Store Brand Chips That Give Name Brands A Run For Their Money

Few snacks take up so much space in grocery store aisles as the munchable, crunchable chip. From the origins of the potato chip to the current carnival of tasty treats overfilling shelves, the concept of the humble chip has slowly evolved into a firework display of textures, flavors, and exciting interactive opportunities for chip fans to offer up their imaginative taste combinations for limited-edition runs. The possibilities offered by national brands alone can be enough to make your tastebuds spin. Add in the store-brand duplicates tossed out by grocery chains to get a piece of the snack action and shoppers stand a real chance of chip selection overload.

With devious shrinkflation taking over so many popular chip possibilities by reducing contents while raising prices, having a list of store-brand chips can keep bags from the big names from putting the crunch on your shopping dollars. How do you know which store-brand chips live up to the challenge? Easy: You read this handy round-up I've assembled, detailing which options are worth bagging. It's a savory selection of store-brand snacks that put fire to the feet of popular chip brands by repackaging familiar snacks with new names and novel flavors — and in some instances, new angles on healthful noshing.

Try finding another bag of chips that uses tangy lime as a flavoring; you'll be spinning your grocery cart wheels up and down the aisles. Only Kroger Kick of Lime White Corn Chips puts this tingly zinger to work as a tasty topper for its tortilla crisps, and to wildly successful effect. This is a vastly different approach from brands that include lime as part of the ingredient list. With Kroger's reimagining, every chip delivers a tangy smack of citrusy lime with a salt chaser. It's the perfect alternative for anyone who finds heavily-coated tortilla chips to be a crunch too far for their snacking consideration.

Anyone contemplating trying these chips should also know how affordably priced they are. A generous 10-ounce bag will set you back less than $2.00, a shopping accomplishment that's nearly unheard of in the era of skyrocketing snack prices. This is a personal favorite that always draws my eye, even when I'm just hopping into the store for the necessities. Satisfying one's inner snack fiend is sometimes just as necessary as keeping one's stricter health-minded eater on course. It also helps that Kroger Kick of Lime Tortilla Chips aren't a budget-breaker.

Though Doritos set the standard for how a nacho chip should taste and behave, it's been a free-for-all on the chip market for store brands scrambling to make their own deliciously dusted versions. Target puts all its chips on the table with a Good & Gather Nacho Cheese Tortilla Chips to whack Doritos right in its bright red bag. Beyond simply replicating the familiar Southwestern essence, Good & Gather goes a step further and makes its chips organic, a win for the cautious chip fan who doesn't like missing out on the chance to munch.

The formula seems to be working, as the 338 reviews and 4.2-star rating average attest. Fans proclaim that the ingredients are superior and the taste bests real Doritos. At around $4.00 for a nine-ounce bag, the price is a winner as well, beating down the over-$5.00 price of a 9.25-ounce bag of brand-name Doritos sitting on Target shelves next to the Good & Gather offering. This sneaky stroke of strategic thinking lets the big red bullseye take aim at customers with a more mindful spin on the beloved nacho cheese snack. It's enough to give a big-box retailer a chip on its shoulder.

Fans of Signature Select's extensive line of specialty items offered by Albertsons and Safeway stores may be happy to learn that the company packages its Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips like nobody's business but theirs — and yours! While you may not be running a restaurant in your own kitchen, isn't it nice to know you can simulate the feeling of a happy hour with chips, salsa, and a pitcher of margaritas without having to change out of your comfy clothes? Come to think of it, you could probably pull off such a simulation without having to leave the pantry. And Signature Select stands ready to help you make the gauzy dream of deluxe in-home chip enjoyment a reality.

The company does a great job of producing a competitive tortilla chip while minimizing the ingredients used to a trim four: corn flour, water, vegetable oil, and sea salt. That a relatively healthful crisp is priced at just over $2.00 for a 10.5-ounce bag, making it a true find in the wilds of pricier bags. And if all of that isn't enough to convince eager snackers to give them a try, maybe the 4.6-star rating average out of 385 reviews will help make the case.

Make the crunchiest contribution to your office potluck or neighborhood cookout by tossing a bag of Great Value Organic Tortilla Chips onto the table. These sturdy circles may be small, but they're also perfectly workable scoopers for salsas and dips of all consistencies, whether the bowl is filled with chunky pico de gallo or creamy guacamole. The coin-sized crisps are great for family snack time too, giving your tiny chip hounds something to nibble on without having to commit to a chip that's larger than they can handle. The fact that they're organic is an added feel-good feature for conscious chip consumers.

