Should You Buy Great Value Items?

A jar of Jif peanut butter costs $2.48, the one from Skippy costs $2.42, and then there’s Great Value. That one is only $1.32.

Everyone has heard of Jif and Skippy, but Great Value doesn’t have the same name recognition.

Is Great Value a good brand? How can it be so much less costly than the others?

If you’ve ever wondered about Great Value or any other store brand, like Equate or Kirkland, this article is for you. We’ll look at what Great Value is, whether you should buy it, and what Great Value brand items are the best.

What is the Great Value brand?

Great Value is a private-label brand sold at Walmart.

That means the items are manufactured by third parties but branded Great Value and sold exclusively at Walmart. Private-label items make plenty of money for Walmart. In the consumer packaged goods (CPG) category, 19% of sales are from Great Value and other Walmart private-label brands.

Launched in 1993, Great Value is Walmart’s biggest private brand, earning more than $27 billion a year in sales.

What’s the difference between Great Value and name brands?

Great Value items are similar to name-brand items. Many are even made by the same manufacturers. But there are two major differences.

First, Great Value brand items can only be found at Walmart. Second — and most key for most shoppers — Great Value items are generally less costly than name brand items.

Where are Great Value brand items manufactured?

Great Value items are made by third-party manufacturers — often the same manufacturers that make items for other major brands.

The items aren’t all manufactured by the same business, and it’s not always clear who the manufacturer is.

Here are a few that we do know:

The Great Value peanut butter we mentioned earlier is made by ConAgra, the same business that makes Peter Pan peanut butter.
Great Value bread and coffee is made by Sara Lee.

If you think a Great Value item looks or tastes exactly like your favorite name brand item, it might just come from the same production line.

Is Walmart getting rid of Great Value?

The rumor mill occasionally claims that Walmart plans to eliminate Great Value brand items. While individual items may be dropped sometimes, there’s no evidence that Walmart wants to scrap the Great Value brand altogether.

Is Great Value a good brand?

As we mentioned above, Great Value and other private-label items are often made by the same manufacturers as name-brand items. They may even be identical items in different packaging.

In other words, you don’t have to worry about generic brands being of lower quality.

So why are they so low-cost?

When you buy a name-brand item, you’re paying for name recognition. The parent businesses of national brands invest a lot in research, development, and advertising. Store brands often don’t, so they can charge less.

You shouldn’t hesitate to buy Great Value items just because they’re a generic brand.

9 top Great Value brand items

Most Great Value items are of decent quality and comparable to name brands. Some especially popular items have a reputation for being better than the national brand items.

Let’s look at nine Great Value items you should be buying.

Great Value Milk

It’s increasingly common for consumers to use shopping list apps to plan their orders. An analysis of these apps found that Great Value milk is the most popular item that shoppers plan to buy.

That’s not surprising — skipping the name-brand version of everyday food staples can be a big money saver.

Great Value Mac and Cheese

Fans of Great Value Mac and Cheese think it’s even better than the famous brands like Kraft and Velveeta.

Need more evidence? When reporters at cleveland.com did a taste test of 122 varieties of mac and cheese, two Great Value flavors made the top 15.

Great Value Coffee Pods

The convenience of coffee pods isn’t always worth the price, but Great Value’s pods are both low-priced and tasty. They come in classic types like French roast and fun flavors like pumpkin spice and donut shop.

Great Value Paper Towels

Great Value offers more than food items. Its Great Value Ultra Strong paper towels perform well and are typically less than half the price of brands like Brawny.

“Today’s Parent” reviewed the paper towels, saying that one sheet held over seven teaspoons of water without dripping, making it the most absorbent paper towel they tested.

Great Value Toaster Pastries

The Great Value answer to Pop-Tarts has plenty of enthusiastic fans. Satisfied consumers point to the doughier crust and thick filling as reasons to buy Great Value toaster pastries instead of Pop-Tarts.

Best-selling flavors include frosted cherry and frosted cookies and cream.

Great Value Cereals

If there’s a popular cereal you love, you can probably find a store-brand version that costs less.

For instance, instead of Honey Nut Cheerios, you could buy Great Value Honey Nut O’s, and instead of Rice Crispies, you could get Great Value Rice Crisps.

Great Value Chips

Great Value sells a wide variety of delicious chips for snacking. Most are comparable to a particular name brand item. For instance, Great Value Nacho Cheese Tortilla Chips taste like Doritos.

Great Value Flour

There’s no reason to pay for name recognition on basic baking supplies like flour or sugar. Great Value items work just as well and cost less. Five pounds of all-purpose flour from Great Value often costs less than half of what flour from brand names like Gold Medal cost.

Great Value Trail Mix

From tropical to Tex-Mex, Great Value has a trail mix flavor for everyone. Trail mix is another Great Value item that many people think is better than the name-brand alternatives.

Other private-label brands like Great Value

Great Value isn’t the only store brand you should consider buying.

Private labels are a big part of shopping. In grocery stores, they make up 21% of CPGs. In value grocery stores, the majority of CPGs are private label.

The list below covers just a few private labels with high-quality, low-priced items.

Sam’s Choice

Sam’s Choice is another of Walmart’s brands. However, Walmart has prioritized Great Value, so many Sam’s Choice items have switched over. For instance, Sam’s Choice brand sodas (like Mountain Lightning and Dr. Thunder) have now become Great Value.

Equate

Equate is also a Walmart private label, but it focuses on pharmacy and health items. Equate used to be an independent brand but is now sold exclusively at Walmart.

Kirkland

Kirkland is a Costco store brand. Like Great Value and other private labels, some Kirkland items are manufactured by recognizable brands.

With Kirkland, that’s not always a secret. For instance, the Kirkland coffee packaging boasts that it’s roasted by Starbucks. Kirkland Cranberry Juice bears the Ocean Spray label.

Simply Nature

Simply Nature is a store brand from Aldi. It promises that all Simply Nature items are organic or non-GMO verified.

In 2020, 80 Simply Nature foods earned the Good Housekeeping Nutritionist Approved Emblem.

365 by Whole Foods Market

365 is a brand sold by Whole Foods, which Amazon owns. The brand was originally called 365 Everyday Value.

The 365 brand is concerned with both health and ethics. Some of its items include fair trade coffee and cage-free eggs.

Target brands

Target loves its private-label brands. The retailer has 48 store brands across categories that include food, clothing, electronics, and home goods.

Conclusion

Great Value may not be considered a name-brand, but it’s a successful brand in its own right. Buying Great Value items is an excellent way to keep more cash without sacrificing quality.

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Topics Groceries