AskReaders: What products are identical to a brand name, just with a different label?

11. Diphenhydramine HCL is an antihistamine that you probably know as “Benadryl”.

Store brand “Allergy Relief” medications with the same active ingredient are 1/10th the price.

On top of that, the same drug is also sold as a “non-addictive sleep aid” since it gets you drowsy. If you buy it as a sleep aid, it is more expensive, even if it is a store brand. So if you want it as an allergy med or a sleep aid, buy the store brand allergy relief bottle.

Zzzquil is just the liquid form of the medicine and is almost 25x more expensive per dose.

– GameVoid

12. In Canada, Walmart “great value” ice-cream is Chapman’s ice-cream.

– hearse83

13. A lot of medications.

I’m a pharmacist and it baffles me when people pay £3 for a box of Nurofen when they can buy a packet of ibuprofen for like 20p.

– stebus88

14. Fossil and Michael Kors. Fossil watches, handbags, sunglasses, clothing, whatever they’re made in the same factory, with the same materials, in the same way, by the same people as Michael Kors. One just happens to be about 30-50% cheaper than the other.

– Ryonez_17

15. No one will probably see this, but if you’re a Fleshlight enthusiast like me, there’s no reason to pay for the “Fleshlight renewing powder”.

It’s literally just cornstarch.

– toysjoe

16. All the booze at Trader Joe’s is relabeled more expensive brands.

– noisyturtle

17. For cold sore sufferers, most drug stores sell those little single-use vials that you crack and apply to your cold sore. The price ranges from $10-15 bucks for 2-3 single applications. If you take a look at the active ingredients, the main ingredient is benzalkonium chloride which is the same active ingredient in Bactine. You can buy a 6oz bottle of bactine for the $5, and that’s probably the equivalent of 100 doses of the single-use application.

– killcrew

18. You can buy Girl Scout cookies anytime at a Walmart for much cheaper and without interacting with any Girl Scouts. Keebler makes the cookies so they just decided to sell the cookies themselves independent of the Girl Scout organization. For example, Thin Mints are labeled as Grass Hoppers and Samoas as Coconut Dreams. So if you’ve got a hankering for some Samoas, don’t answer the doorbell for a Girl Scout-go to Walmart instead.

– rationallunatic

19. A friend of mine was a health and safety inspector for a Wonder Bread factory for a while.

He told me that there’s no difference at all between Wonder bread and Walmart generic bread, except for the packaging.

Which makes sense if you think about it. The bakery ran 24/7. It’s far more economical to just put different bags in the bagging machine at the end of the line, rather than stopping everything to change the ingredients.

– PaulsUsername

20. Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are a huge scam. Instead, buy “melamine foam.” It is basically the same thing only pennies on the dollar and you can buy them in bulk.

– bowla-gravy

21. Pretty much every product in Aldi.

– wholemilkisbestmilk

22. There is no difference between Excedrin Migraine and Extra Strength Excedrin other than the label. And the cheaper, generic store brand is the same as either one.

– ovalseven

23. Baby formula!! Our pediatrician told us not to bother with the name brand stuff (Enfamil, etc.) because the supermarket brands are literally the exact same thing. Apparently, the formula is government-regulated, so the ingredients are the same. Just compare the labels, there’s no difference.

A canister of Enfamil could run you $30. A canister of the Walmart brand- $12.99.

– april_a

24. Frozen vegetables.

With the rise of mega-farms, the overwhelmingly vast majority of any given kind of vegetable comes from the same farm.

– Edymnion

25. Skoda and Lamborghini are pretty much the same. Both are owned by VAG.

– FormidableFish