The in person shopping experience at
Walmart is the worst of any store I've been to.
i'll grant safeway that distinction. used to LOVE shopping there but they have gone steadily down hill in recent years. well before pandemic/supply chain issues they would have sales listed in their ads but none of the items in the store. talk to a manager and they would admit that they hadn't carried an item in the ad in months but since the ads were put out by corporate they didn't research/care if they were accurate or not. produce that is not checked/regularly discarded by staff so it looks fine until you take the top couple of items off a pile/package-molded below, post dated dairy left on shelves...not the place i shopped at for decades.
Walmart food is worse than anywhere save Family Dollar or one of those. Won't touch it.
Food or meat?
Much of it is exactly the same as every other store. Nabisco products are Nabisco products no matter where you buy them. Same with General Mills, Kelloggs, Quaker, Campbells. Heck, the milk at our Walmart is bottled by my local grocery store for them, but sells for a dollar a gallon less.
my thoughts as well. brand name items sold to other stores are identical-walmart benefits from large purchasing discounts which are passed on to the consumer. the butter ball turkey at walmart is no different than the one at the more expensive chain or privately owned store, tyson is tyson everywhere...i tend not to buy bulk meat there but that's only b/c i stock up when there's a great sale at one of our local smaller chain of stores (they seem to rotate specials) but a pack of tyson drumsticks at walmart is the same as a pack anywhere else i go (identical packaging just with walmart's price sticker on the front.
Walmart meat and vegetables are inferior. As for things Nabisco might make, the little amounts of that type of thing I buy, I use store brands more often than not. And those are not EXACTLY the same at every store. Furthermore, just because dairy X bottles some Walmart milk does not mean it is to the same standard as the name brand dairy X makes. And as Walmart uses several suppliers for milk, the milk at one Walmart may not have even come from the same place as another.
I get it. You want to defend Walmart at all cost for some reason. But the bottom line is I would only choose them if the choice were Walmart vs Dollar General or Family Dollar. They aren't substantially cheaper when all is said and done and I get better elsewhere.
i buy name brand milk (top name brand for my state)-it's the identical milk sold to every store in our region/state-walmart sells a larger volume, gets a better price, sells it for less. as far as store brands you do realize that
major brands manufacture many of walmart's great value product identically as they do other store brand names for other more costly stores (or under their own labels). you can find identical more costly name or other store brands for-
sara lee (walmart great value bread)
conagra makes peanut butter that is labeled as both peter pan, great value and a wealth of others
musselmans (great value apple sauce)
tyson (great value chicken)
dannon (great value yogurts-regular and greek)
reddi-whip (great value whipping cream)
one of my favorites-ziplock makes great value ziplock bags.
as far as walmart's produce-the quality in our region is FAR superior (esp. if you are seeking non organic so it will last more than 2 days under the best conditions).
as far as dollar tree (and other 'dollar' stores in general) go-there is no difference between the bottles of hunts catsup, a-1 sauce, hallmark cards, pinesol...sold there vs. any other store except perhaps the size containers AND the per unit prices. the smaller packages are frequently far less expensive per unit.
i love some products i can't find at walmart (or dollar store) but i also know that the stuff i love from trader joes is all manufactured by the same companies in the same manufacturing plants that sell to everyone else, and the rao's brand pasta sauce that sells at whole foods for $8.99 per jar is identical to the $6.88 per jar at walmart or better yet-$5.89 each in a double pack at costco. for some items i go directly to the local manufacturer-why pay $6.49 at a higher end store, even $3.96 at walmart for seattle sourdough when i can hit the parent company's (franz) outlet and get it for $1.50 per loaf.
not that it matters to me but no one is reviewing my grocery receipts to see where i shop and if it did matter to me what impressions people had based on my shopping habits i would just do as many others seem to-recycle their whole foods and tj's grocery bags to fill right next to me at the check out at walmart and the dollar store
