Oatmilk dessert, hot honey seasoning, gluten-free items: Walmart launches branded food line

Walmart on Tuesday launched a line of store-branded groceries, stocking shelves with items like hot honey seasoning, a frozen dessert made of oat milk and several offerings for shoppers avoiding gluten or added sugar.

The line called Bettergoods marks the retail giant’s push to captivate more consumers, especially younger ones, and to win over more of a market dominated, in recent years, by companies such as Monrovia-based Trader Joe’s and Costco whose store-branded items — including chocolate-covered banana slices or chile and lime rolled tortilla chips or anything under the Kirkland Signature brand — have built cult followings of their own.

Private-label store brands have grown more popular in recent years as consumers have faced rising costs. Supermarket giant Kroger Co. previously announced it plans to add more than 800 private-label products this year.

Most of the new Walmart items, which will max out in cost at around $15, will sell for less than $5, according to a statement from the Bentonville, Ark.-based company on Tuesday.

Walmart executives said the new line marks the company’s largest private-brand food launch in 20 years.

Scott Morris, Walmart’s senior vice president of private brands, food and consumables, described the line as “quality, unique, chef-inspired food at an incredible value” — a nod to consumers’ desires for both trendy, flavorful foods and cutting costs amid stubbornly high inflation.

The new items fall into three categories — items geared toward food trends, a section of plant-based options branded with green packaging and a group of “Made Without” products for shoppers looking for items without gluten, added sugar or artificial flavors or colorings.

Among items customers can now find on shelves: a container of hot honey seasoning for around $3, oat milk dessert for $3.44 a pint and a line of soups served in jars for around $4.

The addition of 300 items will mean less coveted shelf space for other brands fighting for placement in stores.

The launch, which was reported first by the Wall Street Journal, comes as Walmart scales back investments in other areas, including shuttering several health clinics it opened in recent years.

A Walmart spokesperson declined to say how many people would lose their jobs but said the clinics likely would close in two to three months.

Bloomberg News contributed to this report.