29 Things You Should Never Buy at Walmart

In its effort to offer the lowest prices, Walmart’s stock of televisions mixes in a lot of “you get what you pay for” duds. While higher-end models are often available, you’re better off browsing and buying at a retailer that’s focused on selling home electronics and appliances.

Walmart’s selection of white goods like refrigerators and washing machines is more limited than competitors in this product category. You’re better off heading directly to Best Buy, Home Depot, or regional chains with better selections and competitive prices.

Like all home appliances at Walmart, the selection of vacuum cleaners can be smaller than what you can find at a retailer that’s more dedicated to the sale of such items. Prices aren’t always better at Walmart for these items, either.

Walmart’s dedication to its “Save Money” slogan can lead to a tradeoff in quality and durability. This is particularly true with its selection of laptops, especially for more expensive models peppered in with its ample selection of low-end clunkers. A good rule of thumb: Don’t buy electronics from a place that also sells fruits and vegetables.

Walmart’s website currently lists 38 drone models from several brands, ranging in price from $150 to thousands of dollars. But that inventory is slim compared to the many options available online that offer more brands at the same price range.

As with electronics in general, Walmart isn’t the best place to shop for high-end photographic equipment. The best option for them is to find a good camera store with knowledgeable staff, where you’re more likely to receive the best customer experience (such places do still exist). Otherwise, find a camera department at a national or regional retailer that focuses on consumer electronics.

Video games are increasingly purchased and downloaded online, either through a digital distribution service like Steam or through the PlayStation and Xbox online stores. But if you’re in the market for a video game burned onto CDs and sold in plastic boxes, you’re likely to find better prices elsewhere, especially if you look for used games online.

The phone accessories market is filled with an enormous selection of mobile phone accessories like cables, adapters, and automobile cradles. But so many of them are shoddy, produced by obscure third-party Chinese manufacturers, and they can conk out quickly, or even damage your mobile device. Like its competitors, Walmart does carry name-brand phone accessories, but you’re not likely to be paying the lowest possible price for them.

Walmart’s Photo Center currently offers 4×6 prints for nine cents apiece from images that can be uploaded to the site with a registered account. Canvas sizes images (16 x 20) currently cost $34.96. But if all you need is photo printing, you’re better off using an online service or going to an easier-to-navigate smaller office supply outlet with a printing center.

Walmart sells popular battery brands at competitive prices. For example, a 16-pack of Duracell Coppertop AA batteries is currently $12.78 at Walmart, $3.20 less than The Home Depot’s current price. However, if you’re looking for lower-cost brands with comparable performance, Consumer Reports found Costco’s Kirkland Signature AA batteries (currently 48 for $13.99) were the best store-branded batteries.

Beleaguered department store chain Sears used to be the gold standard for in-store automotive centers — places where you could get an oil change while shopping for clothing, kitchenware, and tools. Walmart has taken up the slack in this space as Sears continues to shutter stores. But tires can be more expensive at Walmart. For example, Costco tends to have better deals and (unlike Walmart) offers free rotations and balances for the lifespan of the tires.

Buying cheap luggage can lead to your overstuffed bag bursting open at check-in — one of the reasons why luggage is sold in stores at major airports (at a huge markup). In this instance, Walmart isn’t alone in selling luggage lemons, as its competitors like Target aren’t any better. A Consumer Reports survey found that the best places to buy luggage include REI, L.L. Bean, or a dedicated luggage vendor like Luggage Pros.

Even by the flimsy standards of mass-produced particle-board furniture, Walmart is not the best place to find budget shelving, tables, or other self-assembled home furnishings. IKEA remains the gold standard for these affordable goods.

As with wood furniture, Walmart is not a great place to purchase bedding. Higher thread-count sheets and pillowcases can be purchased elsewhere at comparable prices (relative to quality), and larger selections, such as Bed Bath & Beyond or Macy’s.

