BOSTON -- For years, grocery stores have offered generic products that were cheaper and, by some accounts, inferior to name brands. But the major supermarket chains argue that has changed.

Watch Report

At Roche Bros., generic products are now called Food Club.

At Shaw's and Star Markets, it's Homelife and Wild Harvest.

Stop & Shop offers Nature's Promise and Simply Enjoy.

Store brands -- or "private labels" as they are now known -- are cheaper.

"With a family, things are getting so expensive now, I do find that I'm sort of switching to some of the store brands," said shopper Mary Sue Terranova.

Andrea Astrachan, a spokeswoman for Stop & Shop, said store brands compete well with national brands.

"We do think they are very comparable and in some aspects, some are actually better," Astrachan said.

In fact, Team 5 Investigates discovered in many cases, the store brand foods are made by the same companies that make the national brands. Essentially, they're the same.

For example, Stop & Shop aluminum foil and plastic wrap is made by Reynolds. The store foil is a dollar cheaper.

Solo makes Stop & Shop's plastic cups, which sell for 69 cents less.

And Stop & Shop bread comes from Iggy's.

At Shaw's, the store brand spices come from McCormick and sell for at least 50 cents less than the name-brand version.

Shaw's marshmallows are made by Kraft. And the lightbulbs are from Sylvania.

"Quite honestly, it is the exact same product that you will see or better than what you'll see in any of the branded goods," explained Bill Nasshan, a senior vice president at Shaw's.

At Roche Bros., the supermarket bakes its own bread right in the store, but Gold Medal makes the store's Food Club varieties. Solo makes many of the plastic goods. And the milk also comes from a major brand.

Team 5 Investigates' Susan Wornick asked shoppers if they could taste a difference between the two milks, and they couldn't.

That's because Roche Bros. milk actually comes from Garelick Farms. There is no difference, except in price. A gallon of store brand whole milk is 30 cents cheaper.

Garelick also supplies Stop & Shop brand milk.

"On average, the savings is about 25 percent on store brands versus national brands," said Paul McGillivray from Roche Bros.

"Over time, retailers have really had to improve the quality of store brands," Nasshan explained. "So we stand behind them very much."