These Deals are Not Actually Good Deals at Walmart

Can I tell you a secret? Some might judge me or call me a snob, and others will probably agree with me completely on this; Walmart freaks me out and I refuse to go inside of one unless I can absolutely avoid it at all costs. I know that I can get things there for next to nothing. I know that a number of the foods my kids like to eat and even the Starbucks K-Cups I love most are less expensive by quite a bit at Walmart than they are at Publix, but I’d rather pay more money and not have to go into Walmart unless I literally cannot avoid it.

Every year we spend a week during the summer in Tennessee at a house on Norris Lake. We cook there and rarely leave since there is nothing nearby and it takes almost 45 minutes to get down the steep, terrifying mountain and into town. We boat all day long, which means we stop our rental car when we land after our flight and pick up food and beer for the entire week. The only place to stop within an hour of the house is Walmart. We cannot avoid it. But any other time – we will avoid it like the plague and call it a day. There are too many people, not enough help, too much mess and it’s just seems to be a place that attracts the wrong crowd.

Fortunately, I can avoid Walmart like no one else. Other people cannot, however, and they find themselves there all the time. When people give me a hard time for not going there, I tell them the truth; it’s not always the best deal or the best bet, but no one ever believes me. Trust me when I tell you that there are things that you absolutely should not, under any circumstance, purchase at Walmart. Perhaps this will encourage you to go elsewhere by giving you that little push you need. To add a little disclaimer – you are going to save more at Walmart on many things, but not everything is a good buy here. Just shop smart if you want to actually save money.

Vegetables

When I told my husband that I didn’t like when he stopped at Walmart on his way home from work for fresh vegetables, he asked me why. I told him that I don’t think that they are nearly as fresh there as they are at Publix or the local Farmer’s Market, and he disagreed. It turns out, we did a little experiment and I was right. Nothing that he brought home looked as good as what I brought home on the same day, and everything I had lasted days longer than what he bought.

Cheap Alternatives

Sure, you’d much rather spend $75 on a grill for the backyard than several hundred at a local home improvement store or outdoor living store, but is it worth it? It turns out, it’s not. Most of the things you get for significantly less here than you do elsewhere do not last as long. Let’s say you get the $75 grill and it lasts you a year. My parents do this every year; they buy a grill that’s $75 – $100 and they replace it the following year when it falls apart and no longer works. We spent significantly more than that on our grill 11 years ago and it works like a champ to this day – and it looks amazing. They’ve spent more than $1000 in the past decade on grills where we spent $600 on ours at the same time – and they’ve spent far more than we have.

Clothes

Let’s face it, nothing Walmart has is made that well. I’ll tell you this; my 5-year-old loves to wear leggings because she is a tiny little wrecking ball and falls down off of everything in her fearless way. She is always scraping her knees and legs, and she’s taken to wearing leggings so that she can protect her legs. I bought them at Walmart for a while since they’re $3 per pair. She would put a hole in a pair within 5 minutes of being outside. I decided to try leggings from Old Navy at one point even though they are $9 per pair. My kid can wear a pair of Old Navy leggings all season long without ever putting a hole in them no matter how many times she falls down. When I stick her in the cheap Walmart leggings, however, she has a hole in moments. Additionally, their clothes fade, they’re cut weird and they are exactly what you are paying for. It’s actually less expensive to just pay more upfront and not have to replace things every time you turn around.

Toys

Not going to lie; I find toys at Walmart to be far more expensive than online at other stores. I like the Disney toys at JCPenney, anything at Amazon and even Target is far less expensive. I avoid the toy section at Walmart like you don’t even know and it’s worth it every single time.

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