Walmart is a decent place to buy non-perishable food items like canned food and frozen dinners. But with its massive supply chains, complicated logistics operations, and aggressive pricing strategies against its suppliers, the quality of perishable foods can suffer. According to Consumer Reports, a common customer complaint about Walmart is the quality of its meat and poultry.

Anyone who has shopped at both a bargain grocery store and a high-end market is likely to have noticed a difference in the quality and shelf life of fresh produce. Walmart’s content pursuit of the lowest prices means the quality and selection of fruits and vegetables suffers. Produce is usually better from premium grocery stores, and prices tend to be competitive (for in-season fruits and vegetables) as they use it to lure customers to their higher-profit goods.

Walmart’s store brand may cost less than similar items it stocks, but the value might not be that great. Reader’s Digest reported that when considering the sizes of Great Value products versus name brands, the price difference is negligible. Additionally, Great Value products can cost more than competing store brands, like Costco’s Kirkland.

Walmart isn’t the best place to buy dog food. There are numerous alternatives that offer wider selections. If you have Amazon Prime, you can set up regular pet-food delivery at a lower price (excluding the Prime annual membership fee.)

Navigating the world of dietary supplements involves walking through a minefield of misinformation and sketchy health claims that barely meet FDA standards. In 2015, New York prosecutors revealed that major retailers including Walmart were selling mislabeled herbal supplements. Generic brands aren’t always worse than name brands, but when it comes to supplements, it’s a “buyer beware” world.

Sometimes a spoon is just a spoon. Other times you want quality flatware. Walmart fails at both ends. Cheap flatware generally costs less at dollar stores, while the high-end stuff is better purchased elsewhere. Walmart offers decent prices for quality multi-piece pots and pans, but there are plenty of better options for spoons, knives, and forks.

If price is the only consideration, dollar stores are cheaper; if you’re looking for quality, Walmart’s offerings aren’t good enough

If you need to purchase these single-use plastics, the only reason to do it at Walmart is because you’re already there picking up items for your family BBQ. Otherwise, a dollar store is a better option.

Buying jewelry from the same place you buy canned beans and paper towels isn’t the classiest option, to say the least, especially if the jewelry is a gift. The price may be nice, but at the cost of quality. At the same time, the prices aren’t as low as they should be for cheap costume jewelry, so buying jewelry from Walmart is the worst of both worlds.

While Walmart is primarily focused on low prices, it does offer some luxury items like high-end $300+ perfumes from brands including Creed Aventus, Maison Francis Kurkdjian, and Bond No. 9. But don’t expect any bargains, as you’re likely to find better prices from online retailers. For more pedestrian perfumes and colognes, like Calvin Klein, it’s possible that Walmart offers better prices than Amazon, but it’s worth checking before buying.

Walmart’s toy aisles can certainly attract the attention of children, with an enormous brightly colored selection. But as far as prices for toys and board games are concerned, Amazon is winning the game against Walmart, according to a 2019 report from Kiplinger.

Amazon upped its diaper game after it acquired Quidsi (previously known as Diapers.com) in 2010 for $545 million. Though Amazon shut down Quidsi in 2017, claiming lack of profitability, the company ultimately came out as a dominant online provider of name brand diapers through its Amazon Family brand exclusive to Prime subscribers. Walmart hasn’t been able to beat these prices.

Though convenient, gift cards aren’t very thoughtful presents — gifting cash or pre-loaded debit cards gives the recipient more freedom to purchase. On top of that, billions of dollars locked into these cards go unused every year, some of that winds up as free money to companies that issue these cards. But if you want to buy a gift card, membership-only warehouse retailers like Costco or Walmart Inc.’s Sam’s Club are better alternatives.

Holding a paper booklet with words and pictures printed on it with ink may seem a 20th Century habit, but magazines still populate shelf space at the checkout line and airport kiosk. But buying them from Walmart (or anywhere, really) will cost you more than a print or digital subscription.

Greeting cards are better purchased at a dollar store, pharmacy, or specialty store like Hallmark, which will have a wide variety at comparable prices.