Who Makes Great Value Breads?

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When it comes to name-brand versus generic or in-house-brand groceries, the trade-off is often seen in terms of cost and quality: Generic products are cheaper but tend to be lower quality in a variety of ways. But what if you didn't have to choose between saving money and getting a high-quality product? As it turns out, this might just be the case when it comes to buying bread at Walmart. This is because Walmart's Great Value white bread, whole wheat bread, and sourdough bread are all rumored to come from the same factory as the name brand Sara Lee.

A commenter on the site Hip2Save stated, "I worked in a name brand bakery for a year or so. We changed the bags without stopping the production line, and bagged bread for any Texas retailer you could name." This suggests there may be no actual difference between Sara Lee and Great Value bread except the branding, despite there being a $1.08 difference between the loaves on Walmart's website.

However, this claim is not entirely backed up by the posted ingredient lists for each product, as there are small differences; for instance, calcium sulfate is higher on the ingredient list for Sara Lee bread than Great Value bread, suggesting that product contains a higher amount of it. Still, it is very possible that the two are made in the same factory and with similar methods, which is backed up by the fact that both were affected by the same recall back in 2015.

Great Value bread is not the only product Sara Lee is rumored to produce for Walmart. Great Value's coffee, K-cups, and coffee cake are also thought to come from Sara Lee. A Reddit comment claimed that the same supply chain produces coffee for Great Value, Keurig, Krispy Kreme, Panera Bread, and more. There is no official statement from these companies confirming this, but it wouldn't be all that surprising considering the similarities between a Keurig brand K-cup and a Great Value brand one. Besides the differing logos, the cups are practically identical, although a Tasting Table ranking of K-cups placed Great Value below nearly every variety of Keurig flavors.

In general, writing off in-house brands as low quality or not worth trying is a mistake, as many products have very little difference between name brand and generic and many in-house products are made by well-known brands. It really depends on what you're buying; for instance, generic milk is often just as good as name brand, while there's a much bigger difference between generic and name-brand ice cream. Since we don't know for sure that Great Value and Sara Lee breads are the same, consider picking up both and doing your own taste-test. Even if you're usually a brand-name enthusiast, you may find the cheaper option suits your needs just fine.