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Old 05-13-2019, 07:34 PM   #1
4X4
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Not sure if I'm crazy, or if it's true. I swear the food at that store is lower quality than anywhere else. I don't really shop there unless it's for socks or toys, but last week I had to buy things from pretty much every department, so I went to Walmart.

I don't care about sweat socks or Lego, at least, my feet and my daughter don't complain about their respective qualities, but when it comes to food? I just need to know if I'm biased, or if other people figure the same.

Here are my examples... I love pickles. Polski ogorki till I die. Almost always Bicks, but the Walmart I was at didn't have them, so I bought the Great Value brand pickles, and they're f'ing nasty. Hard to explain, but they're just not right.

I also bought some Armstrong cheese. Old, Cheddar. It's....dry. Maybe not the end of the world, but WTF? I eat pickles and cheese as a snack pretty regularly. I know their taste and texture, not that I'm some kind of connoisseur, but I know what they're supposed taste like. I buy old cheddar Safeway brand all the time, and it's not Sahara dry. Is Armstrong just this way, or is it Walmart knock off level?

Bullseye BBQ sauce. Yeah, yeah, give me hell for buying that stuff. I love the Blazin Chipotle. Bought a bottle of that, went to add it to a marinade the other day, and it pours out like water. Pissed me off because I added way too much and had to scoop some out with a spoon. Seriously, is it watered down?

Finally, I bought some chicken drumsticks. It was an 8 pack, and we really only eat 4, so I opened the thing and put half in the marinade, and went to ziploc the other 4, and the goddamn things still have the quills sticking out of them. Seriously?

So am I crazy, or was my bi-annual trip to Walmart grocery another reinforcement of why I never buy food there? And if the human food is such a step down, I'm wondering if their pet food is also Grade F, as that's what I usually go there for. It's pretty much a giant warehouse for my pet food, shampoo, toys, and socks.
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Old 05-13-2019, 07:45 PM   #2
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Weird on the cheese, Armstrong is the best brand you can get at a normal grocery store, by far. Never shopped for it at Walmart. But if you are comparing it to Safeway cheese? Ya, I dunno, I haven't bought that in years because it used to be this weird horrid plasticy stuff that if you tried to melt it, just oozed oil but never actually melts. It was creepy, and didn't taste very good so I stopped buying it when I could afford real cheese.
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Old 05-13-2019, 07:58 PM   #3
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Not sure if I'm crazy, or if it's true. I swear the food at that store is lower quality than anywhere else. I don't really shop there unless it's for socks or toys, but last week I had to buy things from pretty much every department, so I went to Walmart.

I don't care about sweat socks or Lego, at least, my feet and my daughter don't complain about their respective qualities, but when it comes to food? I just need to know if I'm biased, or if other people figure the same.

Here are my examples... I love pickles. Polski ogorki till I die. Almost always Bicks, but the Walmart I was at didn't have them, so I bought the Great Value brand pickles, and they're f'ing nasty. Hard to explain, but they're just not right.

I also bought some Armstrong cheese. Old, Cheddar. It's....dry. Maybe not the end of the world, but WTF? I eat pickles and cheese as a snack pretty regularly. I know their taste and texture, not that I'm some kind of connoisseur, but I know what they're supposed taste like. I buy old cheddar Safeway brand all the time, and it's not Sahara dry. Is Armstrong just this way, or is it Walmart knock off level?

Bullseye BBQ sauce. Yeah, yeah, give me hell for buying that stuff. I love the Blazin Chipotle. Bought a bottle of that, went to add it to a marinade the other day, and it pours out like water. Pissed me off because I added way too much and had to scoop some out with a spoon. Seriously, is it watered down?

Finally, I bought some chicken drumsticks. It was an 8 pack, and we really only eat 4, so I opened the thing and put half in the marinade, and went to ziploc the other 4, and the goddamn things still have the quills sticking out of them. Seriously?

So am I crazy, or was my bi-annual trip to Walmart grocery another reinforcement of why I never buy food there? And if the human food is such a step down, I'm wondering if their pet food is also Grade F, as that's what I usually go there for. It's pretty much a giant warehouse for my pet food, shampoo, toys, and socks.