With 476 ratings and a 4.0-star average, it appears that Great Value has come up with a champion chip customers crave; at less than $2.00 for a 13-ounce bag, the price is just as alluring as the product itself. Having such a delicious dish waiting on your next Walmart run, you could easily stock up for a party or get-together and have enough money left over for hummus or homemade onion dip to dress up these crispy circles. But no festivities are necessary to dig into a bag. Having cost-friendly store-brand chips that taste great is reason enough to celebrate.

If the national brands are providing potato chips to the snackers of the world, you can rest assured Aldi will be hot on their heels with a store brand that does its darndest to compete. And the beloved discount grocer doesn't just copy one of the familiar chip flavors favored by the other bagged treat companies; it takes on a Canadian classic and delivers it to a U.S. audience for a bold twist on dusted crunchy taters. Clancy's All Dressed Potato Chips are a tribute to the tangy ketchup-BBQ-vinegar bite that makes hide-and-seek appearances in American markets, usually as a limited edition or seasonal release to celebrate regional flavors from around the world.

Though they aren't available full-time, these chips receive rave reviews when they make appearances on Aldi aisles, inspiring Reddit threads extolling the tangy virtues. Aficionados who dig the zesty specialty shake-on Clancy's shares in its All Dressed chips will be chomping at the bit for the next go-around of these special-occasion-only creations. But stocking up when they make an appearance means having an incredible store-brand chip to turn the tingle on the ol' tastebuds up to 11.

There's a gourmet simplicity captured in sea salt potato chips cooked in a kettle that gives a ground-level snack an elegant boost. Dollar Tree gets in on the action with its Home Style Select Old Fashioned Kettle Cooked Potato Chips. The name may lay it on a little thick trying to communicate just how authentically homemade these chips taste. Such a transgression should be forgiven in favor of the affordable nibble this store-brand bite provides. It may not make an appearance on rankings of the best and worst kettle potato chips on the market, but it's grand enough to become your new favorite, provided you have a Dollar Tree nearby.

Though reviews are limited, admirers of this tasty tidbit call out the enjoyable taste and delightful crunch on the Dollar Tree website. The fact that they can be had for a mere $1.25 for a six-ounce bag doubles the delight. You may not even have potato chips on your shopping list when you see them on the shelf, but the temptation of trying a top-notch store-brand treat for a more-than-reasonable price is bound to draw you in.

Amazon doesn't intend to disappoint its customers with a delivery of chips that are DOA – dull on arrival. Instead, the Internet shopping giant serves up a dependable bag of potato crisps that can stand chip-to-chip with the big guys. Amazon Fresh Classic Potato Chips are the Lay's of store-branded noshes, a first-rate second-tier brand that puts the fun of salty-crispy snacking on your shopping list with just a click. Who would've dreamed the 21st century would hold a reduced-price package that arrives at your house hours after a tap on the screen of your telephone? Such marvelous madness is a modern miracle for the chip fan who's too busy with home tasks to hit the streets.

This wildly popular bag boasts a 4.3-star average out of a crunchy 2,471 reviews in its Amazon listing. You may have previously enjoyed these chips under the Happy Belly banner, though it appears Amazon has had a change of heart (and packaging) and now pushes them with the other Fresh fare. An 11-ounce bag will take around $4.00 out of your bank account or off your gift card, which is a bargain considering the ballooning prices of national-brand chips. You'd pay the same for an eight-ounce bag of Lay's — but you don't have to, thanks to this fantastic Amazon stand-in.

When you whip into a Walgreens to pick up your gummy vitamins and index cards, try sweeping by the package snack aisle and grabbing a bag of Nice! potato chips too. They're audacious enough to accommodate the scientifically-studied need for crunchy snack satisfaction experienced by chip lovers, and they're priced reasonably enough to prevent the post-purchase regret that comes from dropping far too much money to find far too little food waiting for you inside the bag. It's pretty fair to say you'll be happy with your $1.99 or so purchase for eight ounces of chip-crunching bliss.

Walgreens takes a clever approach in its packaging, replicating the sunshiny harvest gold hues of a Lay's bag. Assuming it's a subliminal move to grab the attention of hungry customers bearing the burden of brand loyalty, it seems to be working; the 127 reviews rounding out a 4.3-star average is an indicator of crisp success. Some reviewers go so far as to call these the best chips they've ever tasted. While it's clearly a matter of opinion, an emphatic endorsement like this should signal curious chip connoisseurs that Nice! potato chips hold solid possibilities for store-brand enjoyment.

It's a head scratcher that pharmacy chain CVS bags up store-brand chips in a form that few other major snack providers have attempted, let alone the lesser legends of the signature label chip designers. The supremely surprising snack comes in the form of Gold Emblem Sea Salt Kettle Cooked Waffle Chips, a crispy variation of the famous Chick-fil-A fries with the peek-a-boo surface and the ultra-crunchy texture. TikTokers love sharing the home chip hack for making waffle chips, so it's a mystery why other brands haven't jumped on the hashtag bandwagon. Maybe it's just easier to fund machines that produce the same mandolin-sliced ovals as all the other chip producers. Good on CVS for making big moves and providing a unique bag that not only does as well as national brands, but might even do the biggies one better.

