Stop Buying This Breakfast Staple At Walmart — It's Way Overpriced

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When you shop at Walmart, you can expect great deals. After all, where else can you find all the fixings to recreate a popular Chick-Fil-A meal without breaking the bank, or pick up house brand ice cream made by the same manufacturer as Blue Bunny and Halo Top? Walmart is also particularly suited for savings when it comes to its breakfast foods; it sells everything from eggs to bacon to pancake mix for incredibly low prices. There is, however, one item where it comes in way overpriced, and that's Great Value Pure Maple Syrup.

Typically, its Great Value house brand offers the best value for the price on most groceries, staying competitive with other budget grocery stores. However, in this case, it's around an $8 price tag for 12.5 fluid ounces, which is $2.42 more than the same thing, and the same amount, at Aldi, where it costs under $6. To put it another way, what costs over 60 cents per fluid ounce at Walmart is under 50 cents per fluid ounce at the German grocer, another example of the latter being more affordable than the former.

Now, Walmart might have the edge on Aldi where the broader selection overall is concerned, with its over 130,000 SKUs on store shelves, versus Aldi's much lower 1600-ish. But sometimes more is just more, and in this case, more certainly doesn't always equal cheaper.

While you're shopping around for the best prices on maple syrup, avoiding Walmart might seem like a foreign practice. But as with so many other grocery items, it would behoove you to look, especially, at bulk warehouse stores. For example, Costco carries a much-beloved Kirkland Signature brand version of organic maple syrup, and it's $14.99 for a whole liter. That comes out to 44 cents per ounce, which beats even Aldi's price, and is much more affordable than Walmart's (and you can get Costco's best food court item, the $1.50 hot dog and soda combo, while you're there).

The Massachusetts-based BJ's Wholesale Club is another option you might not have considered. Though it has a smaller footprint than Costco, it offers its members comparable deals, including a 32-ounce jug of organic maple syrup, sold under its Wellsley Farms house brand, for $15.99, or 50 cents per ounce.

But the lowest price on maple syrup found at a warehouse chain is actually and surprisingly at Sam's Club — which is owned by Walmart. It also sells 32-ounce jugs of organic maple syrup under its Members Mark brand, but for the ultra-low price of $12.48 per bottle, or just 39 cents per ounce. Your guess is as good as ours as to why Walmart is underselling itself.