Private-label brands used to mean bare-bones packaging and questionable quality. Today they are the fastest-growing part of American grocery. Store brands passed 25% of total U.S. grocery dollars in 2024 for the first time, and several private-label lines routinely beat their name-brand rivals in blind tastings from Consumer Reports, America’s Test Kitchen, and Cook’s Illustrated.
This review walks through the store brands most Americans see every week: which lines earn their space in the cart, which to skip, and where the store brand actually outperforms the name brand. Every category below is judged on quality, price, and consistency — the three variables that matter after the initial novelty of a cheaper label wears off.
Kirkland Signature (Costco)
The gold standard. Kirkland runs on an internal rule that no product bears the name unless it beats the leading national brand on quality, price, or both. That discipline shows up in olive oil (routinely rated at par with premium Italian imports), batteries (made by Duracell), coffee (roasted by Starbucks for the House Blend), nuts, over-the-counter drugs, and paper products.
The main downside is pack size: everything is huge. A single household will waste half a bag of Kirkland spring mix before finishing it. The workaround is to buy shelf-stable Kirkland categories (olive oil, canned tuna, laundry pods, batteries, vitamins) and skip perishables unless you regularly host or have a big family. Kirkland’s liquor line, particularly the vodka and the single-malt Scotch, is also famously well-reviewed at a fraction of comparable brands.
Great Value (Walmart)
Walmart’s everyday value line covers thousands of SKUs and prices 20–30% under branded equivalents. Basics like flour, sugar, canned vegetables, frozen fruit, dish soap, and cleaning supplies are indistinguishable from name brands in blind tastings. Great Value milk, eggs, and butter are the same commodity products sold under premium labels at other chains, at a lower shelf price.
Prepared foods, sauces, and snacks are more hit-or-miss — some are excellent (the frozen pizza dough and the plain Greek yogurt earn consistent praise), others taste noticeably off (the branded pasta sauces and salad dressings tend to trail their name-brand rivals). Walmart’s newer premium line, Bettergoods, launched in 2024, extends the range into higher-quality prepared foods worth trying if you shop there weekly.
Good & Gather and Market Pantry (Target)
Target replaced most of its older store-brand lines with Good & Gather starting in 2019. The line now covers dairy, produce, frozen meals, coffee, pantry staples, and snacks, and leans notably more premium than Great Value or Signature Select. Quality is consistently strong; pricing sits above Walmart but below name brands.
Good & Gather cold brew, seltzers, frozen pizza, and pre-made hummus routinely place at the top of magazine taste tests. Market Pantry, the older basics line, still exists for shelf-stable staples at lower price points. For a Target shopper, the rule of thumb is: use Good & Gather for anything you will actually taste, and Market Pantry for canned goods and cleaning basics.
365 by Whole Foods Market
Since Amazon bought Whole Foods, the 365 line has become one of the best organic private-label deals in the country. Organic canned beans, tomato products, pasta, olive oil, and frozen fruit typically undercut even Trader Joe’s on a per-ounce basis. Prime members get an additional 10% off many 365 items and access to weekly deep discounts on select SKUs.
Categories where 365 wins outright: organic pantry staples, plant-based milks (the 365 oat milk holds up against Oatly at a third of the price), sparkling water, snack nuts, and frozen berries. Where it does less well: prepared foods and refrigerated deli items are inconsistent, and dairy prices are still higher than Target or Kroger. Best used as a top-up shop, not a full weekly run.
Trader Joe’s
Roughly 80% of what Trader Joe’s sells is under its own labels. The lineup is small on purpose — one or two options per category — but the food-quality-to-price ratio is hard to beat. Frozen meals, dips, cheese, coffee, chocolate, nuts, and snacks are the strongest categories.
The tradeoff is inconsistent stock (favorite items disappear seasonally with no warning), no online ordering, and small store footprints that make weekly full-family shops impractical. The right way to use Trader Joe’s: a monthly stock-up on freezer staples, snacks, coffee, and cheese, paired with a mainstream grocery run for the rest. Their sub-$5 wine (Two-Buck Chuck) and $2–$3 chocolate bars remain among the best value products in American grocery.
Simple Truth (Kroger family)
Kroger’s natural and organic line runs across all of its banners (Kroger, Ralphs, Fred Meyer, King Soopers, Harris Teeter, Fry’s, Smith’s). It is a solid, affordable step up from conventional store brands, especially strong on organic milk, eggs, chicken, and frozen vegetables. Kroger’s Private Selection line covers the premium tier with imported cheeses, sauces, and pastas.
Simple Truth broadly matches Whole Foods 365 on organic quality at similar or lower prices, and Kroger’s digital coupon system stacks additional discounts on top. Not as adventurous as Trader Joe’s but broader in reach and more predictable — and available at over 2,700 stores across most of the U.S.
Publix and Wegmans store brands
Both regional chains put unusual effort into private label. Publix ice cream (particularly the premium tier), Publix deli meats, and Publix bakery items regularly beat name brands in local taste tests. Publix milk and eggs are also sourced from regional dairies and tend to taste noticeably fresher than the national alternatives.
Wegmans covers 6,000+ SKUs under its own name, with especially strong pasta sauces, cheese, prepared foods, and bakery. The Wegmans Organic line and its Italian Classics range have won multiple Best New Product awards from industry judges. If you live inside the footprint of either chain, use their store brands as a default and reserve the branded aisle for the few exceptions listed below.
What to still buy branded
Some categories still favor name brands, either because taste really does differ or because store brands have not caught up on formulation. Skippy and Jif peanut butter hold their edge over most private-label versions, name-brand hot sauces (Cholula, Tabasco, Frank’s RedHot) have a following stores struggle to replicate, and breakfast cereals with strong brand loyalty (Cheerios, Frosted Flakes, Rice Krispies) taste noticeably different from private-label copies.
- 01Peanut butter: Skippy and Jif remain worth the premium
- 02Hot sauce: Cholula, Frank’s RedHot, Tabasco
- 03Breakfast cereal: Cheerios, Special K, Frosted Flakes
- 04Ketchup: Heinz is a category of one
- 05Ranch dressing: Hidden Valley original has a distinct formula
- 06Ice-cream sandwich cookies (grocery brand OK, but Nabisco Nutter Butters and Oreos still lead)