And 169 reviews averaging 4.1 stars are no small shakes for a chip that looks mighty generic based on the packaging. If CVS leaned a little harder into a modern aesthetic, the company might have an even bigger hit on its hands, especially with the $3.99 price for a six-ounce bag. You may not get as much as a bag of the more famous chips, but you also avoid paying upwards of $6.00 to quell your snacking urge, a consideration that sometimes tilts the scale in one direction or the other. In this instance, the balance is squarely in CVS's favor.

You won't be disappointed when putting your Sam's Club membership to its best use by picking up a bag of Members Mark Wavy Potato Chips. While it's great that Ruffles have rrrridges, Members Mark has rrrripples that accomplish the same goals: making your chip sturdier for dips while adding extra crunch to keep your choppers busy. It's always a stylish step up from a flat chip that guests seem to go gaga for when they find a party bowl filled with crinkly crisps.

Since these zigzagging snacks are part of a major warehouse product line, you can be certain you'll be getting a generous helping, to the tune of 16 ounces for a madly modest $3.00 or thereabouts. And if the price and quality of Members Mark aren't enough to get you off the fence, maybe the 4.7-star average over an eye-popping 4,500-plus reviews on the Sam's Club online listing will do the trick. Comparisons to Wavy Lay's put Members Mark side-by-side with the popular brand name, a sure sign to skip the better-known version in favor of this Sam's Club contender.

Nacho night always goes better when you use restaurant-style chips as a base. Something about the sturdiness and relatively neutral flavor lets the toppings shine through without the chip collapsing. It's also nice when purists can grab an unadorned handful and enjoy a more straightforward experience. Whole Foods anticipates the need for a dual-purpose snack with its 365 Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips. Rather than taking the beaten path with ordinary snappy triangles, the chain goes organic and salt-free to let cautious snackers in on the good times. The only way to get a more healthful take is to make your own tortilla chips at home. What ends up in the bag and on the table is a naked corn crisp that can take on any flavors you dish out, from queso to buffalo dip to that snazzy spinach artichoke mixture you only haul out for your closest friends.

How incredible are these thoughtful tortilla wedges? You could ask over 18,000 reviewers who've bestowed a 4.5-star average in their raves on Amazon. It's the highest review count of any chip on the list, which puts the star count somewhere in the realm of the Milky Way (the galaxy, not the candy bar). Few store-brand chips could crack the competition like that, even against more popular brands. This second-level selection makes sure you can enjoy affordable noshes 24/7, 365. It also makes a great setup for snack-related word play.

Very few store brands dare to stand in the same sphere as the enormously popular Taki snacks. Your favorite grocer may package seasoned corn chips under its own special moniker, but only Sprouts offers Chili & Lime Rolled Tortilla Chips, coiled crunchers sprinkled with a generous coating of chili and lime to get your tastebuds growling in high gear. This farmers market-style grocery store comes up with its own signature label chip that puts the crunch on the real Takis brand, giving eagle-eyed shoppers a delicious way to sidestep the added expense of the real deal.

It may not be the price that gets your snack-loving heart all revved up. A 3.25-ounce bag of authentic Takis runs $1.99 or so at most stores, while astute shoppers can find 9.9-ounce bags for about $3.99 or so. At a little over $4.00 for Sprouts rolled chips, it's actually pretty comparable monetarily. The big draw for health-conscious shoppers is the use of vegetable-based coloring rather than the artificial dyes like Red 40 Lake found in real Takis. A store brand that takes your health into consideration without jacking prices sky-high is bound to attract some serious business. The 71 reviewers who've left a 4.59-star average on the website sure seem to think so.

Customer ratings and reviews helped determine which of the store-brand chips were competitive enough with better-known big name brands. I consulted online listings and even threw in a few bags that I have personal experience with to provide guideposts regarding the qualities that make these chips viable purchases. After carefully considering store label chips outside of my grocery shopping comfort zone, I can confidently state that there's a world of affordable munchies out there just waiting to be explored.

The more creative grocers like Target and Kroger offer a large selection of store-brand chips, which can make it easy for the bigger outlets to corner the market. Rather than sticking with just those chains, I sought out drug stores and warehouse spots to provide a more well-rounded array of options. This gives snackers the best of all possibilities no matter where they may prefer to shop for chips. There also happens to be a decent selection or two at every store, making it easier to save money while still stocking up on snack staples.

Static Media owns and operates Food Republic, Tasting Table, Daily Meal, and Mashed.