Come on. Pepsi is not a luxury brand. It may cost between 25 and 75 cents more than a bottle of el cheapo soda from the grocery store, but it is still by and large a cheap product people won't stop buying just because they ran out of money for a new car or in-ground pool. Don't sound the death watch alarm just yet! This author should start doing some research instead of writing off the top of his head - which is what I am doing... and why I shall stop.

An article that says what we already know, a new search engine that can't find any relative info...hm starting to sound like Microsoft.

Scott Taylor's comment is so true and absollutely spot on!!

Our family were looked down on for the past ten years as "cheap" losers when we followed our British way of frugaility over here in the States.  We always bought generic brands, and refused to pay big money for branded goods, and luxury cups of coffee.  We drove older vehicles with (shock, horror!) no electric windows but used our own hands to wind the windows down!

Vacations were not in luxury brand hotels at $400 a night, but small motels, paid for in cash,

We were mocked, laughed at, and sneered at by many many people as they flashed their credit cards for yet another luxury treat.

Well, I guess our way of living is now in fashion. We have savings to weather us through this recession, and enjoy life to the full on our "cheap" lifesyle.

But what a shame the big corporations drummed into so many people that you were only "valid" if you spent big.  

No ***?

Totally agree with Scott Taylor's posting on all counts. And I would like to add, I stopped buying Nike products years ago when I heard they paid a young athlete (18 years old) millions of dollars to advertise their products. What right does an 18 year old have to earn money like that? Just because he is an athlete? Then, I, as the consumer, have a higher priced product to pay for so I can pay for his salary? Forget that! Why wasn't Nike paying the poor people in the third world country a decent salary for making their products? Without them, the 18 year old would have nothing to pitch. Corporate America sure is backwards. They need to go back to A-1 customer service and quality at a fair price...oh, and while they are at that, they should wake up too; America is tired of the whole mess.  

Many of you are missing the point. It's interesting that the default point of view is that if a product hasn't been heavily marketed, it is an "inferior good". While it's true that some generics will never hold a candle to the products they try to imitate (i.e. Hydrox vs. Oreos), many private label products are as good, if not better, than their branded counterparts. The difference is that you do not have to pay a premium so that the manufacturer can afford to continue to brainwash your family into believing that the "branded" product is better. Many folks are going to realize this as they are FORCED to substitute due to tighter budgets. Also, I predict a shift in culture, from one of emphasis on "status" (which the branded folks rely heavily upon), to a more frugal populous who now understands the value of a dollar.  So, once the economy turns back around, the masses may not be compelled to switch back to the more expensive brands, and the overly simplistic theory that "it will recover" may not hold true.

This will last a very long time because of the obvious fact that those who lose there jobs will end up making less money, in fact that they can find a job at all.

The chart with the graph line was cool.

At least the orginal Reuters article had some more information.  But clearly, the writer of the article comparing Advil (a brand name for ibuprofen) and generic aspirin, must have missed a few lectures in college chemistry.  The comparison should have been made between the brand name Advil and the generic ibuprofen.  Actually, ibuprofen and aspirin typically are each better for different things.  In some people.

Generic use has been going on for years.  Most are okay substitutes for the brand names.  Sure, some brands are superior to the generic alternative, but it is an individual thing.  As the higher income bracket gets squeezed and downsized, it is suddenly popular to go to the "no name" brands.  Well, welcome to the world of the majority of American consumers!  We may be babyboomers as opposed to "the depression era" folks, but we can survive economic downturns with the best of them.  This article just didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, and it didn't dig deep enough.