Walmart and Kroger are among some of the largest grocery store names in the industry. Each serves millions of customers annually from selling their countless products. If you are deciding between the two, then chances are you may have your hands full.
The process of comparing two large grocery stores is quite tedious and time-consuming. To help you out in this decision-making process, I took a look and compared these stores based on three major decision making factors.
3 Major Decision Making Factors:
- Price
- Quality
- Variety
At the end of this article, you should have a much better idea as to which store is best for you to shop at.
Which is Better: Walmart or Kroger? Walmart is cheaper by an average range of 10% to 37% compared to Kroger. Additionally, Walmart has more product variety and has higher quality products according to the FDA.
Is Walmart Cheaper Than Kroger?
The primary focus for most shoppers is price. Traditionally speaking, most Shoppers want to go to the store that offers the most affordable prices. So, when comparing Walmart and Kroger, which one has cheaper prices?
To figure out which store has more affordable prices, I recorded the prices of commonly purchased store brand items. I then grouped these prices together based on what shopping category they belong in. Below is a chart that shows which common shopping categories have lower prices on average.
| Category | Kroger Brand | Walmart Brand |
| Beverages | ✓ | |
| Baking Goods | ✓ | |
| Canned Goods | ✓ | |
| Dairy | ✓ | |
| Dry Goods | ✓ | |
| Frozen Foods | ✓ | ✓ |
| Personal Care | ✓ | |
| Cleaners | ✓ | |
Walmart is cheaper than Kroger in a majority of common shopping categories by a range of anywhere from 10% to 37%.
Despite the fact that Kroger is cheaper in a few of the most common shopping categories, Walmart is cheaper in a majority of them. This does not come as too much of a surprise as Walmart offers their ‘everyday low price’.
To show you a better picture of what the difference in price looks like, I created this price comparison bar chart. Interestingly, the prices for most of these items are not too far from one another. In other words, Kroger and Walmart are quite similarly priced, it just so happens that Walmart is a bit cheaper.
So, if you are someone who is a price-conscious shopper, then you are better off shopping at Walmart for your goods as you will likely save the most money there.
Product Quality: Walmart vs Kroger
The quality of products is also very important to shoppers. Customers like to know that the products they are buying are safe. So between these two stores, which one has higher quality products?
To figure this out, I took a look at the FDA’s product recall database. This database shows exactly how many recalls a store has had in recent years. The store with more product recalls is likely to be the one with lower quality products.
| Category | Walmart Recalls | Kroger Recalls |
| Animal & Veterinary | 2 | 2 |
| Biologics | 0 | 0 |
| Cosmetics | 0 | 1 |
| Dietary Supplements | 0 | 0 |
| Drugs | 6 | 2 |
| Food and Beverages | 21 | 46 |
| Medical Devices | 0 | 0 |
| Radiation Emitting Products | 0 | 0 |
| Tobacco | 0 | 0 |
After checking the database, it seems that Kroger has a total of 51 product recalls and Walmart has a total of 29 recalls. What this indicates is that Walmart has higher quality products than Kroger.
Just as a reference, the average amount of product recalls that a grocery store has ranges anywhere from 10 to 22. Walmart is a little bit above the average, but Kroger is significantly higher than it.
So, if you are a shopper that enjoys buying quality items from the grocery store, then you are better off shopping at Walmart.
Product Variety: Walmart vs Kroger
Product variety is essentially the total amount of items that a store has on their shelves. The more product variety that a store has, the more options that a customer has to pick from.
Something to note is that Kroger is considered a supermarket whereas Walmart is considered a hypermarket.
The main difference between the two is that a hypermarket carries everything that a supermarket does in addition to department store items. By nature, Walmart should carry more items in their stores.
| Total Walmart Products | Total Kroger Products |
| 120,000 | 70,000 |
Walmart has significantly more options to pick from than Kroger. Even though Kroger is known to offer customers a wide variety of items, Walmart absolutely crushes them in the product variety department.
For reference, the average grocery store carries about 31,000 products on their shelves. So both of these stores are well over the industry average. More specifically, Walmart has almost 4 times the average and Kroger has just over 2 times the average.
What Does Each Store Sell?
These two stores generally sell the same types of items. While both of them have their own private label brands, you won’t have any problems finding bigger name brands to shop from.
Which One Should You Shop At: Walmart vs Kroger?
When to shop at Walmart: Walmart offers slightly better deals and significantly more products than Kroger. Not to mention Walmart has a better product quality than Kroger. So if you enjoy having many options at a lower cost, then Walmart is right for you.
When to shop at Kroger: It seems that Walmart beats Kroger and all three of the major decision making factors. While Kroger is not a bad store to shop at, Walmart is much better.
Final Thoughts: Walmart vs Kroger
It should be noted that after this analysis, both of these stores have their strengths and weaknesses. Walmart is the clear winner, however, Kroger is still an absolutely outstanding grocery store. No matter which one you pick, both of them will offer you significant value.