13 Grocery Store Oatmeal Cookies Ranked Worst To Best

The old-fashioned comfort of a simple oatmeal cookie cannot be overstated. This humble creation brings together the warm earthiness of oats, brown sugar, and spices in a tempting texture that's just as delicious when it's soft in the center as when it's crispy from edge to edge. When you toss in extras like raisins and icing, you have oatmeal cookies everyone will eat up.

Though nothing beats the comforting sweetness of home-baked oatmeal cookies, there are plenty of grocery store oatmeal cookies that fill the gap for those moments when baking just isn't in the cards. And why wouldn't you keep a stash on hand just in case the urge to bake fresh oatmeal cookies never strikes? Wouldn't it be a total snack tragedy to long for that vintage flavor to dip and milk or make homemade ice cream sandwiches and never have it within reach? If you're a diehard oatmeal cookie lover, it sure would, even with the best and worst grocery store sugar cookies standing by to fill the gap.

Mysteries like this call for sweet solutions. So I dug in deep, gathered up all the store brand oatmeal cookies I could locate, and sat down with a glass of almond milk to get to the bottom of the situation. If you're eager to know where your best prospects for a proper grocery store oatmeal cookie lie, this is your lucky day.

The super cheap products in the Smart Way line from Kroger gives shoppers options that are affordable but often taste like all the flavor and fun have been sucked out. I've tried several items that sounded like great deals but turned out to be some of the most disappointing buys I've ever made. I wanted to give the label's oatmeal cookies the benefit of the doubt, but it was hard not to taste test these crispy sweets without expecting another letdown.

I'm glad I didn't have my hopes set too high. This is another one of those duds for a dollar or two that feel like somebody's making money off of the misfortune of others. Whether that misfortune is a lack of extra grocery money to spend on higher priced cookies or a deficit of taste buds that lead you in the direction of a more flavorful oatmeal cookie may only be known by the marketing minds who thought this $2 package would be a big seller. Sadly, this is what it's like to try the worst grocery store cookies on the scene. I've saved you the trouble.

I'm quickly learning that Archway's reputation for providing small-town flavor in its shelved cookie selections is more of a rumor than a promise. These premium soft oatmeal cookies came in a box, which usually indicates a higher level of quality. They were sealed in a foil wrapper and nested in a plastic tray, which shows great thoughtfulness in keeping the cookies fresh and whole until the customer has a chance to eat them. It seems like an awful lot of trouble for a brand to go to and undoubtedly elevates the price point.

So when you peel back the wrapper and dig into the cookie, you expect something that justifies all of the tender loving care taken in the packaging. What Archway forgot to do here is add flavor to its soft-baked oatmeal cookies. The consistency is nice and chewy, and they're certainly seems to be plenty of oatmeal to texturize the batter. But the only flavor that came through was a butter-sugar mix that just says "cookie" without the oatmeal part being present.

For top-shelf purchases like this, it really isn't the name on the box but what's inside the package that counts most. Where Archway Soft Oatmeal Raisin Cookies are concerned, this is one package I'd like to return.

Homestyle puts up this six-pack of enlarged oatmeal cookies with raisins promises to provide convenient store snacking enjoyment at around the $1 mark. It's a great prospect for sharing with your road tripping cohorts or just snarfing down all on your own if you're hungry enough. The prospect of an oatmeal cookie this inexpensive totally missing the flavor train is undeniable; after all, we're not talking about Little Debbie here. But the adjective "homestyle" brings to mind a certain level of quality that a one-buck cookie just can't measure up to.

All it takes is one taste to realize these cookies are the equivalent of gas station sushi. They're not likely to make you ill, but they're also not anything you'd want to spend money on twice. Rather than getting the flavor of an actual oatmeal cookie, you get flour and industry level shortening instead. There's not enough character in the ingredients to even recommend these as a third-rate choice; they're strictly an affordable starting point for people who can turn cookies into cake pops by adding frosting to pre-baked treats. That's the only way to get pleasing flavor out of the package.

Cookie lovers can grab Signature Select oatmeal cookies at Albertsons and Safeway stores, nestled among the more desirable cookie flavors in the bakery section. You have to check the label to make sure you're not getting cookies with chocolate toffee or peanut butter as a featured flavor. A 10 pack for $4 may sound like it's a great deal for a bakery-fresh cookie, but the concept of bakery freshness has a lot of heavy lifting to do in that exchange.

