Have you ever been shopping for something and thought, “wow this is expensive! Surely there is a better option”? Well, guess what; there probably is!

Some businesses or products advertise themselves as cheaper than the competition, so you do not bother to check to make sure that you’re getting the best deal.  Others, however, market themselves as higher quality than the rest, so that you are tricked into paying a premium for that particular product.

So, basically, there is a chance that you are over-paying for products. From the so-called “pink tax” to no-brand products, check out this list of ways you could be saving valuable money. 

The thread began over on Reddit, when a user asked: "Sometimes cheap and expensive items are the same thing with the only difference being the brand name. What are some examples of this?"

The question was posted by Reddit user anakrusix and got some very interesting responses.

Love to rip off medical staff!

moby323:

"You guys should see the stuff we deal with in the medical field.

I wanted to get a mesh metal glove to protect myself when using a saw during autopsies.

Our medical supplier, Fisher Scientific, sold the hospital a “medical grade” chain mail glove for $300. They forgot to take the Bass Pro Shops tag off.

It was a $12 glove for cleaning fish."

As if military budgets aren't inflated enough

lalondtm:

"The military operates the same way. My buddy is in purchasing for the navy. They buy tools, equipment, raw materials and such and pay anywhere from 50% to 500% markup. One example he gave me was he had to order like 500 screws for some project. They paid $1.18 per screw. You could buy the EXACT same screws in a box from Lowe’s for like $12. Corruption in military contracts costs taxpayers billions upon billions."

Car parts

ShiroFlocke:

"saw it on youtube, they showed a part of a minicooper that costs 350+euro, the exact same part was sold by peugeot for only ~70euros"

Off-brand medicine is often the exact same at the fraction of the price...

2DayOldOilPaint:

"ZzzQuil is at least a 200% markup from Benadryl. The only active ingredient in ZzzQuil is 25mg of diphenhydramine, where's Benadryl is also 25mg of diphenhydramine..."

Just check percentages/dilution levels!

Time_Significance:

"Quick question, is there a difference between cheap and expensive brands of bleach and rubbing alcohol?"

Hm....

Shelldonix:

"I used to work for manufacturing machinery company. You'll be surprised how many major food and pet food producers make supermarket own brands."

Huh that's definitely newsworthy!

Randomusername12545:

"In the UK, there was a news story about a man finding another brand of crisps (chips) in a multipack.

This made national news.

Edit. Now my highest ranked comment is about crisps. And for those asking here is the story

https://metro.co.uk/2017/04/18/it-turns-out-that-aldi-hoops-might-be-hula-hoops-in-different-packaging-6582393/"

Same product, just with the pink tax.

YoMan_DontEatThose:

"I don’t know exact brands but I would say anything identified as “for men” vs “for women”. I’m a female and buy men’s deodorant and razors. They’re both cheaper and the same exact product just black vs pink most of the time.."

All knowledge is useful knowledge

Alienbyd3fault:

"I know this quite the answer you want. But dollar tree has some of the best plastic slinkys."

Noted

mrkspartan:

"I'll tell you one example it isn't.

Oreos.

I am an avid generic product user. I stay away from brand names where possible. But man, if Oreos only taste like oreos"

Very valid way to identify this!

bdbaylor:

"I think an easy way to see this is when you see a product recall and it affects so many brands of the same item. Examples that I can think of include peanut butter and car airbags."

Some things are better bought from small business!

justsomelady_3:

"Supermarket spices cost twice as much for a third of the amount when compared to packets in shops for ethnic minorities. I grew up black in a very South Asian community, so the idea of paying 2.50 for a tiny bottle of Schwartz when a full bag is .89...just, no."

Headphones!

sit_giRL:

"I have worked in a pawn shop for seven years now. We test everything that comes in so I have heard every kind of headphone and speaker imaginable.

One day I went to test a pair of cheap Onn Bluetooth earbuds. They sounded better than Beats earbuds. At the next meeting I blindfolded five employees and had them listen to those same two sets- same song, same volume, same phone, everything. They all agreed that the second option, the Onn set, sounded WAY better than the first set, the Beats. When the test was over they were astonished- moral of the story is that brand name doesn’t mean shit. Something cheaper that can do the same thing will come along and might actually kick ass.

Moral of the story is that a brand name is just a logo on a sticker. At the end of the day, it just comes down to having a solid construction and liking the sound."

A lot of the time, the only difference between expensive and cheap clothing is the company's profit margin--the workers are still paid the same

LucyVialli:

"A lot of clothing. Most of it is made in the same sweatshops in China/Bangladesh/wherever, the only difference is the name on the label."

They're milking us!

ThisIsCody_:

"Milk. I was in a WalMart looking at milk and an old man stopped me. He said he retired from the dairy industry. He told me the same milk plant, from the same cows, fills different colored cartons, from the same batch. He tapped his nose and winked and said, “it’s all the same shit.”"

Well then

wolfadeus:

"My grandfather owned a textiles company and he sold the exact same shirts to Walmart to be sold for <$10 and to Polo to be sold for >$60"

Watch out for packaging tricks

ImNotRacistBuuuut:

"HDMI cables were a huge offender of this back when they were first introduced. They found all sorts of ways to justify paying over a hundred bucks for five feet of cable. But in reality, it's not about quality, but about customer manipulation.

Let's say you see three HDMI cables on the shelf. First one is just wound and ziptied, marked $5. The second is $25, and it's in a nice paper box with some snazzy graphics on it. Third one is $120, has a thick box with dark maroon and gold graphics, looks ornate and fancy.

The consumer is going to think "well, I don't want something that looks cheap and will probably break after a week of use," so they skip the $5 cable. But then they look at the $120 cable. They figure "ah-hah, I'm no fool, I know a rip-off when I see it, this is all just fancy packaging!" So they skip the $120 cable. They happily choose the $25 cable, believing they have outwitted those clever marketing folks at the HDMI Cable Factory, and returns home with their smart sensible purchase thinking they won.

But they haven't.

The cables are all the same.

They just spent $20 more for a simple paper box. They were tricked by the "middle option" product, deceived into thinking it has any justifiable value over the cheaper ones simply because it was placed next to an absurdly overpriced version.

Fortunately, people have wised up to this practice, and thanks to user reviews on online retailers, it's much harder to pull this scam. But back in the mid 2000's, when HDMI cables first started rolling out, you had some pretty awful offenders out there, and even more unfortunate, a lot of "ah-hah, I'm no fool" consumers thinking they were seeing right through it."

I smell a rat

shitted_on_em:

"Candles. I used to work at a candle factory that made brand name candles and generic. Only difference was the label. Same wax, same wick, same jar, half price."

Cereals are not the same!!!!

EliseDaSnareChick:

"For me, it's big-brand cereal compared to store-brand cereal.

In my opinion, they taste exactly the same, so I buy the store-brand to save $2...or in some cases the store-brand tastes better than big-brand."

Do you have any brand hacks to save money? Let us know in the comments.

via GIPHY