Wal-Mart "Great Value" Food Items

[Jadow]

Anyone here had much experience with "Great Value" store brand food from Wal-Mart?

I've been buying GV stuff for years and gotta say, I can not tell a difference from name brand on anything GV. It's really good product for a very reasonable price.

Gonna have some GV spagetti with GV sauce and GV canned mushrooms for dinner tonight. Total cost per serving will be about 50 cents and we will eat good. Not gourmet, but it will taste good, everyone will fill up, and we'll be happy.

 

[techs]

Some of the stuff is clearly inferior. You really have to check out each item to see how good it is.

 

[clamum]

If possible I get the generic "Great Value" stuff and it tastes fine to me. I do get name brand soups and chili though but maybe I should try the cheaper stuff.

 

[SZLiao214]

The GV canned and frozen vegetables taste the same. From the other items i have had, they are pretty much the same or really close.

 

[rcpratt]

Got some GV canned tuna recently, I could definitely tell the difference but hey, it was half the price and still edible.

 

[SsupernovaE]

Some of the GV products are great, some are equal to name brands, and some are inferior. Just try each GV product once and see if it suits you.

 

[Bignate603]

It's not too terrible. For the most part its decent off brand stuff.

 

[Slew Foot]

I buy them , most of them are pretty similar to the name brands. I wish the packaging wasnt so ghetto though.

 

[LikeLinus]

Some of the GV products are great, some are equal to name brands, and some are inferior. Just try each GV product once and see if it suits you.

I would not be surprised if a lot of GV is just private label stuff from large popular companies. We get GV and it's the same as everything else.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Pasta sauce, peanut butter, beef jerky - all are excellent.

 

[Engineer]

I would not be surprised if a lot of GV is just private label stuff from large popular companies. We get GV and it's the same as everything else.

Probably. Walmart just buys it from someone and has them put the GV label on it. For the most part, I can't tell much difference except price. I usually buy GV stuff if it's available (when shopping Walmart, otherwise, it's Kroger brand stuff).

 

[darkxshade]

It's not about the brand for me, it's about the ingredients and nutrition facts... which is why I will usually compare labels between branded and generic stuff. So if the generic items are comparable, I'd get them otherwise, I go for quality and if it happens to be branded, than so be it.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

For the most part, private label groceries are excellent. There's a really good profit margin on them even with the discount prices, so the stores try to make them good so that they sell well.

 

[Eli]

If you can't tell the difference between generic store brand stuff and the real thing, your tastebuds fail at life.

That said, some of it can be a decent value for what you get. Most things aren't going to compare well to the real thing though, IMO.

Edit: I was thinking more along the lines of boxed things like cookies, mac and cheese, etc.

Canned stuff is different, I just buy whatever is cheapest.

 

[2Xtreme21]

On some things I don't mind, but man generic spaghetti sauce? Yuck. I'll gladly "splurge" and pay the extra $1.50 for good sauce.

That said, I always buy generic frozen vegetables, milk, eggs, cheese... things you can't really screw up. Anything tomato-ey though will invariably be awful with a generic label.

 

[SlitheryDee]

For the most part it seems good enough. I often marvel at how many products have a GV equivalent. It really has a presence in practically every food category, and some non-food categories now.

 

[tfinch2]

I wish the packaging wasnt so ghetto though.

Does it affect the taste?

 

[LikeLinus]

If you can't tell the difference between generic store brand stuff and the real thing, your tastebuds fail at life.

That said, some of it can be a decent value for what you get. Most things aren't going to compare well to the real thing though, IMO.

Edit: I was thinking more along the lines of boxed things like cookies, mac and cheese, etc.

Canned stuff is different, I just buy whatever is cheapest.

I'm talking about things like canned veggies, noodles, cheeses and things like that. Not cookies, where I can see that they would taste different and not have the quality/taste as a name brand.

 

[techs]

One thing I have noticed is that some brand name items that are sold at walmart don't seem to be as good as the same brand at another store.
It's almost like some companies make two different quality levels, one for walmart and one for everyone else.

 

[boomhower]

A lot of our stuff is private label, either GV from walmart or Aldi's.

 

[OUCaptain]

the canned tomatoes are awful. They are filled with green chunks and too many seeds. It make the sauce too bitter and chunky. Most other things I've tried aren't too bad. I try to stick to the dry goods though.

 

[ponyo]

I tried GV ice cream last week. Very good. Better than Breyers or Edy's ice cream.

 

[SlitheryDee]

One thing I have noticed is that some brand name items that are sold at walmart don't seem to be as good as the same brand at another store.
It's almost like some companies make two different quality levels, one for walmart and one for everyone else.

Give an example so I can independently verify this.

 

[Jadow]

Pasta sauce, peanut butter, beef jerky - all are excellent.

GV PB = Peter Pan, when PP was recalled a few years ago, so was GV...

 

[xanis]

I've tried a few of the things, mostly dried good and tomato sauce. Tastes fine to me.