19 Great Value Products To Keep Out Of Your Cart At Walmart

I'm surely not the first shopper who has fallen for the allure of Walmart's most popular in-house brand: Great Value. The grocer is one of the few in my area, and I appreciate being able to pick up a wide array of generic-branded foods at a considerably lower price than name-brand items. Great Value products come in all shapes and sizes, from pasta sauces and pickles to mustard and cookies. However, not all of its goods are comparable in quality, flavor, and texture to those of big-name brands. As someone who's been writing, reviewing, and thinking about food professionally for years now, I know this difference all too well. 

The reality is that Great Value's products aren't always good — nor are they worth spending your hard-earned money on. In order to give you some guidance on what Great Value-branded products to avoid buying at the major grocer, I compiled a list of some of its worst items that I've sampled from the brand in firsthand and in food reviews in the past year. There are no questionable internet reviews here; I've tried and tested every single product on this list myself. While many of the brand's products aren't among the worst things I've ever sampled (nor are they usually the worst thing in their respective product category), I've found far better alternatives out there for every item in this list.

You don't want to skimp on the quality of your pasta sauce. Sure, you can buy a low-quality jar — but you'll have to taste that same flavor every single time you take a bite. When I sampled a bunch of Alfredo sauce brands, I found that Great Value's classic Alfredo pasta sauce was nothing short of a miss.

This sauce — which, to its credit, wasn't the worst Alfredo I sampled — lacked the proper degree of freshness that even a creamy, shelf-stable sauce should offer. Its flavor was weirdly garlicky — and not in the tasty Sunday sauce way. The lack of cheesiness, poor texture, and overall lackluster flavor make it one of many Great Value products I wouldn't recommend buying. Instead, I would advise you to pick up a more premium (albeit more expensive) selection from Walmart's pasta sauce aisle. 

Bread and butter pickles are a popular topping for burgers and sandwiches, and are often added to deli salads. After trying several different brands, I found a massive disparity between the tastiest brand on the market (which just so happened to be one of the most expensive) and Great Value's sorry attempt at "pickles."

Like some of the other products on this list, Great Value narrowly escaped last place, but that doesn't mean its product is worth buying. Bread and butter pickles are supposed to have a contrast of flavor, since they're sweeter than other types of pickles, but there still needs to be a synergy between the two. The aroma and the taste of these bread and butter pickles butt heads, and I thought their flavor was very abrasive. Bread and butter pickles should have a yin-yang of sweetness and tanginess, but this one lacked the harmony I was looking for.

Great Value's hash brown selection is extensive and includes every shape of potato that you could imagine, from shreds to tater tots. When I tried Great Value's frozen hash browns, I didn't think they were on the same plane as their name-brand counterparts – a surprise, I know.

Sure, the color on these frozen rectangles was nice, but the lack of salt — something that shouldn't be a problem for a frozen potato product — was deeply troublesome and off-putting. You shouldn't have to settle for lackluster hash browns, considering you're likely eating them as a side dish to a breakfast sandwich or another meaty, greasy concoction. While I can't say how Great Value's other hash brown products fare, I just know that these patties will not be landing in my cart again anytime soon. 

The frozen section of the grocery store can be a treasure trove for tasty finds, but if you're after a delectable, hangover-curing snack, I would recommend steering clear of Great Value's mozzarella sticks. For one, the box doesn't come with a sauce (which, spoiler alert, the top-performing mozzarella stick brand I tried did), and even if one was included, I doubt it would make me want to buy these sticks ever again. 

There's nothing about these mozzarella sticks that stood out as being particularly delicious. The cheese was adequate, the coating was okay, and the consistency was mediocre. And if you're spending a ton on an appetizer, you want it to be good.

When it comes to condensed milk brands, I honestly didn't think that there would be much of a difference between name brands and generic products like Great Value. However, when I tried its condensed milk and compared it to others I had found, I noticed how sizable the disparity actually was. 

I used the condensed milk to make a cake and a homemade Thai tea. My experiment revealed that Great Value's is far, far thicker than the other canned condensed milks, including those from Borden Magnolia, Stop & Shop, and Nestlé. Making a cake with it was difficult, seeing as it didn't want to come out of the can. Paired with a lackluster, albeit sweet flavor, it was one of my least favorite brands of condensed milk I've ever tried.

Great Value carries an impressive selection of chip flavors, including the somewhat niche cheddar and sour cream variety. These ripple potato chips pale in comparison to name brands like Lay's and Ruffles, mainly because the cheddar component tastes flat and the sour cream undertone is absent. On a textural level, these chips are also not great; their mealiness is distracting and highlights the chips' mediocre flavor. But I will say that they are sturdy, and could probably be a decent base for a creamy dip or spread — just don't try eating them solo. 

