I compared brand-name cereals to Walmart's cheaper generic versions. I'll never buy some pricier options again.
A box of name-brand cereal may not seem like an especially luxurious purchase, but when you're trying to buy enough for a hungry family of four, the cost can add up.
Luckily, Walmart offers generic alternatives to practically every popular cereal brand under its Great Value label.
These "dupes" tend to be cheaper, and I wanted to see if I could save money on groceries in the future while keeping my 7-year-old and 4-year-old just as satisfied.
So, we did blind taste tests to try five famous cereals alongside their respective generic alternatives.
Here's how they stacked up, and which were worth the savings.
Prices may vary by location.
Great Value Honey Nut O's were way cheaper than Honey Nut Cheerios.
To start, we compared General Mills Honey Nut Cheerios to Great Value Honey Nut O's.
The 10.5-ounce box of Honey Nut Cheerios cost $3.68, or $0.35 an ounce. Walmart's version was significantly cheaper at $1.87 for a 12-ounce box, or $0.16 an ounce.
Out of the box, it was fairly easy to tell the difference between the two. The generic O's were a bit larger and had a lighter color than the Honey Nut Cheerios. The brand-name version also appeared to have a shiny, sugary sheen that the generic lacked.
Most of us preferred the brand-name Honey Nut Cheerios.
Of the five cereal pairs we tasted, these two options seemed the least similar. The generic version was a bit crunchier and a touch less mushy after a few minutes in milk. However, it had a starchy texture that verged on chalkiness.
Overall, the General Mills cereal had more honey flavor and a heartier, oaty taste than the generic.
My 4-year-old couldn't tell the brand from the generic by taste for most of the cereals we tested. With this one, however, she had no problem distinguishing the two. She actually preferred the generic to the Honey Nut Cheerios, possibly because she doesn't really like the taste of honey.
My 7-year-old also had no trouble telling the difference, but he and I both preferred the original.
Honey Bunches of Oats seemed to have a better mix of ingredients than the generic alternative.
This was actually my first time trying both the Post Honey Bunches of Oats and its generic alternative.
I picked up an 18-ounce box of the brand-name version for $4.93, or $0.27 an ounce. The Great Value alternative cost $2.67 for an 18-ounce box, which broke down to $0.15 an ounce.
At first glance, I could tell the Honey Bunches of Oats had a better mix of cornflakes and granola. The granola in the Walmart alternative was harder to find and clumped together.
I think brand-name Honey Bunches of Oats are worth paying extra for.
Here, too, all three of us could consistently tell the difference between the brand name and generic cereals.
The Honey Bunches of Oats were distinctly sweeter than the Walmart alternative, which I thought tasted bland and mostly reminiscent of Corn Flakes.
In this case, we all preferred the brand-name Honey Bunches of Oats and were surprised by how much we enjoyed them. The flakes were nice and sweet, and the granola added some light crunch.
Of the five cereals we tried, this one built the strongest case for paying more for the name brand.
We could easily distinguish between Cinnamon Toast Crunch and the Walmart version.
Next, we tried General Mills' Cinnamon Toast Crunch against Great Value Cinnamon Crunch.
The General Mills version cost $2.97 for a 12-ounce box, which is about $0.25 an ounce. The Great Value option was $2.98 for a larger 20.5-ounce box, or about $0.15 an ounce.
This pair was the easiest to distinguish visually among the five cereals we compared. The brand-name offering was noticeably smaller and darker, with "swirls" of cinnamon sugar on each piece.
I preferred Walmart's cinnamon cereal.
These options also tasted distinctly different to me and my 7-year-old, though my 4-year-old thought they tasted the same.
The 7-year-old preferred the Cinnamon Toast Crunch, which was a bit sweeter, crunchier, and denser. It held up a little better in milk and didn't get soggy as quickly.
In this case, I liked the generic better because it felt airier and less sweet.
The Great Value Rice Crisps were much cheaper than Kellogg's Rice Krispies.
Next up was Kellogg's Rice Krispies versus Great Value Rice Crisps.
The Kellogg's version cost me $4.98 for an 18-ounce box, making each ounce $0.28. I purchased a 12-ounce box of the Walmart version for $1.98, or $0.17 an ounce.
I noticed the generic cereal consisted of larger crisps that appeared more yellow than their brand-name counterparts.
Kellogg's Rice Krispies were a bit sweeter than the generic alternative.
I thought these two cereals tasted very similar. To me, though, the brand name was a touch sweeter, and the generic had a slight aftertaste of cardboard.
However, neither of my kids could tell the difference and I probably couldn't either without trying them side-by-side.
I preferred the Great Value version for rice-cereal treats.
I'm not usually a huge fan of Rice Krispies in a bowl of milk, but I love them in treat form. So, after tasting both cereals, we turned them into bars using marshmallows and butter.
The marshmallow flavor was strong enough to negate any difference between the two cereals. The sticky treats tasted almost exactly the same.
If I'm shopping at Walmart the next time I want to make a batch, I will definitely go with the generic option to save money.
The Great Value Frosted Flakes were significantly cheaper than the Kellogg's version.
Though Walmart's generic answer to Kellogg's Frosted Flakes goes by the same name, it represented one of the biggest discounts of the group on a per-ounce basis.
The 12-ounce box of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes cost $3.98, or $0.33 an ounce. The 13.5-ounce Great Value version cost $1.93, or $0.14 an ounce.
They looked very similar, though the generic one again appeared slightly more yellow in color.
We couldn't tell the difference between the Great Value and brand-name Frosted Flakes.
These two cereals tasted almost exactly the same to us: sugary, crunchy at first, and mushy after a couple of minutes in milk.
Of the five generic cereals we tried, the Great Value Frosted Flakes were the only ones that we couldn't distinguish from the original by taste.
I thought the brand name might have had a slightly more assertive sweetness to it, but I wasn't able to pick it out reliably in our blind taste test.
In this case, I think buying the cheaper Walmart version is a no-brainer.
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