8 Publix Store-Brand Items Floridians Buy Instead of the Name Brand

A Publix shopper in Fort Myers loads her cart, and every third item is the store’s own label instead of the famous brand beside it.

That’s not a coincidence.

She’s tried both, side by side, and the name brand lost more than once.

These are the Publix store-brand picks that Floridians choose over the name brand, and why they don’t look back.

1. Publix Deli Fried Chicken

A food editor at Southern Living filmed herself putting Publix’s deli fried chicken up against Popeyes.

She picked Publix.

The editor called out a signature taste as the giveaway, the kind of detail a stranger notices halfway through a drumstick.

The magazine went back for a closer look a few months later and landed on the bone-in breast as the best piece in the case.

The tenders lost points for their breading, which the writer put at close to a third of the strip’s weight.

Order the breast.

2. Publix Bakery Key Lime Pie

Publix’s Key Lime pie ranks among the state’s most-awarded bakery items.

It picked up a blue ribbon at the 2025 American Pie Council National Pie Championships, part of a run of blue-ribbon wins stretching back to 2001.

A whole pie runs about $11, often cheaper than buying key lime juice, condensed milk, and a graham cracker crust separately to bake one from scratch.

That’s two-plus decades of judges tasting Publix pies against bakeries and restaurants from across the country.

The championships weren’t held for three years in the early 2020s, and Publix has taken home ribbons every year they have run.

Not one bad year.

3. GreenWise Organic Orange Juice

Publix bottles its own organic orange juice under the GreenWise label.

Southern Living put 13 orange juices through a blind test in February, and GreenWise tied for first with Natalie’s Organic.

A food writer at The Kitchn had already called it the best she’d tried.

A 52-ounce container runs about $6 to $7, right in line with the big-name cartons it just out-tasted.

One detail catches shoppers off guard: The carton reads Product of Mexico.

The whole ingredient list reads: Organic orange juice, nothing else.

That’s rare.

4. Publix Brand Salt & Vinegar Chips

The Penny Hoarder ran a blind taste test of ordinary potato chips, matching Publix’s own bag against Lay’s, one of the country’s best-known names.

Publix’s Salt & Vinegar version won that round outright, and at $2.69 when the test ran, it was the cheapest bag on the table.

The writer figured the bag held more salt and vinegar than actual potato.

That’s the whole win.

5. Publix Bakery Apple Fritters

A Mashed food writer ranked 14 Publix bakery items worst to best, and the apple fritter took the top spot over the cheesecake, the cannoli, and the glazed doughnut.

At about $1.29 each, it’s also one of the cheapest items in the whole case.

Her verdict was blunt.

She’d take a warm Publix apple fritter over a fresh doughnut straight off the glazing line at Krispy Kreme, any day.

6. Publix Brand Macaroni & Cheese

The Takeout ranked 13 boxed macaroni and cheeses worst to best, and Publix’s landed at No. 7.

That made it the highest-finishing store brand in the group, ahead of Great Value, Market Pantry, and Good & Gather.

Kraft, Velveeta, and Cracker Barrel all finished ahead of it.

The reviewer found the noodles nearly identical to a typical Kraft noodle, with just the right amount of gooeyness.

The box cost $1.07.

7. Publix Premium Ice Cream

Publix’s own ice cream line, sold under the Publix Premium name, is positioned to sit next to specialty brands in the freezer case, not just the everyday half gallons.

This one isn’t a blind taste-test winner the way some of the other picks here are.

The case for it comes down to size and price instead.

A half-gallon tub holds four times what a single pint from a specialty brand like Talenti does, at a fraction of the cost per scoop.

That’s a serious size difference.

Shoppers who compare the two side by side often keep reaching for the tub instead of the smaller container.

8. Publix Bakery Glazed Doughnuts

Publix also lands in the middle of a doughnut debate that flares up in break rooms across Florida.

The same Mashed ranking that put the apple fritter on top also weighed Publix's glazed doughnut against Dunkin's.

Publix came out ahead.

The reviewer picked up a faint cornstarch taste in Dunkin's doughnut that Publix's version didn't have.

Krispy Kreme still beat both of them, and the Publix glazed doughnut landed ninth on her list of 14.

For a doughnut sold a few aisles from the milk and eggs, beating a national chain counts as a real win.

Who Makes Your Publix Brand

Not every product carrying the Publix label comes out of a Publix plant.

Across the grocery business, store brands are usually packed by outside manufacturers, sometimes the same companies making the national brands on the next shelf.

Publix keeps a lot of it closer to home.

The company runs dairy plants in Lakeland, Deerfield Beach, and Atlanta, bakery plants in Lakeland and Atlanta, and its own deli and fresh kitchens.

So much of the milk, baked goods, and prepared food carrying the Publix name is made by Publix employees.

Not all of it, though.

That mix, some outsourced, some homemade, is common across store brands nationwide, not just at Publix.

Store Brands Are Having a Moment

Shoppers reaching for the Publix label instead of the name brand are part of a much bigger shift.

Store brands nationwide pulled in a record $282.8 billion in 2025, rising 3.3% while name brands managed 1.2%.

Back in 2021, store brands held about 19% of what Americans spent at supermarkets, drugstores, and mass merchants.

Now it's closer to 21%.

The first half of 2026 flipped that, with name-brand dollar sales up 2.2% while store-brand dollars held flat.