While I didn't dislike Great Value's cheddar and sour cream chips as much as I disliked other brands I've tried, I still don't think they're good enough to warrant buying. The only good thing about these chips is their low price tag, and you shouldn't have to sacrifice quality for it.

"Chocolate chip cookies" casts a wide net. In this instance, I'm talking about Great Value's store-bought chocolate chip classic chippers (say that five times fast), which scored quite low on my ranking of cookie brands. Despite having nearly identical packaging to the top-scoring brand, these Great Value cookies definitely lacked the same flavor, texture, and quality.

These chips crumbled as soon as I removed them from the packaging, leaving behind only crumbs — and disappointment. I also like my cookies to be slightly buttery (or, at worst, neutral-tasting), but these tasted like stale cooking oil. Combine that with a sparse amount of chocolate chips, and you have a product destined for the trash can rather than your mouth.

Don't let its relatively low price tag fool you — brownie mix is not a spot where you want to cut corners. When I sampled an array of popular brownie mixes, I was astonished by how different the top-ranked mixes were from those that I would feel embarrassed to serve at a gathering. Unfortunately, Great Value did not make the cut for the "best-of" mix.

The brownies this mix made were not fudgy, nor were they brownie-like. In all honesty, they came out more like chocolate cake than brownies. While the edges were pleasantly chewy, the chocolatey flavor was subpar. And, if you're worried about this being due to baker error, I can report that this isn't my first run-in with the brand. When I tried it a few months before that, I had just as disappointing results. 

Great Value's brownie mix came out like a cake, so you could assume that its chocolate cake mix would be somewhat decent. However, when I tried its devil's food cake mix, I found even more concerning results. While some of my favorite cake mixes held together well and yielded perfectly moist, decadent bakes, Great Value's came out dry and crumbly.

The only saving grace for this cake mix was that its chocolate flavor was more prominent than some of the store- and name-brand mixes I sampled. However, its flavor wasn't enough to save it, considering that decorating a cake that's prone to falling apart would be quite tricky. Chocolate cake is one of life's best simple pleasures — just as long as it's not Great Value-branded. 

Walmart's shelves are stocked well with fruit snacks, including this Great Value offering. Though don't let its selection fool you; its Fruit Smiles are nothing but disappointing. These smile-shaped candies — which, frankly, are exactly what they are (I think calling them "fruit snacks" is a bit of a stretch) — taste eerily like Jolly Ranchers. They share the same cloying, synthetic flavor as the popular sucker candy, but their texture is like biting into a gumdrop. The Fruit Smiles are soft, squishy, and wholly unpleasant.

Will kids complain about these Fruit Smiles if a package or two appears in their lunchbox? Probably not. But when you have fruit snacks that taste like actual (or at least actual-ish) fruit, there's just no reason to add this Great Value product to your cart.

I've tried Great Value's shelf-stable and refrigerated orange juice before. And, I wouldn't think to buy either again, considering the delicious offerings from brands like Great Value, Tropicana, and Minute Maid. Interestingly, Great Value's shelf-stable container of orange juice was not as good as the refrigerated version. Both from-concentrate juices had stale flavors, and the shelf-stable product had a slightly thicker and less enjoyable mouthfeel. Meanwhile, the regular refrigerated orange juice tasted slightly bitter and pithy.

You could probably get away with using either of these orange juices in your smoothies or baked goods. However, they're not products that I would recommend buying if you plan to drink them straight from the bottle.

There are few places in the world quite like Walmart's Valentine's Day candy aisle. The number of different Valentine's Day candies to choose from can be overwhelming, so I'm going to make the process a little easier for you: Don't buy the Great Value cherry jelly hearts.

I mean it when I say that this was probably one of the worst candies I've ever sampled (and one of the worst Great Value products I've tried). It's a spewing, uncontrollable fire hose of fake cherry flavor, and the texture is ridiculously gummy, sticky, and unpleasant. I'm glad Great Value only sells them for a short period each year — though I don't think that they're even worth the shelf space at this point.

There's a reason why one brand dominates the English muffin space — and why that brand isn't Great Value. Compared to other store-bought English muffin brands, I found that Great Value's English muffins lacked the proper "nooks and crannies" needed to make them successful. Pair that with a bland and under-salted flavor, and you have a product that pales in comparison (and color) to the king of English muffins: the one, the only, Thomas.

Sure, English muffins are not the most flavorful thing in the world to begin with, but Great Value should make a better effort to at least sell something I can eat with a pat of butter and not complain about. The bright side is that there isn't a big gap between the price of Great Value's muffins and a more premium, name-brand product, which is why I would recommend splurging on a better, albeit slightly more expensive, product.

