It's Time To Stop Believing These 13 Walmart Grocery Shopping Myths

Many of us have been shopping for groceries at Walmart for years, and along the way, we've picked up a few misconceptions about the store. Given that it's so well-known, you might think you understand how everything works. However, some of the truths you hold dear might not be truths at all.

It turns out that there are a lot of things you may not have known about Walmart, even if you're a frequent shopper. For example, don't do curbside pickup for one item and expect the lowest price in town, or don't get annoyed if an employee doesn't have time to help you; you're probably holding on to some Walmart grocery shopping myths you should let go of. We've uncovered myths about prices, locations, and even shopper demographics that we think you'll find interesting. So, if you're ready to shed some old myths and learn some new facts about grocery shopping at Walmart, you'll want to keep reading.

From 1962 to 2007, part of Walmart's slogan always included something about low prices, starting with the first one: "Always low prices. Always." It had some minor tweaks over the years, but from 2007 through to the present, it's simply "Save money. Live better." While that doesn't mean you won't sometimes still find the lowest prices at Walmart, it doesn't feed into our subconscious belief as much as it once did. And while you might save money by shopping at Walmart, you shouldn't shop there under the delusion that everything you buy is always the lowest price in town.

Many people on social media who say they used to always shop at Walmart have changed grocery store allegiances after realizing it's no longer the cheapest place to shop. Granted, you may have to play the coupon and loyalty card game to get those lower prices from some other grocery stores.

With the price of groceries ever higher, if you're looking for the lowest prices, you may need to split your shopping trip between multiple stores. For example, we compared grocery prices between Walmart and Aldi and found that Aldi had better prices on several everyday items. It just depends on what you're buying.

Many people assume that if a Walmart employee is out on the floor, they should have time to help you. However, this isn't true. Unless they're standing around idly waiting for someone to come up to them to ask a question or need help, you'll probably notice that they are already engaged in a task or trying to get from point A to point B to do something. Consideration for their time is likely merited more than you know.

Being unable to get help from a Walmart employee is one of the most frequent Walmart complaints. However, customers aren't privy to what goes on behind the scenes. Many people on social media claiming to be Walmart employees have painted a different picture of what's really happening. There's a certain level of productivity employees have to meet, whether they're stocking shelves or doing something else. Many worry about losing their jobs if they stop doing the task at hand to help a customer. Or maybe you're taking up 10 minutes of their half-hour break, when they just wanted to use the restroom for the first time in several hours.

So, next time you need help from a Walmart employee, ask yourself whether the person you're asking is already engaged in a task or not. Also, ask yourself whether it's something you truly need help with or if you could manage yourself by looking up an aisle number on an app or something.

One Walmart myth is that you'll save money by shopping in-store. However, in many cases, curbside pickup is actually free. Walmart is one of the best grocery store chains for pickup orders. You just have to know how to work it to your advantage.

All you have to do to get free pickup is to order enough groceries for the store to waive the pickup fee. Yes, it is true that there's a pickup fee of $6.99 if you place an order below the $35 threshold. So, the trick is to only go in for a pickup order when you're buying multiple grocery items rather than just a singular random item like eggs to complete the recipe you're making. Instead, fill up your online cart until you reach the $35 minimum. After that point, pickup orders are completely free.

Something many people mistakenly believe is that you're legally required to show your grocery receipt when you exit the store if asked. While this isn't true in most states, not being willing to show your receipt in certain circumstances could still be problematic.

Yes, it's true that you don't usually have to show your receipt for the greeter to allow you out the door. So, if you're one of those people who wants to assert your rights or you don't have time to dig it out because you're in a hurry, you can politely refuse. In itself, refusing to show your receipt doesn't prove that you're a shoplifter, meaning that the store can't legally detain you as a shoplifter just because you don't want to show it.

However, if the person at the door is checking your receipt because you've been flagged as a possible shoplifter, not showing your receipt can result in the store preventing you from leaving under what's known as the Shopkeeper's Privilege. However, the store legally needs a clear cause to detain you. Keep in mind that if they do have a clear cause, the store could involve law enforcement.

Name brands can be more expensive because they're spending money on marketing and promoting their brand, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're the best-tasting items on the shelves. In fact, many people on social media have said they find many of Walmart's cheaper name-brand products to be as good as or better than the name brand items everyone recognizes.

Walmart has two store brands: Great Value and the more premium and gourmet bettergoods brand, which it launched in 2024. Whereas Great Value seems to target people focused on quality products at lower prices, bettergoods seems more focused on those who are looking for items that fit their dietary needs and are looking for an elevated flavor experience.

The interesting thing is that there are major brands behind some of Walmart's Great Value-brand items, like Blue Bunny, Sara Lee, and more. Whereas, the Walmart Culinary and Innovation Center develops and tests many of its bettergoods products personally. Meanwhile, some bettergoods products are imported, like its Italian wood-fired pizzas and Italian Castelvetrano olives.

Long gone are the days when the only restaurant you could find in a Walmart was a McDonald's. If your Walmart still has a McDonald's and you thought all of them still do, you're in for a surprise when you travel to another city and see what different restaurants you might find inside.

Some of the fast-food chains that you've been able to find inside a Walmart include Wienerschnitzel, Taco Bell, Wendy's, Domino's, Subway, and more. We've even seen local chains like Pollo Campero. It's even branching out to fast-casual restaurants, like Crave Hot Dogs & BBQ. Granted, some Walmarts have no in-store eating options. In this case, order food to go from the deli if you want ready-made food.

