Are you a brand whore?

Talking to someone in the office this morning, and they accused me of being a "brand whore" because I stick to certain brands for buying certain products. I denied it (of course) but the more I thought about it, the more I thought that - while I don't like the term - its true to some degree in that there are certain brands I always look to for certain things.

So I put it to you all, do you have certain brand loyalties ?

I think mine would be

Computers: Apple
Mobile phones: Nokia (even at the expense of Apple, as my new N8 acquired this week proves)
Clothes: Not fanatical, but I do like Ralph Lauren
Socks: Marks and Spencer
Cola: Coke
Baked Beans: Heinz
Cereals: Kelloggs
Gaming: XBox
Aftershave: Not fanatical, but I like Penhalligons
Training shoes: Lonsdale
Online shopping: Amazon
Supermarkets: Sainsburys and Waitrose

I wouldn't say I'm a brand whore. I mainly look for the best value when I shop, and the only clothing I get that's always the same brand is Vans trainers. I can't afford higher priced brand names at all.

Helen says I only like cheap brands...she's watching me as I type!

Seriously, though, I don't have a brand clothing wise anymore. I still love Cyberdog and Plastik Wrap but don't wear as many of their clothes anymore. With phones I've just moved from Nokia to Samsung but stayed with O2. I'm deffo an Xbox convert now. Supermarkets it's Aldi with Netto and Waitrose for odd and sods.

I guess I am a bit.

I've got a Macbook Air laptop and an iPhone but it's unlikely I'll get an iPad.

Cars: Honda, I wouldn't want anything else after owning Hondas
Video games: Sony, I have a PS1, PS2 and PS3
Shoes: Osiris (Hahaha Lonsdale! You chav!)
Glasses: Rayban, come on there's no point in having anything but is there? :p
Phone: Iphone but before that, Sony Ericsson
Tobacco: Golden Vag
Booze: Thatchers (cid) or Stella for beer

No loyalty to any clothes brands. I don't food shop so I don't have any loyalty there either.

I like the way you called him a chav for the shoes and then went for wife beater for the beer...

Yes, I was going to point that out.

My loyalty to Lonsdale is for 2 reasons 1) they fit nicely, and 2) they are relatively cheap and I refuse to pay for expensive trainers these days.

However, in actual fact my loyalty is split, as I also wear Karrimor.

I'm shocked my famous iPod quote hasn't been mentioned Mr Shand

Computers: None, whilst i'd love to afford a Mac,I can't,so i shop around.
Mobile phones: Up until the last six months I was Samsung, and after my current LG is such a flop...yeah, Samsung!
Clothes: Any, but depends on what I'm after. Day to day wear: Burtons/Topman
Socks: Wherever!
Cola: I prefer Coke, but im not fussy
Baked Beans: Again,usually Heinz, but not fussy.
Cereals: I live plain old corn flakes, brand regardless a good meal!
Gaming: XBox, don't like the PS3
Aftershave: Any, honestly
Training shoes: Whatever comes from Clark's Village, usually good though,lately been Airwalk.
Online shopping: Amazon, in general!
Supermarkets: Tesco

I was biding my time and waiting for you to reply before I mentioned your rant against the iPod

"Oiy' down' loikes 'em!!! Oiy don'. Don' want one, don' loike 'em!!! "

I knew we'd get you in the end.

I feel your pain on the LG mobiles. I foolishly abandoned Nokia for an LG Arena a couple of years ago, as I wanted a phone which had Sat Nav built in, and it was a big feature of this new spanky touch screen LG. It was an utter piece of crap. I had it for about 6 weeks and the Sat Nav never worked ONCE, the phone was buggy and crashed several times, and when it did work the unser interface was just bloody awful. In the end I called Orange and got them to take me back to my old contract (minus the cost for Internet and Sat Nav) and give me a discount on that for the inconvenience. I then threw the LG into a drawer at home and carried on using my old Nokia.

Now its time to renew again, I've stuck with Nokia.

Wifebeater isn't chav beer, it's expensive!

Tennants Super or Special Brew is chav beer. Like Diamond White or K is chav cider

It's not expensive. Greenwich Meantime IPA is expensive.

Stella is cheap, and tastes like it

I don't often agree with Shandypants but...exactly!

Stella's more expensive than all the other beers on tap in pubs round here, dunno about specialty beers though, I tend to stick with what I know and what tastes good

julius seizure wrote:

I tend to stick with .... what tastes good

Then why the fuck do you drink Stella?

Honestly, I'm a fan of Belgian beers, but as you well know from your own travels, there are loads better than Stella.

TBH, I drink very little lager or pils these days. I just find it far too gassy and much of it so artificial in taste. If I drink stuff on tap in a pub then its usually bitter or IPA, and of the pub "regulars" its usually London Pride, or Greene King IPA. However, I tend to look for pubs that have real ales or guest beers on, to specifically avoid the mass-market pub beers.

Greenwich Meantime is a small brewery located in the old Naval College in Greenwich, right on the river. They produce a range of beers, but their IPA is the best. You can actually get it in supermarkets now (Sainsburys) and its well worth looking out for. Comes in large (500ml I think, maybe 750ml) for about £8 a bottle and its cracking stuff.

Peach Schanpps is my new thing. Then there's JD. And rum...if it's good enough for pirates it's good enough for me!

Well, obviously, most of the time its single malt whisky with me, or the Jack in black if I'm in a regular pub that doesn't stock good malts. As a matter of fact, after Christmas, I need to restock.

I consider myself a brand whore when I'm building computers. Its just what I've dealt with being either customer service or how well the product works with having problems.

