The Great Value Brand Cereal That 'Fails In Every Way,' According To Some Walmart Shoppers

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Breakfast cereal is an enduring favorite for a reason: it's quick, easy, and, in theory, delicious. Whether you choose one of the unhealthiest breakfast cereals at the grocery store or something at least nominally virtuous with shredded wheat and granola, cereal is great for filling you up in a pinch. Sometimes, we even enjoy it as a snack, scooped up by the dry fistful. When a cereal is bad, however, its very existence can feel like an insult to good taste. While customers love the best bakery items at Walmart, many of them take issue with Great Value Crunchy Peanut Butter Filled Breakfast Cereal Bites. Of the current 70 ratings for this product, a full 30% of them are one-star blasts, several of which are accompanied by scathing reviews.

"Calling this a cereal has got to be one of the ugliest things that's ever happened to me," one customer grimaced, saying the cereal turned to unpleasant, hard-to-swallow mush. "Please save your money and tastebuds and don't buy this cereal!" another dissatisfied customer pleaded. "It's like eating a thin layer of burnt cereal, filled with super thick peanut butter," noting they had to grab a glass of milk to finish their cloying meal. A third review said that "One star is too many stars. This has to be one of the worst cereals that I have ever tasted [...] It literally tastes like eating cardboard. 2 spoonfuls and I had to throw the rest out. The aftertaste lasted forever. It is horrible."

Although at least one review mentioned similarities to Cap'n Crunch cereal in terms of how Walmart's cereal could potentially tear up the roof of one's mouth — a phenomenon that social media has discussed at length — it seems that the closest name-brand analogue to Great Value Crunchy Peanut Butter Filled Breakfast Cereal Bites is Puffins Peanut Butter Cereal, a peanut butter-filled product by the Post company that can be found at Sprouts Farmers Market and Whole Foods. 

Puffins presents itself as a "happier" choice, especially for little kids, containing low sugar and no GMOs. Given the fact that a smallish box of Puffins cereal is almost six bucks, however, we can see where someone might want to try the Walmart option, which is over $1.50 less for a bigger box. If you are already a fan of Walmart's Great Value brand peanut butter (once made by Peter Pan's parent company), maybe it even seems like a no-brainer.

Unfortunately, due to a lot of customers who are quite loquaciously upset with Walmart over this cereal's very existence, we advise you to purchase with caution, if at all. Life is too short to eat cereal with a weird texture and peanut butter that unpleasantly sticks to the roof of your mouth. What's more, while little kids are not known for being discerning consumers, several reviews mentioned that their children wouldn't eat these bites, so you know things are probably pretty bad.