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Dominick Reuter
- Walmart's new Bettergoods brand is strikingly similar to the Good & Gather line from Target.
- I picked up a range of comparable items from each to see which is better.
- While I couldn't pick a decisive winner, the real advantage here goes to customers.
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Whether you call them store brands, private labels, or something else, companies like Target are investing big bucks to ensure shoppers don't think of their in-house offerings as "generic."
The latest significant entry into this premium owned-brand space comes from Walmart, which in April announced its Bettergoods line as the company's "largest private brand food launch in 20 years."
While the brand emphasizes interesting taste combinations and plant-based recipes, I found a closer look at the products revealed a striking resemblance to another shopper favorite: Target's Good & Gather.
Target launched Good & Gather five years ago, promising food products free of artificial flavors, colors, and high-fructose corn syrup, and has grown the line to include over 2,000 products. Walmart had 300 products in April.
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Good & Gather now generates more than $3 billion in sales for the Bullseye, so it's no surprise that Walmart would want a slice of the action.
To better understand the competition Bettergoods represents, I figured a taste test was in order.
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Since Bettergoods is just getting started, I went to Walmart first.
I looked for a range of snacks, mains, and dessert options but skipped things like seltzers, non-dairy milk, and seasonings.
Then I headed to Target.
I did my best to match the Walmart basket with selections from Target's far more extensive collection.
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The first thing that struck me was how closely I was able to match the baskets.
Almost every Bettergoods item had a counterpart from Good & Gather (or the sister brand Favorite Day, for ice cream).
Naturally I expected some degree of similarity, which is why I decided to write this story in the first place, but the likeness between brands was quite surprising.
I was able to roughly match 13 items.
Here's what made the cut: frozen chicken wings/bites; fancy potato chips; corn salsas and fire-roasted salsas; plant-based shredded cheese; cauliflower crust frozen pizzas; Greek yogurts; beef empanadas; fritter balls; phyllo pastries; fancy traditional ice cream; and non-dairy ice cream.
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My surprise increased when I saw how close the two brands were in terms of pricing.
With very few exceptions, most items were within a few nickels or dimes of their counterparts. Even if an item from one brand was more expensive, that was offset by another item being less expensive, so the overall baskets of 13 items each were within six cents of each other.
In terms of quality, most of the products were also quite similar.
I think they could easily be sold under the competitor's branding, and you'd be hard-pressed to tell which was out of place.
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One item that did stand out was the potato chips.
Target's Good & Gather offers a kettle-style chip seasoned with interesting flavor combinations, like Parmesan and garlic.
Walmart's Bettergoods offering had a simple pink salt seasoning on what seemed to be a slightly overcooked traditional chip. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't that special, either.
The salsas were generally on par.
Bettergoods had a slight edge here. I noticed the Walmart brand features a family recipe and is made in Texas.
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Bettergoods shone when it came to the wings and the bulgogi empanadas.
They were much more satisfying than the Good & Gather buffalo bites (dry) and jalapeño empanadas (tiny).
Both brands' pizzas were somewhat disappointing.
This is a high bar for me, considering how well I think Costco's Kirkland Signature makes its cauliflower crust. Still, between the two choices on the table, Walmart was marginally better.
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Good & Gather had slightly better appetizers.
While I preferred the Good & Gather lobster mac and cheese bites to Bettergoods' croquettes, neither was much of a hit with my toddlers.
Good & Gather also did better with their fluffy and flaky spinach and feta spanakopita than Bettergoods did with their flat and chewy fig and orange phyllo bites.
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Dessert was a split decision. No real losers here. I mean, who doesn't like ice cream?
On the traditional ice cream front, I found Bettergoods' pistachio flavor somewhat overpowering, but Target's Favorite Day s'mores ice cream was soft, rich, and delicious, even though I accidentally bought the reduced fat option.
For the non-dairy version, however, Bettergoods' oat-milk-based blueberry swirl was slightly better in flavor and texture than the Favorite Day almond-milk strawberry fudge. Both were nearly as good as many dairy-based choices.
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Two things are clear from this experiment.
Walmart has successfully launched a high quality brand that would fit right in on Target's shelves, but Bettergoods has a very long road ahead before it will match Good & Gather's full lineup.
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So who comes out ahead after these too-close-to-calls and offsetting wins? Customers.
At a time when household grocery budgets are stretched to their limits, Walmart and Target are in a welcome competition to provide high-quality foods at very manageable prices.
I hope they keep it up.
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