So about the Pickles at Wal Mart. Many years ago, Wal Mart kept going to Bicks and wanting cheaper and cheaper pickles. Bicks made the Great Value pickles Fo Wal Mart at the time. Finally Wal Mart wanted thier pickles so cheap tha Bicks could not compromise the quality any further and refused to deal with Wal Mart, so they went to India for their Great Value pickles and yes they suck.

As for name brand goods, I've always believed they are the same quality however Wal Mart does often demand different packaging, and portion size for marketing/ pricing reasons. 976ml Milk, 1.75L Coke, 600g Cheese, etc.... All so they don't have to worry about having to match sale prices as those siz s are exclusive to Wal Mart.

As for chicken, well it's mostly ML prime or from either Lillydale or Sunrise and as far as I know the same batches of drums could go to any of the retailers. The worst part of groceries at Wal Mart is the staff are not trained to know anything about the departments. The guy working in produce is not a Produce Guy, the bakery manager is not a baker, the kid stocking the fresh meat was working in the electronics department yesterday.
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Old 05-13-2019, 08:04 PM   #4
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Weird on the cheese, Armstrong is the best brand you can get at a normal grocery store, by far. Never shopped for it at Walmart. But if you are comparing it to Safeway cheese? Ya, I dunno, I haven't bought that in years because it used to be this weird horrid plasticy stuff that if you tried to melt it, just oozed oil but never actually melts. It was creepy, and didn't taste very good so I stopped buying it when I could afford real cheese.
Got some Armstrong at Shoppers and it's not in my opinion what it once was. Not sure if they sell them in the square shape brick but the rectangle slabs are not what your nose to get in the square brick (After a steady diet of cheese throughout the early Y2K's, I hardly buy/ eat it anymore but picked some up for a party last week.
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Old 05-13-2019, 08:40 PM   #5
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So about the Pickles at Wal Mart. Many years ago, Wal Mart kept going to Bicks and wanting cheaper and cheaper pickles. Bicks made the Great Value pickles Fo Wal Mart at the time. Finally Wal Mart wanted thier pickles so cheap tha Bicks could not compromise the quality any further and refused to deal with Wal Mart, so they went to India for their Great Value pickles and yes they suck.

As for name brand goods, I've always believed they are the same quality however Wal Mart does often demand different packaging, and portion size for marketing/ pricing reasons. 976ml Milk, 1.75L Coke, 600g Cheese, etc.... All so they don't have to worry about having to match sale prices as those siz s are exclusive to Wal Mart.

As for chicken, well it's mostly ML prime or from either Lillydale or Sunrise and as far as I know the same batches of drums could go to any of the retailers. The worst part of groceries at Wal Mart is the staff are not trained to know anything about the departments. The guy working in produce is not a Produce Guy, the bakery manager is not a baker, the kid stocking the fresh meat was working in the electronics department yesterday.
I don’t know about food, but I know for fact their other “brand” name items are usually made to specific Walmart specs which are cheaper and of less quality (take a look at a tv there and compare the model number to say Best Buy or The Bay and it will have the same name but a different model number). Wouldn’t surprise me if it was the same with food.

Big box stores pull the same #### with their Boxing Day sales. Inferior models compared to their regular stock.
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Old 05-13-2019, 09:03 PM   #6
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Armstrong is terrible cheese. Always tastes weird no matter where I’ve bought it

1.75 litre Coke. That’s a good one.
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Old 05-13-2019, 09:05 PM   #7
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Their ground beef has a weird stench too.
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Old 05-14-2019, 01:01 AM   #8
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I don’t know about food, but I know for fact their other “brand” name items are usually made to specific Walmart specs which are cheaper and of less quality (take a look at a tv there and compare the model number to say Best Buy or The Bay and it will have the same name but a different model number). Wouldn’t surprise me if it was the same with food.

Big box stores pull the same #### with their Boxing Day sales. Inferior models compared to their regular stock.
Yeah, I've seen a couple of youtube things that outline their "minus one feature" that basically disqualifies their products from the commercials where they promise that "if you find a better price, we'll beat it by x%". Of course, since you can't find that model number anywhere except Walmart, they aren't at risk of having to beat the price. And the version they're selling is a tier down from the other stuff.

Not exactly a revelation, but it annoys me. They might have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddling pickles.
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Old 05-14-2019, 05:04 AM   #9
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You'll find that with many of the products sold there.

