5 Walmart Groceries Worth Every Penny and 4 You Should Avoid

Walmart has built a reputation for some of the lowest prices through its store brands. The Great Value brand was launched in 1993 and has grown to become the nation’s largest food brand, offering quality, affordable options on everything from pantry staples to frozen meals and sweet treats. But as every smart shopper knows, cheaper doesn’t always mean better. Some store-brand swaps can easily compete with their pricier counterparts, but others fall short in taste, texture, and overall quality.

That’s why many shoppers turn to online reviews, taste tests, and brand comparisons to determine which Walmart groceries are worth buying and which are too good to be true. In some cases, the best value products are just as good, if not better than the leading brands, but others are not worth the savings. To help separate the hidden gems from the disappointments, we did our research to find the best-value foods that online customers say are worth every penny, and which you’d be better off avoiding.

Read more: 6 Meats You Shouldn’t and Shouldn’t Buy at Walmart

Buy: Great value butter

If you often use butter for cooking or baking, you may have noticed that this cooking essential can be quite expensive, but according to customers and online home cooks, store-brand butter often outperforms major name brands and tastes better. A woman on TikTok put three butter brands to the test: Challenge, Great Value, and Kirkland Signature. After baking her cookie recipe using three different butters in each batch, she said, “There’s not a lot of variation in these tests … sometimes different batches. [of butter] Perform differently.” Perhaps this is because store brand butters are often made by the same manufacturer as name brands.

In fact, it is rumored that the popular brand Land O’Lakes is the manufacturer behind the Great Value butter brand because the products taste so similar. A former creamery employee on Reddit explains why you should always buy store brand butter: “I worked at a creamery before Walmart, and I saw the same butter go to Land O’Lakes, Great Value, and their own brand.” Thousands of positive online reviews claim that Great Value Butter is just as good, if not better, than high-quality brands like Tillamook, and at less than $1 per stick, the value is hard to beat.

Avoid: Great value pasta sauces

Great Value Pasta Sauce is an attractive product because it is one of the cheaper options on the shelves. However, despite having a much lower price tag than major name brands like Rao’s, customers find the pasta sauce to be watery with a thin taste. One review of marinara pasta sauce described the product as tasting like mashed tomatoes with little or no flavor from herbs and spices. A customer on Reddit even claims the GV brand chutney tastes like pennies. “The worst would be the pasta sauce. I don’t know what it is, but some GV pasta sauce tastes like pennies.”

Many customers claim that it’s worth spending a few extra dollars on a high-quality, flavorful sauce because it makes a real difference to your pasta. And if you have time, making your own sauce is the best way. But if you decide to go for the store brand option, you may want to steer clear of the GV brand. In our own taste test, we put Aldi’s and Walmart’s sauces head-to-head to see which store brand pasta sauce was better, and Aldi came out on top in nearly every category.

Buy: Great prices on the growing crust three meat pizza

Mastering the art of frozen pizza is no easy feat, but Great Value has a pizza in the frozen aisle that gets glowing reviews for its value, taste and texture. Walmart brand pizzas are not only cheaper than takeout, but customers claim they are just as good, if not better, than major store-brand options, such as DiGiorno. In fact, they are so similar that some shoppers believe that Great Value Pizza is probably DiGiorno’s disguised in store brand packaging. One pizza in particular that is extremely popular is the raised crust three meat pizza which combines pepperoni, sausage and beef and a thick crust with a crispy exterior and a fluffy warm interior.

Not only is the pie less than $5, but some customers claim it’s their favorite pizza ever. There are thousands of positive reviews about the product on the Walmart site, with many customers explaining how pleasantly surprised they were to find such high quality pizza for so cheap. For example, a Walmart shopper writes, “This pizza is great! This was my first time trying it and I was so surprised at how good it was. The sauce, the meat, the cheese and the crust. This is the best frozen self-rising crust pizza I’ve ever had and I’ve tried many.”

Avoid: Great value pizza rolls

Pizza rolls are a snack that brings back fond childhood memories, but many of us can’t resist giving in to our old cravings and enjoying them in adulthood. However, Great Value Pizza Rolls do not compete with the Totino’s brand that many of us grew up with. Online shoppers pitted the two brands against each other in a taste test and found Totino’s to be the clear winner. “GV pizza rolls taste like the box they come in,” said one customer on Reddit. And other shoppers recommend trying the Aldi store brand version if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative to a name brand option.

Another problem customers have with the Walmart version of this snack compared to the anime brand is that the crust-to-filling ratio is completely off. One food reviewer on TikTok described how he felt like, “…biting into a pocket of pizza-flavored air.” Unfortunately, Great Value Pepperoni Pizza Rolls are one of the Walmart items that have declined in quality over the years.

