I have always been a Target girl. I love the vibe, the Starbucks, the home decor and basically everything. However, since I have been back at school I have been shopping at Walmart more just because it is closer, and I have begun to realize that I may have been a bit too prejudiced in the past against the company.
Walmart definitely has Target beat in the fresh food department. They have a deli counter, a large pre-made foods section (side note if you get the $5 rotisserie chicken you can make some bomb chicken salad) and a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables all at decent prices. Walmart size wise also just had more in their dairy, frozen and shelf stable sections. I will say one giant mark against Walmart in my book is that they carry less of more specific and more niche products grocery wise that I can find at Target. At my local Walmart they don’t seem to carry shelf stable varieties of almond milk or of any other dairy alternatives and horror of all horrors they have no type of oat milk.
My recent trips to Walmart have really opened my eyes to a game changing part of their store for me — their kitchen section. I have found many steals on products that have made my life so much easier. My two main scores have been from their in-house Mainstays line of home products. I bought a plastic electric kettle from the line for under $15. Now I have had my kettle since last year and while it’s certainly no frills it does its job and has not burned my dorm down, which is all I personally need out of a kettle. My second and more recent purchase from the line was a 14 piece plastic bowls with lids set which I scored for just under $6. Now these definitely aren’t the highest quality work bowls and I definitely think anytime in the microwave for them would be disastrous, but they are just so convenient and cheap that I’m willing to look past their quirks.
The moral of all this for a Target girl? While Walmart may not be as enjoyable of a shopping experience and they have way less cute bins and home decor, what they lack in dairy alternatives they make up for in variety and bargains. I think that perhaps I should take the words of my childhood icon, Hannah Montana, to heart and know that it’s only when I mix it all together that I get “the best of both worlds”.