Cheap is not always bad...

Whenever I go grocery shopping, I have this tendency of NOT buying items of the local / house brand, eg: Kroger in King Soopers, GreatValue in Walmart etc. The house brand always touts that it has the lowest prices which makes me wonder whether the stuff it is made up of is of good quality or not. I am a big skin-care freak and I follow the 3 step care routine for my skin: cleanse, tone and moisturize every day. I needed some facial cotton swabs for applying the toner to my face and I needed some which wont leave the lint/fabric remnants on my face after I am done using it. So I go to the nearest King Soopers store to buy myself a good quality cotton swabs pack. I see two of the same type on the rack: one is of the Swisspers brand ( which was around $2.89) and the other one was of Kroger ( for $1.99). I took pride in myself for the fact that I reached in time to pick up the last of the packs of Swisspers which was left ( mind you I had never heard of this brand name before that day) and I didn't even glance in the direction of the cheaper cotton swabs. 4 days later, I head to King Soopers again unsatisfied with the cotton swabs I bought the other day. They left a lot of fabric strands on my face and it was some hassle for me trying to get them out from my face. I thought I would go and have a look in the beauty aisle again to check out if there was any other brand apart from Swisspers and Kroger for the swabs. But to my luck, there was no other brand. After a lot of contemplation ( and thought that if the Kroger one turns out to be worse that Swisspers ( I was sure it would be that way) , I could always come and return it , cant I?!). So I go ahead and buy the Kroger brand. I come home eager to prove my conviction right about the Kroger brand to be way worse than the Swisspers one. I wash my face and use the cotton swab to apply the toner. And what do I see??!! The swab worked like a charm! It felt soft on my face and left no lints behind. It absorbed the toner well and didn't drip. I was AMAZED. I never thought Kroger could even match, let alone surpass a more expensive, a more well-known brand by such a noticeable margin. Lesson to myself : "Money isn't everything. A cheaper brand could provide a better quality item, rare but very much possible."