" fridges, washing machines etc..

I first found this out many many years ago we were replacing our fridge-freezer..

looked around all the big electrical outlets and some smaller independent outlets...

we noticed some models were very similar but had different product code.

So retailer 'X' has product called "Fridge123"

but retailer 'Y' has the near identical product called "Fridge456"

When we asked about this at a small retailer, the bloke told us it is two fold..

So that retail can quite legitimately call it "Exclusive to retailer X"

and

Be fully confident that they will never have to price match that product because you cannot get it at another reatuiler...

So they can have big signs saying we will price match the identical product and double the differnece...

Knowing their money is safe... and customer thinking it is the lowest price.

However the differences are so minor that if you shop round diligently you could still actually save several pounds if you did your homework right.

e.g.

One fridge-freezer we liked had a 'half moon shaped' door handle from one shop...

but squarer door handle at another...

excluding that they were identical item!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The more recent thing (3 or 4 years ago) a washing machine from John lewis...

"Exclusive brand name item"..

difference one spin speed was at 1500rpm, compared to 1400rpm on the 'identical twin' product sold elsewhere,

Just a minor firmware setting in the wash program, other than that the beastie was physically the same, and all other functions identical!! :|

SL - you clearly have far too much time on your hands!

 

[NozSpark]

It's not just white goods...

TV's Stereos, printers,,, all sorts of things

 

[steptoe]

you cannot compare identical products,

they have made sure of this.

 

[NozSpark]

Often it is only the model/part number that's different

 

[tom1]

I painted my house in the b and q stuff it is crap. I worked in a lab at a plant that made pigment and they say there is a difference in quality.

 

[Learner]

De walt is realy black and decker.

 

[batty]

De walt is realy black and decker.

Yes black and decker brought out dewalt and elu so that is why the quality is no longer there.

 

[Subneural]

Sainsburys coffee is made by Kenco (Kraft)

Woolworths own brand chocolate was made by Kraft so you can bet that they do other supermarkets now

Thorntons did make M&S choclates a few years back, don't know if they still do or not

Normally the big brand make the product but to a slightly different recipe than their own brand.

I've known companies produce a product which has not been up to their own standards so they have created another brand to shift it.