Maybe I hit the bakery on the wrong day, or maybe I picked up a bag that had been sitting on the shelf for a while. Whatever the issue was, these were the most flavorless cookies I think I've ever tasted in my life. There is nothing to promote or endorse here. And as underwhelming as the flavor was, the texture was even worse, with that weird, fall-apart consistency that poorly made baked goods sometimes have. It's not an experience I would repeat, and I would highly advise anybody else against making the same error.

It's possible that the Albertsons bakery has something tasty waiting among its various creations. I'd urge the chain to reconfigure its oatmeal cookie concept to get it up to par. 

This cheaper version of Walmart oatmeal cookies shows up in the Great Value snack aisle. It's a $2 cart filler that sounds tempting when your sweet tooth tickles and you're not in the mood to spend major dollars on old-fashioned enjoyment. But sometimes the product behind the name doesn't live up to the standard set by the item it stands in for. There's a solid chance that a cheap oatmeal cookie just tastes cheap, even if it follows the step-by-step corporate cookie template.

These are a perfect middle rate selection for cookie lovers who aren't overly concerned with getting supreme quality from their cheap cookie purchases. They're crispy and sweet with a little spice thrown in, but you'd never mistake them for anything other than bottom shelf bakes. They did remind me of Mother's oatmeal cookies back in the day, before that brand decided to focus on its frosted animal crackers.

Albertsons offers a shelved package of crispy iced oatmeal cookies that looks like a carbon copy of Walmart and Kroger. They're only slightly tastier, though they have the same mouth-scraping texture that makes it really difficult to enjoy without dunking them in milk. These treats fall in line with the simplified outline of an oatmeal cookie broken down to its simplest components. Yes, they're cookies; yes, they're oatmeal. Yes, you can eat them.

Somehow, the Signature Select version is more flavorful than the competitors, possibly due to the icing on top; that redeems them only a little in my eyes. But being the best of the mediocre oatmeal cookie options is a lot like being at the top of the middle. It gets these $4 cookies higher than others, for whatever it's worth, but it doesn't keep them from being anything more than a mid-level option. With so many better possibilities out there, it's worth shopping around to find a more pleasing pick.

Oatmeal cookies sound like the perfect arrangement for a brand like Pepperidge Farm, where old-timey straw hats and horse-drawn buggies are built into the brand aesthetic. A homestyle treat studied with raisins fits better with the company's heritage than some of its attempts at keeping up with modern flavor combinations.

Pepperidge Farm doles out a real error in judgment with these very expensive, not-very-oatmeal cookies. The flat flavor really surprised me, since usually this brand does a far better job at recreating familiar favorites with attention to detail. This time, it's just wrong from top to bottom. I had to remind myself that I was eating a name brand oatmeal cookie and not just some generic chew. The fact that you only get eight of these cookies means that you don't have to eat too many before you can strike them from your memory — and your shopping list. 

A green bag filled with Tate's Bake Shop oatmeal cookies is also a green flag for a great time with sugary treats. The oatmeal cookies in the collection are an equal player in the brand's collection. While the recipe is admirable for its robust flavor, there just doesn't seem to be enough oatmeal personality to these cookies. They taste more like a general buttery cookie with a little bit of oatmeal tossed in. I wanted the warm cinnamon and earthy oat goodness to rise through the sweetness as I chewed, but it never arrived.

But for all the delicious notes it does hit, it's more than a sure thing for enjoyment, even with the oat deficit working against it. I'd love to have the volume on the actual oatmeal part of these oatmeal cookies jacked up a bit, but I can't fault Tate's for showing up to the party with a cookie that gets everything else right. It's another $5 prospect, but it makes the grade. If you can accept a lighter touch in an oatmeal cookie, Tate's has something tasty waiting for you.

Anyone who turns to Archway for its premium cookies selections already knows that iced oatmeal crisps are part of the primary catalog. When the company offers a large bag filled with coin-size cookies, you go into the purchase hoping that the quantity and the quality go hand-in-hand, and that the cookies will be tasty enough to justify having so many of them in your pantry. Fortunately, with this $5 or so sack of sweetness, the math is definitely mathing, and the cookies are worth having around.

To be clear, you're not getting a top-of-the-line creation here; this version of an oatmeal cookie is closer to the crunchy cheap version than the chewy expensive version. But there's something winsome about these bite-size snappers, primarily that they replicate the kind of store-bought oatmeal cookies I used to eat as a kid. Granted, they're nothing like home baked oatmeal cookies, but they're one of the truest representations of down-market treats in the store. Whether that's good or bad is for everyone to decide for themselves.

If nostalgia is one of your favorite flavors and you're not afraid to crunch into a harder version of an oatmeal cookie, this bag is one for the ages. Just know that you have to spend $5 to get in on the good stuff.