There are a lot of myths surrounding what Walmart's tags can tell you. Some of the confusion comes from false rumors about tags. Yellow clearance tags let you know that an item is marked down, but you may not know that the first clearance price isn't as low as it can go. Items that aren't immediately perishable get marked down once a month. So, check the date on the label (if your store still uses paper tags) to see if it's due for another markdown soon. Clearance items keep getting markdowns until they sell or hit the lowest price the store is willing to sell them at.

There was a rumor that items with prices ending in one (like $4.01) were at the lowest the store would ever sell them for, but that's not true. Another mistaken belief is that an item ending in $0.97 is an Everyday Low Price item, but temporary Rollback prices can also end in $.97 as well. So, it can be difficult to know if an item ending in $0.97 is being sold at a lower price than usual or the ordinary price. However, if you have digital tags in your store, rollback items have a red color block.

If you're the type of person who likes to stack coupons to get the most from them, it turns out that there are some limitations. Many people like to add manufacturer's coupons to their app to get Walmart Cash for in-store purchases or to eventually cash out. However, there are limitations to using both paper coupons and a manufacturer's offers for the same purchase.

Basically, you have to choose which one to use because you can't use them at the same time. Even if there's a manufacturer's coupon already loaded on your account, presenting the paper coupon at the time of purchase means they cannot honor the manufacturer's offer for that particular purchase. So, you need to figure out which of the two has the most value since you can't stack them.

It's not just lower-income people who shop for their groceries at Walmart. We've already established that it's not even always the cheapest place to get groceries. Numerator has some interesting statistics that are quite telling about who shops at Walmart: 95% of the households in the U.S. However, when you look at the average Walmart shopper, Kantar Retail found that she's in her 50s, white, and that her total household income for the year is around $50,000, which falls in the middle income range (via Business Insider).

According to Numerator, low-income shoppers earning below $40,000 per year are the smallest category of Walmart shoppers at only 23%, while most (45%) fall in the middle-income range. Then, another 32% of its shoppers are high-income earners.

Numerator found some other interesting statistics, as well, like how boomers and Gen Xers make up the majority of shoppers when it comes to age. Interestingly, it seems that younger generations are more likely to shop at Target. No wonder Walmart created its bettergoods brand to try to woo younger shoppers.

If you thought Walmart was only a U.S. phenomenon, you're entirely mistaken. At the time of writing, the chain exists in 19 countries and ecommerce websites on every continent except Europe, Australia, and Antarctica. In fact, there are more Walmarts outside the U.S. (5,759) than inside the U.S. (4,614).

While some of the locations are under the recognizable Walmart names, others are a little more sneaky, with names that don't necessarily give away their Walmart connections. For example, in Mexico, some are called Bodega Aurrera or Superama, and in Botswana, you might see it as Cash & Carry.

Granted, Walmart hasn't worked out in some countries it's moved into. For example, Walmart was once open in the U.K. as Asda, but the store merged with Sainsbury in 2018 when Walmart withdrew. Walmart also left Germany and South Korea in 2006. It just doesn't always make sense culturally in some countries with different values, social personalities, and senses of aesthetics. For example, it didn't work business-wise in Germany because of price laws and unions; customers there prefer grocery bagging independence, and didn't like overly friendly salespeople. Meanwhile, Korean customers never grew used to the large packaging quantities and warehouse-style stores with exposed ceilings and tall shelves.

If you always assumed that Walmart has the same prices everywhere, you will be shocked and maybe a little annoyed to learn that it doesn't. CashNetUSA compared prices of common shopping items across Walmarts in all 50 states and found wildly different prices.

CashNetUSA's hypothetical shopping list included breakfast cereal, eggs, boneless chicken breasts, local cheese, vegetable oil, a loaf of white bread, milk, potatoes, tomatoes, bananas, canned tuna, and water. It's not surprising that the prices outside the continental U.S. are higher, with Hawaii's prices being 33.98% above the national average. No state hit the average price exactly, but the home of Walmart, Arkansas, came the closest. The continental state that pays the most is not the farthest from the distribution centers in Arkansas, but actually Alabama, which is 9.3% above the national average. Meanwhile, Texas Walmarts seem to be the cheapest, falling 4.77% below the national average.

If your Walmart doesn't have free samples, you likely thought they don't offer them at all. However, it turns out that everyone can get free samples at Walmart. First of all, as of 2024, over 1,000 Walmart locations have begun offering free samples. These are similar to what Sam's Club has with demo stations. There are demos and QR codes to give you more ideas on how to use the products. However, you'll only find these samples on the weekends.

If you're not among the physical locations that offer free samples, you're not completely out of luck. Walmart also has a Recognized Reviewer Program and Walmart Spark Reviewer program, which offer free samples to customers in return for honest reviews. The catch is that you already have to buy items online on the Walmart website and write a decent number of quality reviews for a chance of being invited to join. So, not just anyone can ask for them, and you also have to do a decent amount of work once you get them.

One final myth you need to stop believing about Walmart grocery shopping is that you can't shop locally if you're shopping at Walmart. Whether you've realized it or not, your local Walmart most likely stocks locally grown and locally sourced grocery products.

Some Walmarts have used specific signage to help customers identify locally sourced items. For example, the Arkansas Department of Agriculture worked with local Walmarts to create "Arkansas Grown" signage for customers to help them know when they were buying local products and supporting farmers from within the state. Many products from Arkansas also have an Arkansas Grown logo on the label. So, you might want to look for similar signage and logos in your home state.

Another thing Walmart now has is LocalFinds. This is a collaboration between Walmart and local shops to use Walmart's delivery network and digital platform to facilitate sales, pickup, and delivery. It first rolled out in Atlanta and Dallas in 2024, with more cities to eventually follow.