You have not yet met Marc. He is our trusty and loyal intern from American University and he is basically here to do my bidding. At least, that is how I have been treating him. His first day, I gave him some tall boots and a shovel and told him to go hose down the oompa loompas and clean out their pens. Eventually he did well enough with all the menial tasks that we let him help write a blog post.
While shopping at drug stores such as Rite Aid, Walgreens or CVS, you’ll often see name brand products competing with store brand “bargain” products. Today while shopping at CVS, I saw Brach’s Candy Corn sitting on the shelf next to the “premium quality” bargain brand CVS Candy Corn.
Usually, the draw of these CVS brand products is the budget price that accompanies them. When I picked up both off of the shelf to learn the differences between the two products, I was surprised by what I saw. I realized that the Brach’s and CVS brand Candy Corn were the same price. Not only were the costs identical, but the CVS Candy Corn was packaged in a 6 oz. bag, while the name brand was packaged in a 9 oz. bag. The roles were reversed – CVS was charging over a nickel more per ounce for their knockoff.
A good intern, Marc brought the candy corn back to the office and we sampled it both brands. They were definitely different, which really surprised me. They both had that great candy corn flavor, but had slightly different consistencies and very different overtones.
I liked them both but I can easily see someone preferring one brand over the other. For those who like the store brand – the one that you might expect to be a more cost effective choice – you have to wonder if it’s really 50% better. Can flavor enjoyment be quantified that way? The price being low all around, the cost difference per volume does not really matter for most people, but it makes me think of value and flavor enjoyment. Something like wine, for example – do you enjoy a $45 bottle of wine 50% more than you enjoy a $30 bottle of wine? I will have to consult Reggie, who is our resident wine lover.
Have you found your favorite candy corn brand yet?
Candy Corn Flower by FCivelloPhotography.
4:43 pm on October 29th, 2009
Farleys. But I can never find it anymore. So I eat Brach’s. Though the generic Wegman’s brand is closer to Farley’s!
10:46 am on October 30th, 2009
[...] intern, Marc, whom you met yesterday, was inspired to write a blog entry on baseball and candy. He even strong-armed Tori, our resident [...]