As the beginning of Hanukkah approaches in just over a week, you can find plenty of kosher food at Walmart stores that are located in or near Jewish communities.
Among the Walmart stores that carry kosher food, the extent of the inventory varies — it’s possible the warehouse chain deliberately stocks shelves in proportion with the relative size of the Jewish population.
One store on the north side of Chicago has about 100 square feet dedicated to kosher food, for instance. And in another Walmart location on the same side of the city, the store actually has a rabbi come in to certify that foods that the store calls kosher are in fact the real thing.
Loads of Kosher Food at Walmart
But that kind of vetting might not be part of the listing process for Walmart’s website, where a search for the keyword “kosher” turns up an astonishing 36,197 results.
However, this number includes multiple sizes of the same product, along with actual duplicate listings. It’s also possible that the retailer’s website applies the kosher tag more liberally than what a rabbi might do.
Fortunately, you can right-size the number of kosher listings to something a bit more manageable, depending on your location: click on the store availability drop-down menu above the search results and you might see closer to around 400 to 1,000 items.
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Walmart Brand
The kosher offerings include items bearing Walmart’s own brand name on it, according to Star-K, which certifies food as kosher.
Meanwhile, Walmart’s website also includes 15,950 listings related to Hanukkah, which appears to put the warehouse retailer way ahead of its arch-rival Costco on this front.
Speaking of which, Walmart carries many of the kosher foods that Costco does, and plenty others.
Kosher Inventory
Walmart’s kosher inventory includes meats from Aaron’s Best, A. D. Rosenblatt, Empire, Hebrew National, MealMart, Shor Habor, Wise Organic Pastures and Tirat Zvi.
The kosher pickle selection features an impressive array of brands: B&G, Bay Valley Foods, Bell & Gossett, Best Maid, Claussen, Del Dixi, Farman’s, Gedney, Heinz, It’s Delish, Kruegermann, Market Stand, Milwaukee’s, Mount Olive, Mrs. Wages, Nalley, Osem, Pyckles LLC, Spice Jungle, Steinfeld’s, That Pickle Guy, Vlasic, Wickles, Woodstock and Zer Gut.
Some locations have a kosher subsection within the bakery areas as well.
Prices of these items all vary by location, depending on how far the foods travel to reach the specific store.
Which of the upwards of 1,000 kosher foods are in stock at the Walmart near you? Call ahead or see what the website has to say.
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Readers, what’s the kosher food selection like at the Walmart nearest to you?
Jackie Cohen is an award winning financial journalist turned turned financial advisor obsessed with climate change risk, data and business. Jackie holds a B.A. Degree from Macalester College and an M.A. in English from Claremont Graduate University.
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