The purpose of a "brand name" is to provide insulation against this. If you have a brand that you trust, and you buy from that brand regularly, and the brand is

The purpose of a "brand name" is to provide insulation against this. If you have a brand that you trust, and you buy from that brand regularly, and the brand is based in your country, then they're more trustworthy because you know you can sue them or drag them into the mud in the court of public opinion. Whereas buying "the same" stuff from some random company in China gives you no such protection as they can just fold or trade under a different name. Food poisoning is an interesting case to bring up. If you know that a neighborhood restaurant has food poisoned you or someone you know, then you stop buying food there. And if you buy something from a physical store like Best Buy or Safeway, you also know there's someone you can sue and somewhere you can go if the product is recalled by the manufacturer. Those companies have a brand to protect and will take steps to do so. So no, the brand isn't dead and it is still a good proxy for quality of service or quality of merchandise. I forgot that for about 8 years until Amazon reminded me.