Buy: Great value mac and cheese

It’s always good to have a couple of boxes of mac and cheese in the pantry when you need a quick and tasty meal. Walmart’s Great Value mac costs less than $1 per box and the product is highly reviewed, earning 4.5 stars out of more than 2,000 reviews. Customers are divided on how the store brand compares to Kraft. Some customers claim that the GV version is better than the name brand, while others believe that Kraft is actually the brand behind the product and that the two are essentially the same.

However, according to online customers, it’s better to save some money and go with the store-brand version. A self-proclaimed “connoisseur of comfort food” explains in a Walmart product review, “The pasta consistently achieves that perfect al dente texture, never soft or too soft, which is a common problem with many boxed mac and cheeses. Then comes the cheese…it’s rich, creamy, and deliciously flavorful.” Plus, customers share lots of creative ways to upgrade cheap meals with cream of chicken, bacon bits, taco seasoning, and more.

Avoid: Great value ranch dressing

When it comes to ranch dressing, customers don’t mess around. And while the general consensus is that restaurant ranch is undeniably better than anything store-bought, Great Value ranch dressing from Walmart is particularly offensive to ranch dressing experts who appreciate a thick and creamy dipping sauce. One reviewer on YouTube described the product as flat and stale, saying, “It’s flat, stale … years-old ranch flavor in this case. It’s got a lot of funk going on, not the good kind.” He rated it a mediocre three out of 10.

Other reviews of the product claim it is watery and thin. One particularly enthusiastic Walmart customer said, “Bad. Tastes like oily feet and smells sour. I’d pay an extra dollar or two for a name brand.” If you adhere to the whole idea that the food is just a vehicle for the sauce, you’re better off making your own ranch dressing. There are entire Reddit threads dedicated to sharing tips for using Hidden Valley Ranch packets with ingredients like mayonnaise and sour cream to achieve a restaurant-grade texture.

Buy: Sam’s Choice Pure Drinking Water

Bottled water brands can be expensive, but Sam’s Choice Pure Drinking Water is a highly popular purchase among Walmart shoppers for its value and quality. It’s no secret that customers can be picky about their water, but a 28-count package of 20-liter Sam’s Pure bottles costs less than $5 and gets glowing reviews online. One customer on Reddit goes so far as to claim it’s “… the best water you’ll ever drink.”

Even a former Walmart employee said on Reddit, “I swear people were asking me to check the back for that water…” And with over 20,000 5-star reviews on the site, it’s clear other shoppers agree. Customers can’t explain why but they just feel the water tastes better than other bottled brands and the price is unbeatable. Not to mention, shoppers also appreciate the bottle, as they don’t have problems with the lid leaking, like many other brands.

Avoid: Great value cookie and caramel bars

Walmart sells several name brand candy bar dupes under its store brand. They have a peanut, caramel, and nougat bar that’s a copycat for Snickers, a Milk Chocolate Crispy Wafers bar similar to KitKat, and a fluffy nougat bar that’s like the 3 Musketeers. While Walmart’s knockoff candy bars are definitely cheaper than the name brand versions, customers warn online shoppers about the sacrifice in taste and quality. The cookie and caramel bar, a Twix copycat, gets particularly bad reviews for being so far from the original.

Customers claim the cookie has a strange taste and the bar leaves an unpleasant aftertaste. One Redditor compared the GV version and Twix side-by-side and confirmed “…Walmart isn’t worth buying one” despite the lower price. Even in a blind taste test, customers can easily identify the real deal from the Walmart version. Customers agree that if you’re treating yourself, it’s worth spending a little extra on high-quality chocolate.

Buy: Great value ice cream

Great Value Ice Cream receives high praise from customers for being a viable alternative to some of the more expensive name brands. And perhaps that’s why it’s also the maker of many popular name brands including Wells Dairy, Blue Bunny and Halo Top, the brand behind the popular Great Value product. The company prides itself on using high-quality, farm-fresh ingredients in its products and has satisfied customers.

Consumer Reports lists Great Value Vanilla Ice Cream as one of its top store brand picks, describing it as “… creamy and smooth, with a firmer texture and a stronger vanilla flavor than Briar’s.” Some customers even prefer it over Target store brand ice cream, and it’s cheaper, too. For just $2.97 per pint, you can get a variety of flavors from your classic vanilla and chocolate to sea salt caramel, mint chip, peanut butter cup, and more.

methodology

To determine which products are worth buying and which aren’t, we pulled customer reviews, social media posts, and ratings from the Walmart site. We also gathered insights from several taste tests comparing Walmart’s products to the name-brand version they emulate.

We took an unbiased view. And it allowed us to focus on the consensus of customer sentiment across multiple platforms.

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