Anecdote:
A couple of years ago, I had a client ask me about purchasing a new laptop. I gave them a Toshiba model number, and they went and got that model - or so I thought. Turns out they got the laptop at Walmart for about $50 less, however it had an added "w" at the end. It wouldn't connect to their wifi router in the next room. Wired? just fine, but no wifi. I told them perhaps it was defective, so they returned it for another of the same model.
Same thing, no wifi. I mentioned that Best Buy (where I told them to get it) might have had a bad batch, until they told me it was from Walmart (I hadn't noticed the slight model # difference). They returned the second one for a refund and got the model at Best Buy. That worked just fine. The Walmart model had a cheaper, ####tier wifi card inside - different manufacturer and everything.
The $50 they "saved" more than doubled for the service calls I had to make to them

Buyer beware.
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Old 05-14-2019, 05:16 AM   #10
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Walmart is ok for non-perishables, but I'm not sure why anybody would buy their meat, dairy or fruits/vegetables there. So many better options.
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Old 05-14-2019, 06:47 AM   #11
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Walmart is strictly backup when it comes to groceries as said above for non-perishables, milk or maybe a loaf of bread. You are probably better off enduring the Superstore experience if you want cheap groceries.
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Old 05-14-2019, 06:54 AM   #12
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Once again Walmart showing to be a disgusting organization. I was so turned off by them when I had to go into their stores as a contractor at a previous job. Horrible horrible place.
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Old 05-14-2019, 07:26 AM   #13
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Once again Walmart showing to be a disgusting organization. I was so turned off by them when I had to go into their stores as a contractor at a previous job. Horrible horrible place.
I hear ya. I spent a few summers building their bikes, what a dumpster fire that place is. Almost every manager is a know nothing alpha full of bluster and ignorance. The staff are peons who have had the spirit sucked out of them so they can only respond with "yes, master". If you think the stores are a mess of products, you should see the store rooms. I don't think I've even been in one in a decade.
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Old 05-14-2019, 07:59 AM   #14
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I've noticed a huge difference in the produce at Walmarts in Calgary to what I get when I'm down South.
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Old 05-14-2019, 08:09 AM   #15
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I haven't stepped foot in a Walmart since they started online deliveries. We buy almost all of our "pantry" items (canned goods, crackers, the like) from Walmart.ca. You get Walmart prices without having to associate with Walmart people. A+
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Old 05-14-2019, 08:11 AM   #16
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I buy lots of groceries at Walmart, and when it comes to produce, celery, peppers, blueberries etc. it is the same hit or miss I get at Safeway or anywhere else, the only difference is it seems a lot cheaper in price.
Never had a problem with pickles, olives, cheese etc etc.
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Old 05-14-2019, 08:16 AM   #17
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Yeah, I don't think the quality is different unless it's a specific Walmart brand although I will say that I always buy the Great Value macaroni and cheese, especially the white cheddar version. I have never had an issue with the Armstrong or Kraft cheeses I've bought at Walmart. Could've just been a bad batch.


I will say that their decision to move to Lucerne milk products has turned me off their dairy products for sure.
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Old 05-14-2019, 08:17 AM   #18
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I haven’t step foot in a wal mart in over ten years. I refuse to. The only thing that place has done is devalue any product in our society. They have conditioned people to think that the cost of a certain good is their price. That microwave is so cheap... 1 year later, busted buttons that are not replaceable, time for a new microwave and the cycle stars again.

It’s the type of thing that leads to the overconsumption of our society. Products built to fail. They are cheap in the short run but in the end you pay more than you would have if you just bought a quality product from the beginning.

As far as socks or underwear, I go to the army and navy.

Wal Mart Is a scurge.
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Old 05-14-2019, 08:18 AM   #19
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There isn't a Walmart super close to where I live (so, cheapo stuff usually comes from Superstore when I have the steely reserve to deal with it), but I do go out of my way to buy a very specific light bulb that's only sold at Walmart in Canada because of the lumen and color temperature being absolutely perfect (GE Energy Smart PAR30 LED 3000k).
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Old 05-14-2019, 08:24 AM   #20
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Not exactly a revelation, but it annoys me. They might have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddling pickles.
Well that's quite a pickle they're in now eh?
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