Glazed & Confused Round 5: Best Supermarket Donuts — Wegmans vs Giant vs Walmart
We ate supermarket donuts so you don’t have to. You’re welcome. 🍩
Let’s be real — you’re not going to find the best donuts at a supermarket. Very few still actually fry them on site, so that fresh, hot, straight-from-the-fryer experience? Not happening here. So why do people buy them? One word: price. And as Australians living in the US, we’ve learned pretty quickly that American supermarket culture is a whole different beast worth exploring — so we dove in, so you know exactly what you’re getting.
The Contenders We put three supermarkets to the test — Wegmans at the premium end (~$15 a dozen), Giant in the middle (~$10–$15 a dozen), and Walmart bringing up the rear (~$6 a dozen). As always, you get what you pay for — and this showdown proves that rule holds up every single time.
Wegmans — The Premium Pick 👑
Nobody is surprised that Wegmans comes out on top — it’s widely regarded as one of America’s best supermarkets, but do they actually deliver on donuts?
Short answer: yes — with a but attached.
We’ve had them a few times and it’s been a mixed bag. The yeast donuts are decent — not life changing, but soft, tasty, and sometimes a little over-frosted. Their cake and old fashioned donuts have great flavor but consistently come out dry, like they’ve been thawed from a freezer. And the custard filled donut? A genuine tragedy. Forget silky, creamy custard — what you’re getting is closer to a sad jelly hybrid that really shouldn’t exist.
One thing we will give Wegmans full credit for — they actually put effort into how their donuts look. The decoration is genuinely impressive for a supermarket, they’re well presented and look the part. So A for effort on the aesthetics Wegmans, we see you. 👏 Now if only the custard filling could match the presentation…
The selection is solid though, ranging from classic glazed rings to filled flavors and seasonal specials — though the seasonals are very hit and miss.
Worth the $15 a dozen? Yes — give them a shot. And here’s your pro tip: if the cake or old fashioned is feeling dry, throw it in the microwave for 15 seconds and eat it immediately. Microwaves excite the water molecules and for a brief, beautiful moment it tastes fresh. Just don’t let it cool down — it’ll be even drier than before.
Giant & Others — The Middle Ground 🤷
This is your mid-tier range and honestly, we wouldn’t go out of our way for them. We’ve had them once or twice and it’s very hit and miss — you can tell they’re not fried in house, most likely frozen and reheated in an oven. At $10–$15 a dozen, when you stack that price against Wegmans, they fall way short.
Our verdict? Give them a skip. If you’re on an extremely tight budget you could make a case for them, but we’d rather just wait for something better.
Walmart — Avoid At All Costs 🚨
We saved the worst for last, and we mean that in every possible sense.
Dry. Tasteless. The frosting is horrible. We’re still not sure how they managed it, but the chocolate frosting somehow tastes burnt without actually being burnt. At around $6 a dozen, that is still highway robbery for what you’re getting.
These are genuinely the saddest donuts we have ever tasted. We tried them once, and it’s a flavor and a life experience we can never get back. They didn’t just fall short of our low expectations — they tunneled underneath them.
Avoid Walmart donuts like they have covid. Not even six feet is a safe distance from those tragedies. If you’re on a tight budget, grab a cheap packet of bagels — we promise they’d be better.
The Verdict
You’re never going to find a life-changing donut at a supermarket, but if you need one, here’s the ranking:
🥇 Wegmans — decent, worth it, microwave the cake ones 🥈 Giant & others — passable, nothing special, skip if you can 🥉 Walmart — do not. Just don’t.
A Note For Our Aussie Friends & Expats 🦘
If you’re visiting the US for the first time, you’re going to notice pretty quickly that donuts are absolutely everywhere here — and honestly, that’s one of the better things about American food culture. But here’s our honest advice: skip the supermarket entirely and find a local donut shop.
We have genuinely never had a bad donut from a local independent donut shop in the US. Not once. They’re fresher, more creative, and they actually care about what they’re making. A quick Google search for “donut shop near me” will usually throw up something great within a few miles.
No time to hunt one down, they can be harder to find on the east coast, or nothing nearby? Krispy Kreme is your next best bet — when that hot light is on, they’re genuinely hard to beat.
And Dunkin’ Donuts? We’ll just say this — there’s a reason they rebranded and dropped the word “Donuts” from their name. Say no more. 😂
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