How Are Great Value Products So Suspiciously Cheap?

Life has gotten pretty expensive these days. We're stuck paying over $4 per gallon at the gas pump and the cost of your weekly date night out in a restaurant has probably tripled. After all, even fast food is pricey now. So when you go to Walmart and find a 12-ounce package of bacon for $4 or a bag of frozen broccoli for barely over $1, it can seem too good to be true. How does Walmart's Great Value brand keeps its prices so low?

According to Walmart, there are several things in play that help keep prices down. One thing is that it doesn't pour money into advertising or marketing Great Value products, which is a savings the company can pass on to its customers. The same goes for packaging. Walmart cuts costs by keeping package designs simple and no-frills, which means cheaper production costs and therefore cheaper prices.

In addition, Walmart often works directly with manufacturers to get its Great Value items, and by skipping the middleman the company avoids price markups which carry over to the consumer. In other words, Walmart buys wholesale. It's also stocking almost 11,000 stores worldwide which means it's able to negotiate bulk discounts. Great Value also doesn't have a huge selection of each item, and that translates to savings in production and ultimately a lower price.

Interestingly, despite citing simplified packaging as one of the reasons Great Value prices are so low, Walmart recently gave the brand a major facelift. Earlier this year, the company announced it was launching a large-scale redesign of its Great Value brand — the first such renovation of its kind in more than 10 years. The redesign was meant to introduce a "fresh, modern look," according to Scott Morris, the senior vice president of private brands at Walmart. The new look will be rolled out over the next two years and will affect nearly 10,000 products. The Great Value brand, which is the most prevalent of the many Walmart brands, has been around since 1993 and has managed to work its way into 90% of American homes.

The largest revamp of Walmart's private brands to date, this overhaul aims to keep nutrition labels consistently placed on all food items so the information will be easier to find. Walmart also wants to make its products more readily recognizable and identifiable on the shelves and to keep the labels looking visually appealing. But don't worry. Walmart has assured its customers that this latest brand restyling won't affect prices. So, the toilet paper and five-cheese Texas toast that you've come to rely on from Great Value still won't break the bank.