Walmart adds new grocery line to private brands portfolio

Brief:

Walmart on Tuesday announced a new private label grocery brand called bettergoods. With most items priced under $5, bettergoods focuses on three key components: culinary experiences, plant-based options, and “made without” products. The retailer said bettergoods marks not only its largest private brand food launch in two decades but also its fastest grocery brand brought to market.

Insight:

Bettergoods represents a multi-category push into unique flavors while maintaining Walmart’s reputation for low prices. This strategic move comes at a time when private label sales are helping grocers and retailers attract price-sensitive consumers.

Walmart describes bettergoods as “a new elevated experience that delivers quality, unique, chef-inspired food at an incredible value.”

The line includes 300 items, spanning categories such as frozen foods, dairy, snacks, beverages, pasta, soups, coffee, and chocolate. Examples include chocolate almond milk, guacamole-flavored tortilla chips, pistachio nut butter, chicken wings with brown sugar BBQ dry rub, and double vanilla premium ice cream.

To develop the line, Walmart collaborated with its suppliers worldwide to source quality, trend-forward ingredients and flavors, according to the retailer’s announcement. The items range in price from under $2 to under $15 and are packaged in brightly colored packaging, which Walmart says “is designed to delight.”

“Today’s customers expect more from the private brands they purchase – they want affordable, quality products to elevate their overall food experience. The launch of bettergoods delivers on that customer need in a meaningful way,” Scott Morris, senior vice president of private brands, food and consumables at Walmart, said in the announcement.

Walmart’s Great Value grocery brand and Equate brand for pharmacy, health and beauty items have long focused on providing customers with national brand equivalents. Over the years for specific categories, Walmart has rolled out private label offerings such as its Oak Leaf wine, Marketside fresh foods and Clear American flavored sparkling waters.

Private label sales accounted for nearly 21% of grocery industry unit sales in 2023 — an all-time high, according to the Private Label Manufacturers Association. More than half (54%) of shoppers surveyed last summer said they plan to buy much or somewhat more store brands in the future, compared to 26% who said the same for name brands, FMI – The Food Industry Association noted in a report last fall.

As retailers ramp up their private label assortments, consumer perception of store brands has shifted from them being just lower-cost national brand equivalents to differentiated, quality items.

Walmart is also facing growing competition from Target on grocery private brands. In February, Target launched a low-priced private brand called Dealworthy that includes 400 everyday basics such as paper towels, paper plates, body wash, charging cables and cotton balls. Some of the items under that line cost less than $1 and most are under $10