You can save hundreds, even thousands of dollars at the grocery store by buying cheaper generic brands instead of the more expensive name brands. But all those savings can be bitter sweet if your children won't eat it.

Can your kids taste the money you're saving? Debbie Worthen investigates.

A stroll through your neighborhood grocery store and it's no doubt, competition is alive and well. From cereal to steaks, virtually every product has a store brand equivalent and according to Consumer Reports, you can expect to pay 27% less buying generic.

Ken Roseberry, our Grocery Guru, raises a good point, “it's not gonna do you any good to buy the no name if it's not something you're gonna eat and be happy with.”

The store brands may be cheaper, but do they taste as good as their pricier partners?
    
We decided to find out with the pickiest of eaters.

At the Avenues Pre-School, it's not hard to find volunteers for my test.

First we went shopping, buying the name brand and generic of some popular snack foods: chips, cheese crackers, cookies and Pop Tarts and the savings held true.

I saved just over 30 percent with the store brands.

Back at the preschool, it's snack time.

Group one is ready. On the blue plate, Kroger’s Value chocolate chip cookies, on the red plate, Nabisco’s Chips Ahoy.

There a visible difference between the two cookies--clearly more chocolate chips in the Chips Ahoy, but the price nearly triples for the name brand.

We tested the cookies with twelve kids in three different groups and everyone seemed to agree--the name brand gets the nod.

Some kids didn't even finish the store cookie and then there's 5-year-old Cadell, he thinks the store brand cookie belongs in the garbage.

"Here, you can take my cookie. Actually, I can do it,” he said as he tossed it in the trash.

The kids seemed to notice a difference in the cheese crackers, too. Sunshine's Cheez-It's were preferred for the most part, over Kroger's baked cheese bits, however they finished both plates.The Cheese-It's were about double the price.

Albertson's potato chips compared to Lay's: these kids liked them both. The Lay's were two and a half times more expensive.

When comparing several other items like cereals, pop tarts, cheese and these kids really couldn't taste a difference.

With fruit snacks, the only difference the children seemed to notice was the shape.

So there's money to be saved. It all depends on how picky your eaters are.

Last month, Consumer Reports ran a similar test, except instead of kids, they hired trained tasters.
    
In their study, generic and name brand tested overwhelmingly the same. Of the 29 foods tested, only six times did the name brand win and four times, actually, the generic brand won.