10 Groceries That Are Way Cheaper at Walmart

High-end grocers in this economy? Not if we can help it. If you’ve at all felt the effects of inflation on your wallet, you’re probably looking to cut costs and save up wherever you can. Naturally, this makes some of the country’s most expensive grocers a hard sell—at least, for now. I don’t know about you, but I certainly can’t afford a $16 carton of eggs from Erewhon—even paying $7 for a dozen of the breakfast staple still feels outrageous. (Let alone a $40 container of sea moss gel.) Sometimes, a quick stop at some run-of-the-mill grocers comes close to breaking the bank, especially when you’re feeding multiple mouths.

Fortunately, budget-friendly grocery stores are here to help. For example, Aldi has famously good deals on its products, and Trader Joe’s offers stunningly low prices on some selections, too. These chains have a pretty wide reach, but they’re not everywhere. You know what is seemingly everywhere, though? Walmart.

Don’t sleep on Walmart if you need your wallet to stretch a little further this month—you’ll be able to find some foods there at a fraction of the cost of other retailers, without sacrificing quality.

Groceries That Are Cheaper at Walmart

Milk

Dairy products are pretty much guaranteed to be cheaper at Walmart than at other grocers. A gallon of 2 percent milk at my local Walmart is currently $3.38, while the same carton at Safeway costs over a dollar more at $4.39. A gallon at my local Kroger (Fred Meyer here in the Pacific Northwest) is even more expensive, coming in at a hefty $4.79 at checkout.

Butter

Need to butter some toast or whip up a batch of chewy sugar cookies? Walmart is likely to be the more economical place to get this fridge staple. A pound of the store-brand variety costs $3.96 at my Walmart; at Target and Fred Meyer, it’s $3.99. If you can score some butter on sale at Walmart, the difference will be even more pronounced. At Safeway, on the other hand, butter costs over a dollar more at $4.99.

If you’re after a high-quality butter brand, Walmart is also your best bet. Eight ounces of Kerrygold costs $4.84 at my Walmart, noticeably cheaper than at other stores ($5.49 at Fred Meyer and a whopping $6.99 at Safeway).

Canned Beans

Canned beans are a necessity during soup season, and Walmart is the place to get them—particularly if there’s a certain brand you’re loyal to. Sixteen-ounce cans of Goya and Bush’s beans can be found at my local Walmart for sub-$1.50. At my Fred Meyer and Safeway, the price sits between $1.50 and $2. Store-brand canned beans were a bit of a mixed bag, though if you can find some on sale at Walmart (or capitalize on coupons), you’ll likely score a steal of a deal.

Breakfast Cereal

You’ll find the best value on name-brand breakfast cereals at Walmart, though store-brand prices (as well as the variety of store-brand cereals you’ll find) are a mixed bag across the chains I compared. But when it comes to your staple cereals from big names like Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Walmart is the place to go, with prices averaging out to about 25 cents per ounce at Walmart. The next closest chain is Target at 28 cents an ounce, while Fred Meyer and Safeway prices are no less than 30 cents per ounce.

Ground Beef

Whether dinner calls for shepherd’s pie or beef stroganoff, the main ingredient, ground beef, is an easy Walmart buy if you’re purely going off of price. Though these will typically fluctuate, a recent comparison saw a price of about 28 cents per ounce at Walmart. Fred Meyer prices its ground beef at around 31 cents per ounce, while Safeway’s goes up to 37 cents and Target’s hits a whopping 44 cents per ounce. In short, that’s a savings from 3 to 16 cents per ounce when you shop for ground beef at Walmart.

Baking Staples

If you need to grab a bag of garden-variety all-purpose flour for baking season (and if you’re not picky about the brand), you’ll likely find that Walmart offers the best price. When comparing prices of 5-pound bags of the baking staple, my Walmart has its own brand on offer for $2.98. That’s at least 10 cents less than the prices at every other store I checked, and that’s not even a sale price.

Of course, baking often calls for baking soda, so you might as well pick some up the next time you’re at Walmart. The store sells a 16-ounce can of its own brand for just 92 cents. Now, Fred Meyer and Target’s prices aren’t too much higher (each sits at 99 cents), but we see a steep climb in price from Safeway, sitting at $1.49.

Old-Fashioned Oats

Is oatmeal a breakfast staple in your household? If so, you’re better off buying some store-brand rolled oats at Walmart. A 42-ounce canister of Walmart’s in-house brand of oats costs $4.18. Target’s price isn’t much steeper ($4.29 for the same amount of oats), but Fred Meyer and Safeway see even higher prices, at $4.49 and $4.99, respectively.

If you’re particular about getting Quaker brand oats, you’ll still find the best prices at Walmart—they’re over 20 cents cheaper there than at Target, and a couple of dollars cheaper than at Safeway. 

Crackers and Chips

Store-brand chips and saltine crackers also see reasonable prices at Walmart (though this may vary according to chip brand). Walmart prices 8-ounce bags of chips at about 10 cents cheaper than Target, 30 cents cheaper than Safeway, and 50 cents cheaper than Fred Meyer. Plus, given that consumers love Great Value chips, it’s worth taking advantage of their famously low prices. 

The price difference in saltine crackers is more slight, with about a 10-cent gap (favoring Walmart) when comparing the chain with Target and Fred Meyer. At Safeway, though, the difference is nearly a dollar. 

If you’re into name-brand chips, like Kettle chips, Walmart is a significantly better bet than Safeway or Fred Meyer, where the per-ounce price is 4 cents higher at Fred Meyer and 8 cents higher at Safeway.

Frozen Meals

Great Value frozen meals are an obvious economical buy, but what if you’re already married to a particular brand? We have good news. Name-brand frozen meals are likely cheaper at Walmart, too. When looking at both Stouffer’s and Lean Cuisine brands, I found slight differences between Walmart and my other stores. At Fred Meyer and Target, the meals are only a few cents per ounce more expensive, while at Safeway, Lean Cuisines cost over 15 cents more per ounce.

Baking Mixes

Don’t want to bake from scratch? Luckily, Walmart’s Great Value Fudge Brownie Mix gets stellar reviews from consumers; not to mention, it’s also budget-friendly. When compared to other grocers, the closest store in price is Fred Meyer’s store brand, which costs 4 cents more per ounce than Walmart’s (almost a dollar more per box). Safeway’s, on the other hand, is even more expensive.