A Former McDonald's Employee Says This Walmart Breakfast Item Is Basically The Same As What The Chain Serves — And Costs Less

McDonald's breakfast is world famous, and everybody knows the McMuffin. But you can make a good case that the best and most underrated item on McDonald's breakfast menu is the hash brown. A simple, crispy potato patty is the perfect complement to any McDonald's breakfast sandwich, and it makes sense to want to capture that same taste experience at home. According to one former employee, the key to recreating McDonald's potato perfection at home is picking up a box of Walmart's Great Value frozen hash browns.

The price of hash browns at McDonald's has been rising steadily over the last few years. At some locations they cost over $3 apiece. In a Reddit thread lamenting over this hash-flation, a former employee said that their manager had a novel solution. "Several times when working at McDonald's, our delivery truck would come late or even not come that day at all," the Redditor claimed. "I remember twice while I was working there during the summer, that our manager ran out in the morning to Walmart down the street and bought the Great Value hash browns to stock up because we were low."

A 10-pack of Great Value Shredded, Seasoned Potato Hash Brown Patties is $3.42. In comparison, a McDonald's hash brown soared to $3.99 in 2025 at some San Francisco locations. The low price tag of the Great Value product is attractive, but there's more to hash browns than just cost. When Tasting Table ranked frozen hash browns, Great Value didn't score big points — our taste tester thought they tasted too bland and oily.

While many commenters online agreed that charging over $3 for a McDonald's hash brown was extreme, opinions differed on whether a Great Value hash brown patty was a reasonable substitute. "Those specific Walmart hash browns are absolutely inedible to me," said one Redditor. Another commenter simply replied, "Walmart ones are great!!" Several Redditor instead suggested what they considered to be a better alternative: Trader Joe's hash browns.

Trader Joe's has some good quality dupes, and its hash browns are a convincing stand-in for McDonald's. Great Value, however, often doesn't make the cut. "The only frozen [hash brown] patty I've ever had is from Trader Joe's so last week I decided to try the one from Walmart," one Redditor said before adding, "Hands down Trader Joe's is better." Nearly a dozen commenters recommended Trader Joe's frozen hash browns, while just a couple supported Walmart. 

Another Reddit thread also claimed that the quality of Walmart's Great Value hash browns was inconsistent from one package to another, showing two patties side by side with different sizes and shapes. On Walmart's website, some negative reviews compared two sealed packages, in which the patties were even different colors. A recurring complaint is that the Great Value hash browns used to be much better, but something changed in the recipe. A reviewer on the Walmart site in 2024 said the patties were imported from Belgium, after the vendor switched from an American manufacturer, and were no longer as good. Is it possible that the old Great Value hash browns were as tasty as McDonald's? We may never know.