The Walmart Bakery Item That's Not Worth Spending Your Money On

There's no doubt that Walmart has a ton of selection and some pretty sweet deals. After all, you don't become the largest grocery store chain in the United States through sheer luck, especially given the fact that Walmart sells much more than groceries. However, for every amazing buy at Walmart, there's one to be avoided. This is true with its house brand, Great Value, which has a number of items to keep out of your cart — it's also the unfortunate reality when it comes to Walmart's bakery department.

A warm, buttery croissant in the morning is an appealing idea, but that's not what you're going to get from Walmart's Marketside all-butter croissants. In a ranking of nine Walmart bakery items, these substantially large croissants limped into last place because they fail to be anything you want from a croissant. There isn't a trace of the flakiness, crispiness, or tastiness you'd expect from these baked goods. Of course, you were never going to get boulangerie-esque croissants from the packages in Walmart, but it's still disappointing when the same bakery is producing cinnamon rolls and blueberry muffins without any issue.

Whether you consider it a faux pas to put butter on your croissant or not, you'd need quite a lot of butter to cover up the faults of these Marketside all-butter croissants. Pre-packaged croissants can't compare to the delicate and flaky nature of freshly-baked pastries, but even the staunchest croissant hater could see the shortcomings of this offering in comparison. Chowhound's taste-tester described the smell as "plasticky," which doesn't seem to inspire an appetite, and it's an even worse first impression. Artificial scent aside, things still didn't look up once she dove into the taste and texture.

Where an ideal croissant is dry and crisp on its exterior, the Marketside croissants were sticky and almost soggy to the touch, according to our ranking. The taste was comparable to potato bread, and its consistency had a bready density that was starkly un-croissant-like. Warming them in the oven helped to crisp the outside, but the heat wasn't enough to fix the soggy center. At the very least, you could still find a use for these croissants in a salad as DIY croutons, and they'd probably be better suited for that than their intended use.