I am loyal to certain cheese producers, from local small scale producers to national artisan producers that ship to me, to national larger scale cheese makers who have specific products I like. I’ll buy certain imported cheeses with place protections, like Italian DOP cheeses.

With chicken, I like a particular producer, because the chicken just tastes better to me when it’s air chilled and of a specific size (4 lbs/1.8 kg is the ideal size).

For flour, I use a combination of a local mill for whole wheat, and a reputable national producer for bread flour and all purpose white flour. I have a specific brand for 00 pizza flour. I know what to expect from those products, and that allows me to be precise.

For pasta, I have several brands and shapes to choose from, and can obviously do fine with whatever box, but I still have my preferences for specific shapes and brands and bronze-die lines. Some of them are imported and some are domestic.

Condiments and sauces? Yeah, I have a preferred ketchup brand, 3 specific soy sauces for different applications, 3 specific mustard brands for different applications, and a preferred mayonnaise. I keep about 5-10 hot sauces on hand, each for a different style of food.

As you mention, for wine and beer and liquor and liqueurs, I am fairly picky when it comes to brands and quality. Life is too short to drink bad alcohol.

But it also pretty much extends to non alcoholic beverages, too. I choose my coffee and go for specific roasts by specific roasters. I like a particular brand of soda. I even have a preferred brand of orange juice.

For chips and snacks, I very much prefer specific flavors of specific brands, including even the biggest of the industrialized brands for certain products.

With chocolate? Yeah, brand matters to me a lot. Most other candy, too.

I have a preferred butter brand. I can make do with others, but I prefer mine. There are only two bacon brands I like. I have a hot dog brand preference, too.

I’m pretty serious about food, and I love blind tasting things and forming preferences around new foods, revisiting old taste tests, etc. I couldn’t imagine not caring about the details on food, and that often means knowing the difference between brands (and knowing when a brand has changed its formula/recipe).

People out there are doing good work, making delicious food. Sometimes they put their name on it, and that means something.

I mean haven’t you seen the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid? It’s obviously a tribute to ancient Egypt.

When decisions are based on who pays the organization the most, it can sometimes improve outcomes for the organization.

When decisions are based on who pays the individual decisionmaker the most, it can often lead to the decisionmaker making decisions that help themselves personally but harm the organization as a whole. That’s bad for outcomes.

That’s why corruption at the individual level often leads to incompetence and inefficiency. Corrupt organizations and industries, though, can coordinate in a way that mitigates these weaknesses.