Computers: Different parts have their own each brand I consider
Mobile phones: I like my Samsung Galaxy S phone, super fast Android phone makes me happy
Clothes: As long as it fits and I look awesome, I dont care
Socks: Hanes
Cola: Coke (cause I drink Sprite all the time)
Baked Beans: Gross
Cereals: Kelloggs
Gaming: XBox or PC
Aftershave: Dont really use it, i use lotion.
Training shoes: Vans...though they are skate shoes..the only shoes I like to wear.
Online shopping: TigerDirect.com...its the only online shopping i do
Supermarkets: Bilo or Food Lion, whichever one i can afford.

How can you possibly describe baked beans as gross?

They do a really nice beer in a pub in Cambridge called Staropramen. That was my beer choice for lunchtimes when I was having a hard day at work. Three or four of those in my hour lunch, and I was more than ready for the rest of the day at work lol.

Baked beans are fantastic! Sometimes there's just nothing that I crave more than simple beans on toast. Or maybe have them with a sprinkle of cheese on them...yum!

Cheese on baked beans? Sweet Jeebus Fox is there no end to you depravity? You've sunk to some lows before, but dear God man!

I've never liked beans, they always made me sick..cheese on beans..i just threw up a bit.

I think there's only a select few brands that I ever stick to for anything.

But when it comes to computers, I've had several brands and they all suck and have broken down on me. So, not there.

I don't even care for cell phones at all, so none there.

I have whatever clothes I see that I like. So, not there.

And as for shops, I just go where there is nearby. Mostly Best Buy, or... something. Wherever I can conveniently get DVD's and Blu-ray's of stuff.


I think there are only a few brands of a very few, very specific things that cater to my interests that I stick with, with regularity, however.

For anime, I prefer Funimation. I used to like AD Vision until they went out of business.

For video games, I tend to stick with Nintendo for old-school stuff (NES and SNES as I did back in the day as well even though my friends had a Sega and I played Sonic and Streets Of Rage II at a friends house a lot) and for the current gen, it's Xbox 360 all the way.

and with soft drinks, I vastly prefer Pepsi and Pepsi products, primarily. (mostly my addition to Mountain Dew)

Burger King also outclasses McDonalds any day of the week without even trying.

But those examples aside, I really don't pay attention to brands and just like and indulge in what I see and I like, with barely any regard for who make or produces it.

Forget what Mike just said, and let's go back to baked beans. If we have baked potatoes with baked beans, my girlfriend covers them with cheese. I don't, because I think it tastes sickening with cheese on. I do like a bit of brown sauce in my baked beans, which may be just as sickening, but it tastes good to me.

man, fuck beans.



..............ok, I just realized how absolutely ridiculous that sounded.

Not a fan of brown sauce. However, it makes sense with beans as all it does is essentially give them a more BBQ bean like flavour.

But to return to Mike's other point there - McDonalds v Burger King. I think it depends on what one you go to. There are a couple of BKs at railway stations in Central London I'd not eat in if I was starving to death. I went in one about six months ago and I'm bloody sure the burger had been shoved in the microwave to be reheated. Even the bread and the lettuce were hot. I took it straight back and demanded a refund.

I prefer KFC to either and pizza to all of them. I really try and stay out of McDs if I can and only used to go into Burger King for their veggie ones.

DS - Helen will have you hide for that! I'm not the only one in this house that likes cheese on baked beans on toast!

I thought of another brand I swear by. Gillette razors and shaving foam/gel. Their shaving foam and shaving gel is the only brand I've tried that doesn't make my skin itchy or red after I've used it.

When I shaved, I used to use Gillette myself, but now I'm growing the beard out, I use a Philips beard trimmer.

I've given up fast food for New Year. Everytime I eat a Smackdonalds or Burger King I just feel ill and lethargic so I decided to quit it altogether, as I always say 'I'm never eating another one' afterwards.

I will treat myself occasionally to KFC though, I do like my KFC.

Yes, as I found out when I met you and Rob in Bath that day.

All those fabulous restaurants in the town, so there I am expecting a nice lunch - possibly even a trip to one of my favourite Indian resturants which is down there - and where do we end up? A crowded, cramped, noisy, and dirty branch of KFC where the floors appeared to have been cleaned with cooking oil as there was a slippery layer of grease on every surface.

Consequently, the grease on the floor stuck to my shoes, and with the pouring rain throwing it down outside, the grease and water combined so that when I walked down the stairs in HMV, I fell ass over head!

Add that to the rain, being done out of a tenner in WH Smith at the station, and my train being delayed for 2 hours on the way down so that I had no time to do any antique shopping before I met you, and it wasn't one of my most successful days!

Lol, we're back on our diet so fast food is off the radar for the most part. We are allowing ourselves one treat day, every first weekend of the month.

Yup, I'm off it myself now.

However, I should clarify that that doesn't include Manzes pie and mash. That isn't fast food.

Ok Dave next time you can pick the venue for dinner hahaha. I'm wondering how long I'll last. Hopefully more than a pitfiul few days some of my friends with their 'i'm giving up smoking tomorrow'.

Actually, I was thinking that with you and Rob down there, Chris also in the South West, Wheato just across the channel in Wales, and Matt moving down to the South West, it could actually work to do another get together down there during the Summer.

I don't know where "there" is because I've only skimmed this thread, but that sounds fun. I want to marvel at Myron's get-up, and obviously I want to meet you other lot in person.

I shall wear something special, just for you...

I'd be up for meeting up, money and time permitting