Why Buying Ground Beef At Walmart Is A Bad Idea

There is definitely a time and place to be shopping at Walmart, and taco night sadly just isn't one of them. Walmart continues to be the number one largest retailer in the entire world, beating out Amazon at number two with almost double the annual revenue. While the supercenter offers a wide variety of products at a reasonable price, not all of its grocery items pass the test in terms of both quality and cost-effectiveness. With these factors in mind, shoppers are saying you should not be buying ground beef from Walmart.

Ground beef is an extremely popular grocery staple inside a majority of American homes, used in a variety of recipes across multiple cuisines. When it comes to Walmart's ground beef products, the retail corporation has a history of providing low-quality products at a surprisingly high price for Walmart's standards, leaving you much better off buying the product from other grocery stores.

Walmart has a reputation for offering shoppers bargain rates for necessities like groceries, but simple math shows that this standard is not true across the board. On average, lean ground beef at Walmart can cost you between $5-$6 per pound. While the exact rate will vary based on location, most of Walmart's grocery store competitors cost a bit less per pound. According to Costco's website, the Kirkland brand lean ground beef is priced at $5.20 per pound. This very small price difference between the two stores is surprising considering Kirkland's reputation as a top-shelf choice for fresh-tasting products. And Costco isn't the only store to outrank Walmart's ground beef in more ways than one. In fact, it's been reported that Aldi also offers cheaper, higher-quality beef than Walmart.

It is also worth mentioning that quality plays a big factor in what is best for the consumer. Oftentimes, shoppers are willing to spend a little extra money on a product that they know is high quality and fresh. For many customers, it is the low prices that keep them shopping at Walmart, not necessarily their high-quality products — Walmart has been criticized over the years for their not-so-fresh perishables. But when a product like ground beef is not only low quality but also just as expensive, if not more so than other grocers, there isn't much persuading Walmart shoppers to add ground beef to their cart.

Before you buy any more meat from Walmart, heed the warning of other Walmart shoppers who have had some not-so-good experiences with the store's products. According to one Reddit thread, a user urges shoppers to "stay away" from the tubes of ground beef on Walmart's shelves. Another commenter warned, "Walmart ground beef doesn't taste good. Beware." One shopper on the thread had such a bad experience that they felt physically ill, writing, "I nearly gagged. It tasted horrendous, to the point I was checking to see if it had gone bad."

Not only have shoppers reported odd tastes and concerning consistencies, but there was also a massive recall of Walmart's ground beef back in 2018 that has turned many fans against the product altogether. NBC reported back in 2018 that the company that provided Walmart with many of its ground beef products recalled 6.5 million pounds of beef after the CDC discovered a salmonella outbreak connected to its products. This wasn't the first (and likely won't be the last) time that Walmart has run into issues with the safety and quality control of its foods. If you plan on making meatloaf or burgers tonight, you may want to visit a different grocery store.