Walmart's lesser baked brand Freshness Guaranteed tosses 10 properly-sized oatmeal raisin cookies into a plastic clamshell priced at around $3.50 and calls it a deal. The price and quantity may point in that direction, but the real deal arises when you crack the seal and taste the goods inside. The fact that you can see the depth of texture and even distribution of raisings throughout the box is a sure clue that the chain has pulled a successful treat out of the oven.

Lo and behold, that quality follows through in the tasting, too. These large, chewy treats are surprisingly tasty for a Freshness Guaranteed cookie. Others I've had have been less than impressive, but these buck the trend. They have that soft bendability that makes them feel homemade and they deliver a timeless mix of brown sugar, butter, and oatmeal flavor, with raisins to jazz up the scenario. I wasn't expecting to like them as much as I did, but now this is the selection I will return to for my most festive cookie occasions.

Private Selection competes with biggies like Pepperidge Farm by serving up a bag of soft-baked oatmeal raisin cookies designed to draw customers to Kroger's home label alternative. At over $3.50, it's a high price to pay for supposedly stylish snacking. And if there were the category for most packaging, this bag would easily win; not only is the bag sealed with glue for extra freshness, but there's enough plastic holding the eight cookies inside to make the Earth cry out in pain. This shows the lengths the brand goes to make sure you get your money's worth in a fantastically fresh, supremely soft cookie.

Eco-unfriendliness aside, the treats inside the wrapper inside bag are well worth the price. They provide a more sensibly-sized bite that's both soft and flavorful in a way that Pepperidge Farm only wishes its homestyle oatmeal cookies can be. They have a density that only the most premium bakes achieve, through means that are probably best left a secret. Whatever Private Selection has done to make this product work, this store label rings up a sweet success.

Marketside, Walmart's premium line of baked indulgences offers a more elevated version of oatmeal raisin cookies, ambitious enough to work the word "decadent" into the name. Having tried many of their products, I'd love to say that the quality is dependable enough to know what you're getting without having to take a taste and see. I suspected this version would be better than the Freshness Guaranteed version, even though the price per cookie is much higher. If you're going to pay more for a cookie sold by the same store, it had better be incredibly impressive.

I'm happy to report that Marketside hits all the right notes: plenty of oats for taste and texture, merged with a brown sugar and butter dough, with just enough cinnamon and raisins to make something magical happen. And the fact that you can buy three sensibly-sized cookies at a time instead of opting for the brand's 10-pack means you can trim your spending while enjoying one of the tastiest secrets of the Walmart bakery you'll wish you knew about sooner. It's nice when an underdog can surprise you with a win that's so sincerely deserved. I've got these cookies on my permanent shopping radar now. You should, too.

The Kroger bakery keeps a tempting package of oatmeal raisin cookies in stock among its more contemporary creations. Not only are they oversized to fit all the best bits and bobs you can find in a bakery goodie, they're soft enough to break into pieces to share without crumbling. These are all hallmarks of a superior bakery cookie that Kroger isn't always able to achieve. This time they pull it all off with aplomb.

And then you have the flavor, which is strikingly delicious. All the buttery, brown sugar goodness of an oatmeal cookie comes shining through before you even hit the pecans of the raisins. Once those tasty add-ins become part of the equation, it's game over for the other brands on the list. The fact that you have so much cookie territory in each serving to explore only makes the prospects more incredible.

Kroger has something highly unexpected sitting among its under-$10 boxed bakes. This beauty is prime among them and sits high atop this ranking in a well-deserved oatmeal cookie victory.

My goal for this taste test was to assess the freshness and flavor of the cookies above everything else. Texture can vary wildly among oatmeal cookies, and sometimes it even lends to the experience for them to be snappy rather than soft. But with texture being a coequal factor in the enjoyment and value of an oatmeal cookie, I made sure to evaluate the combination of taste and texture as a close second in the quality category.

The quality of the ingredients was another aspect they paid close attention to. Having fresh elements tossed into the mixing bowl is presumed to produce a better cookie, as well as justifying the sometimes-higher price point. The convenience factor also makes it a more attractive prospect than making even the easiest three-ingredient oatmeal cookie recipe available. But I learned that this wasn't always true in the bakery offerings from some of the bigger grocery chains. Sadly, you can pay more for an oatmeal cookie you think will be superior only to have it be a dud.

When all of these aspects play nicely together, the result is a cookie that feels home baked, which was the overall essence I was looking for as I ranked these items. With such a vast and varied concept of an oatmeal cookie presented by these brands, it wasn't difficult to find the best-to-worst structure I arrived at.