The Best Grocery Store Private Label According To 26% Of People

Grocery prices are no joke these days, and many people are turning to store-specific private labels to save a buck ... or $20. This trend was only furthered by the COVID-19 pandemic, with store brands enjoying a sales increase of 12% during 2020, per Progressive Grocer, a statistic that's been linked to more grocery shopping in general since dining out was not an option.

But, this is on trend for a market segment that has been steadily increasing its stronghold in recent years. Currently, Progressive Grocer says that about $1 of every $5 a shopper spends in a grocery store is on a private label product, as opposed to a name brand version. That's not to say that name brands are suffering, though. In 2020 recognizable names enjoyed a sales increase of $86 billion, compared to 2020. Though as prices on those goods keep rising, store label items have become more budget-friendly in many cases.

Still, people have feelings about how private labels stack up against each other, in terms of both quality and price. Mashed conducted a survey of 649 U.S.-based respondents to definitively determine which private label is the best, choosing among Walmart's Great Value brand, Whole Foods private line 365, Good and Gather from Target, Aldi specific goods, Kroger items, and H.E.B.'s Hill Country Fare line. The results will definitely surprise you.

Just about every grocery chain has jumped on the private label bandwagon in recent years. And shoppers have their opinions on which one is best. According to participants in the Mashed survey, Walmart has cornered the market as having the preferred store brand, according to more than one-quarter (26.35%) of voters. The chain's Great Value brand was introduced back in 1993, and has only made massive strides since, says Walmart. Today, Great Value is responsible for more than $27 billion in sales annually for the corporate giant, per Store Brands.

In a major shift from the first-place budget retailer, the popular upscale grocer Whole Foods takes the second spot. Its store brand, dubbed 365, earned 22.65% of votes, followed by Kroger with 17.10%. Everyone's favorite throw pillow store, Target, also stacks up in the grocery department, earning 15.72% of the vote for its Good and Gather brand, while Aldi netted 11.71%. San Antonio-based H.E.B.'s Hill Country Fare brand took just 6.47% percent of the vote coming in last to round out the results.

One thing's for sure — when stores compete with each other to offer private label brands at lower prices, the consumers win. And that's always a good thing.