If you're an avid baker, you likely know the importance of having high-quality baking chocolate in your arsenal. Walmart carries numerous baking bars, including both name brands and its in-house, Great Value-branded bar. And I can confidently report that you're much better off investing in a high-quality, brand-name baking chocolate than this semi-sweet bar. 

Great Value's baking bar was only marginally better than some of the keto-friendly and sugar-free brands I tried. Unlike some of the higher-quality baking bars I've worked with, Great Value's chocolate did not list the cacao percentage — which initially made me assume its quality wasn't going to be top-notch. You don't want the flavor of baking chocolate to be too offensive, especially when it's baked into an already sweet recipe like cookies, but this semi-sweet bar truly lacked any sort of flavor. 

I take sour cream and onion chips very seriously, so you should take my recommendation on this one and leave the Great Value Stack Attack potato crisps out of your cart. These chips are supposed to be the knockoff equivalent of Pringles, and surprisingly, I thought they were tastier than the name-brand snack food they were trying to imitate. However, they pale in comparison to tastier and crispier alternatives. 

If you don't mind the mealy texture of saddle-shaped potato chips, you can probably get behind these. But if you don't like eating musty chips, you're better off skipping them. I found their allium flavor to be lacking, and they lacked the speckles of green herbs of some of my favorite sour cream and onion chip brands. Surprisingly, I do have good news here: Great Value's sour cream and onion chips in a bag are much tastier and just as inexpensive. 

Despite its versatility, mustard is an underappreciated condiment. It can add a bright pop to sandwiches, dressings, and sauces, and if you buy this Great Value Southwest hot mustard, you might expect it to come with a tingly warm sensation that will liven up your taste buds and clear out your sinuses (in a good way). However, Great Value's mustard was a classic example of overpromising and underdelivering. When I tasted it for the first time, I could pick out those red pepper and hot sauce notes, but nothing by way of spice or raw, unrelenting heat. I don't tend toward spicy things, so the fact that I said it wasn't spicy enough was pretty shocking. 

This is a mustard, not a hot sauce, yet Great Value couldn't really offer a product that functioned as either. Its flavor was mediocre and sad, though I am happy to report that its plain yellow mustard is slightly better, thanks to its acidity and consistency. 

Queso is the creamy, slightly spicy dip that your tortilla chips yearn for. So, don't do them a disservice by adding Great Value's queso blanco to your cart. This cheesy jar was mediocre — not great but also not awful — and your chips don't deserve something like that. Compared to other name brands, like Desert Pepper Trading Co. and Mrs. Renfro's, this Great Value product falls short. I should have known that this would be the case, given that the jar didn't list how spicy it should be. Spoiler alert: It's about as mild as mild gets. It's not complex, it's not awe-inspiring, and it's honestly kind of gluey. While you could probably turn it around with some added spice, a good queso should be ready-made — just heat it up, dunk your chips in, and enjoy. 

While the queso blanco was a flop, the Great Value chili con queso was ... better. You heard it from me, folks, queso blanco's orange cousin didn't really knock my socks off either. But, it had a saltier flavor that made it more decadent than the queso blank-o. 

How hard can it be to make boil-in-a-bag rice? It was a question I pondered when I prepared many (possibly too many) instant rice brands to see which was the best. At the time, Walmart didn't carry any pouches of instant rice — just this enriched, pre-cooked long-grain rice that had to be submerged in water and cooked for 10 minutes. I don't know about you, but 10 minutes isn't what I would consider "instant." This wasn't the only big turnoff I had about this product; once it finished cooking, I could detect a buttery aroma emanating from it. This conflicted with the fact that I couldn't actually taste anything seasoned or buttered on the rice itself. 

While the Great Value rice performed marginally better than the other boil-in-a-bag rice I tested on the same day, I didn't think its flavor was decent enough to dedicate 10 minutes of my life to. At that point, you might as well just make regular rice on the stovetop, or just buy a packet of instant rice instead.  

The mozzarella sticks are not the only Great Value-branded product lurking in the freezer aisle, waiting for an unsuspecting (and probably hungry) customer to come along, buy it, and wish they never had. This time, it's the garlic bread that gets the short end of the (bread)stick. Actually, I shouldn't be calling this monstrosity a breadstick, seeing as how it could probably feed 10 people in a single sitting. Its size is one of the few good things about it. 

This frozen garlic bread was not made with quality in mind. It's very soggy and limp — and something you begrudgingly take a piece of at the dinner table just because it's there. While I think it could easily pacify a hungry teenager or taste passable smothered in melty cheese, it wouldn't be a product I would go out of my way to purchase. There are far more premium garlic breads out there, many of which can still be found in the frozen aisle at your Walmart.