Why Buy Brand?

We are all guilty of taking commercials for granted. If the announcer said the product would do it, then we want to believe that it is true.  As we get older we get wiser. I’ve learned to try a product once and if it doesn’t live up to its advertising, then you are certainly aware of the old verbiage “fool me once…”

Most of us all love a good experiment, especially one we can replicate at home. Since we have all had brand name paper towels at some point or another and most of us have coffee cups I figured this one would relate to the masses.  I remember those old brand name paper towel TV commercials where the waitress would wipe up a spill and show the brand name towel was tough enough to still hold a cup and saucer. I’m sure I’m not the only person who tried this at home, right? 

In the name of saving a dollar, I’ve tried cheaper brands. This unintentional experiment taught me another lesson. Cheaper brands will do the trick for cleaning up kitchen blunders, spills and messes. While the brand names in the commercials wanted you to believe otherwise by putting one of their 2 ply towels up against a cheaper brands one ply towels and ripping it to shreds I noticed that I didn’t actually have to use 2, 3 or more towels to take care of the problem like they want you to believe.  In the end I was saving a lot of money throughout the year.

So after years of unofficial scientific experiments, here’s what I decided:  Brand name paper towels are a bit pricier and they want you to believe they are more cost effective than the other paper towels. I have since started buying the recycled brown roll towels, especially for use in the garage along with the regular kitchen roll towels.  I usually keep a roll in kitchen, another roll in the bathrooms (it’s more sanitary to use throw away paper towels than for everyone to dry their hands on the same terry towel-yuck), and since I use the recycled paper towels and try to put the used paper towels from hand washing in a separate recycling container I can say I am doing my part to still help the environment.  I also keep paper towels in the car and that’s where the commercial grade roll towels really come in to effect especially for drink and food mishaps.