Major brands
Sam's Choice
Sam's Choice, originally introduced as Sam's American Choice in 1991, is a retail brand in food and selected hard goods. Named after Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, Sam's Choice forms the premium tier of Walmart's two-tiered core corporate grocery branding strategy that also includes the larger Great Value brand of discount-priced staple items. [5]
Most Sam's Choice beverage products are manufactured for Walmart by Cott Beverages. [6]
Great Value
As a house or store brand, the Great Value line does not consist of goods produced by Walmart, but is a labeling system for items manufactured and packaged by a number of agricultural and food corporations, such as ConAgra, and Sara Lee which, in addition to releasing products under its own brand and exclusively for Walmart, also manufactures and brands foods for a variety of other chain stores. [7] [8]
In Tokyo, Great Value brand products are sold alongside other Walmart merchandise in Seiyu grocery stores (owned by Walmart) as of October 2014, despite at least one report of a transition away from the brand. [9]
In 2009, the Great Value labels were redesigned to be predominantly white. The new redesign also includes over 80 new items, including thin-crust pizza, fat-free caramel swirl ice cream, strawberry yogurt, organic cage-free eggs, double-stuffed sandwich cookies, and teriyaki beef jerky. Walmart changed the formulas for 750 items, including: breakfast cereal, cookies, yogurt, laundry detergent, and paper towels. [10]
Bettergoods
Bettergoods (stylized as bettergoods) was launched in 2024 as a higher-end line of grocery products, though still marketed as budget-friendly. The initial launch began with over 300 items aiming to show the speed with which Walmart could "bring trend and innovation to market at scale." [11]
Equate
Equate is a brand used by Walmart for consumable pharmacy and health and beauty items, such as shaving cream, skin lotion, over-the-counter medications, and pregnancy tests. The Equate brand was originally created by L. Perrigo Company in 1986 [12] and was sold to Walmart in 1993. [13] In a 2006 study, The Hartman Group marketing research firm issued a report which found that "Five of the top 10 "likely to purchase" private label brands are managed by Walmart including: Great Value, Equate, Sam's Choice, Walmart, and Member's Mark (Sam's Club), per the study." The report further noted that "...we are struck by the magnitude of mind-share Walmart appears to hold in shoppers' minds when it comes to awareness of private label brands and retailers." [14]
Ol' Roy
Ol' Roy is Walmart's store brand of dog food, created in 1983 and named after Sam Walton's dog. It has become the number-one selling brand of dog food in the United States. It is comparable to Nestlé's Purina. [15]
In 1998, samples of Ol' Roy (together with various other brands) were subject to qualitative analyses for pentobarbital residue by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine due to suspicion that the anesthetizing drug may have found its way into pet foods through euthanized animals. Pentobarbital was found in 5 out of the 8 Ol' Roy samples in the initial survey. The highest level of pentobarbital detected among all dog foods tested was an Ol' Roy formulation (Puppy Formula, Chicken and Rice) at 32ppb. The CVM concluded this level of pentobarbital would be unlikely to cause adverse effects even to the smallest dogs. [16] [17]
