Consumer Reports compared several name brand products against generic store brands to see which private label products get the closest to the name brand for the lowest cost. I have never found any other ketchup that tastes like Heinz, but I could be probably be persuaded for other things. (Actually, I have found Whole Foods’ generic “healthy” versions of popular cereals to be pretty bad as well.)
They also bought a range of products from each store and calculated the overall savings you’d get as compared to name-brand products (on a per serving basis). Costco, Aldi, and Walmart are clearly at the top. I personally think Costco has the best quality store-brand stuff, although you usually have to buy a lot of it. I don’t have much experience with Aldi. I’d also have thought Whole Foods 365 would be better than just a 5% savings, but I suppose it just seems cheaper next to the regular price stuff at Whole Foods. 💰