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BENTONVILLE, Ark. – Walmart is pitching a new private-label grocery brand, bettergoods, to shoppers looking for “elevated culinary experiences.”
Bettergoods represents the retailer’s biggest store-label food brand in 20 years in terms of its breadth of items, the first of which are now hitting Walmart stores and its website.
As the rollout continues through autumn, the line will boast 300 products spanning categories including frozen, dairy, snacks, beverages, pasta, soups, coffee, and chocolate, with items offered at prices ranging from under $2 to under $15. Most will be priced at under $5, the company says.
To develop the line, Walmart worked with its suppliers from around the world to source quality, trend-forward ingredients and flavors.
The food and beverage offerings fall into three categories – “culinary experiences,” “plant-based,” and “made without” — which Walmart said “spotlight innovative recipes, elevated ingredients and food-trend forward offerings, including specialty salts and seasonings.”
Walmart says the new brand should appeal to younger customers who are not brand loyal and want chef-inspired foods that are reasonably priced.
“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,” says Scott Morris, senior vice president of private brands, food and consumables at Walmart.
With a vivid and colorful brand identity, bettergoods is being positioned to compete with national brands promising food and beverages that are better tasting, of better quality, and made with better-for-you ingredients. Walmart expects the new brand can also compete with popular store imprints such as Target’s Good and Gather grocery brand.
Food-price inflation steers shoppers to store brands
Walmart is launching bettergoods as food inflation drives shoppers to less-expensive options, a trend that’s boosting store brands. Private-label food and beverages continued to gain share in 2023, according to report from the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA), which says sales of store-brand merchandise in the “general food” category increased by 10% last year. Store-brand beverage sales increased 8.9% in 2023, PLMA says, citing Circana data.
Circana says private brands in food and beverage accounted for nearly 26% of units sold in the category last year, up from 24.7% a year earlier.
A separate report from Circana, “CPG Private Brands Update,” similarly concludes that consumers are directing more of their budgets to private-label merchandise.
“This trend is driven by consumers, particularly those with children, as well as millennial and Gen X households without children, who are strategically employing a variety of methods to stretch their dollars amid high inflation,” says Mary Ellen Lynch, principal, center store solutions, at Circana.
Walmart is touting bettergoods items as “totally unique to Walmart, introducing customers to new and exciting flavors and concepts” that allow shoppers to “expand their culinary horizons with confidence.”
With packaging, messaging, and product offerings that compare with more premium offerings from CPG competitors, bettergoods represents an in-house alternative to the value-focused private brands Walmart has introduced in recent years, including its Great Value grocery brand and the Equate line of health and wellness products.
“With bettergoods, Walmart is continuing its mission to democratize access to quality, delicious and innovative foods that customers crave at the Every Day Low Price Walmart delivers,” according to the launch announcement.
