The Best Potato Salad at the Grocery Store, Ranked

The best potato salad at the grocery store is creamy, hearty, and the perfect side dish for your summer BBQs. That being said, potato salad can be so many different things. There are enough varieties of store bought potato salad to last a lifetime: mustard, deviled egg, classic, red skin—the list goes on.

How we found the best potato salads

 From mac salad to coleslaw to baked beans, we’re always updating our BBQ side dish rankings, especially when cookout season rolls around. Last summer, we even sent one of our Sporked writers to the East Coast to make her try all the Publix potato salads, because legend has it that Publix potato salads are incredible. It’s our job, nay, our privilege to try every premade potato salad we can get our hands on. So if you have a recommendation we’re missing, please let us know in the comments!  

What we looked for in the best store bought potato salads 

Plenty of premade potato salads taste like they’ve been doused with corn syrup and fermented in pure apple cider vinegar. And honestly, that’s exactly how some people like it. (You are valid.) We definitely have options for extra tangy, extra sweet potato salads that really knock you off your feet. But ideally, the best potato salads have balance. A beautiful blend of mayo, onion, briny dill, and any other flavors you prefer. The potatoes should be creamy, but not mush, and serve as the star of the dish, not a vehicle for sugar and mayo. The fresher the premade potato salad tastes, the higher it ranks. 

What we found in our latest taste test

For our most recent taste test, we tried even more potato salads from stores like Aldi, Sam’s Club, and Whole Foods, and retried our top recs to confirm their current placement. In a moment of bravery, we even taste-tested a German potato salad from a can (it turned out to be fine, but nothing we’d strictly recommend) in the hopes that one of these days, we can add a “best canned potato salad” to this list for your apocalypse bunker. So without further ado, let’s “peel” back the lid on the best store bought potato salad you can buy at the supermarket and get this show on the road. (Haha, potato puns. So fun.)

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Best Classic Runner-Up

Signature Cafe Classic Potato Salad

Instacart

When it came to the best “classic” potato salad we tried during our best potato salad taste test, this was a close second. It’s sweet without tasting like dessert potato salad (and trust me, others did). The potatoes are well cooked and the veggies have a little bit of crunch. If you don’t like to rock the boat with your store bought potato salad and want something perfectly normal, this is definitely a tasty option. —Jordan Myrick

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

Best Pickle Relish

Publix Southern Style Potato Salad

Publix

With mustard, pickle relish, hard-cooked eggs, and tangy vinegar, this potato salad has a little extra twang to it. I’ll be frank: I don’t think this is as special as the other two Publix potato salads recommended below. It’s creamier, richer, tangier, and slightly more sour than the others, which definitely isn’t a bad thing, but you lose the spotlight on Publix’s perfectly cooked potatoes. That pickle relish is lovely and fresh, though. The rumors were true all along: Publix truly makes some of the best store bought potato salad in the country. —Ariana Losch

Credit: Merc / Publix

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

Best Red-Skin Potato Salad (Runner Up)

Reser’s Red Skin Potato Salad

Instacart

I don’t really get why people make such a big deal about red potato salad. Red skin potatoes are fine, but in a lot of red potato salad, the skin separates from the potato chunks and then you just have skin floating around in your p-sal. No, thank you. I have to give it to Reser’s, though. They make a red skin potato salad I want to buy. It’s light, herby, and fresh. This is a mayo-based potato salad that even mayo haters could enjoy, and it came close to being the best potato salad for red skin potato lovers—if you don’t live in a place with a Publix nearby (more on that in a second). —Jordan Myrick

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

Best Red-Skin Potato Salad

Publix Homestyle Red Potato Salad

Publix

I’ll reiterate what has already been said about red skinned potato salad: It’s a lot of flair, but is the taste really there? Most of the time, not really—but in the case of the Homestyle Red Potato Salad from Publix, well, we couldn’t be more wrong. With celery, hard boiled eggs, and extra grainy red skinned potatoes, this is some of the best potato salad I’ve tried for the texture alone. The flavor leans sweet, but it’s also very salty, which creates a bold balance that I myself—a salt queen who’s quite sensitive to sugar—really appreciated. —Ariana Losch

Credit: Merc / Publix

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

Best Classic

Park Street Deli Original Potato Salad

Aldi

The best thing about this “classic” store bought potato salad from Aldi is the potatoes. They are perfectly cooked. It was shockingly hard to find potato salad with potatoes that are properly cooked. We consumed way too many crunchy potatoes on potato salad taste test day. Thank you, Aldi, for knowing how to cook potatoes. In addition to the wonderful tubers, this made our list of the best potato salad because it is well-seasoned and wonderfully mayo-y. Plus, it’s from Aldi, so the value is great. —Jordan Myrick

Credit: Merc / Aldi

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Runner Up

Walmart Deviled Egg Potato Salad

Instacart

Walmart’s Deviled Egg Potato Salad is great (in fact, before we added Publix potato salad to the mix, it was the best potato salad on this list). I might even opt to buy this premade potato salad instead of making my own for a picnic or BBQ (and I make a mean potato salad). It’s creamy, it perfectly balances sweetness and tartness, and there isn’t too much egg. We really, really love it. The other Walmart potato salads we tried weren’t that good, but they seriously upped their game with this one. —Jordan Myrick 

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Best of the Best

Publix New York Style Potato Salad

Publix

Story time: During my last visit to Florida, I brought home Publix’s New York Style Potato Salad and made the mistake of leaving it unsupervised on the kitchen counter for two minutes. When I came back, my family had almost completely devoured it. I had to shoo them away like pesky seagulls. After trying it myself, I couldn’t blame them. The potatoes in this store bought potato salad are heavenly. They have the consistency of soft, sauteed breakfast potatoes and taste like they’ve been marinating for hours in spices. The creamy mayo dressing has a mild vinegar tang and very delicate sweetness—nothing like the cloying corn-syrup flavor that can ruin other premade potato salad at the grocery store. Seriously, even if you don’t like potato salad, you will fall in love with this. In fact, I’ve said it before (right here, in my “5 Things to Buy From the Publix Deli” article), and I’ll say it again: “Publix currently operates in seven states, and unfortunately for everyone residing outside of them, their New York-Style Potato Salad is hands down the best potato salad I’ve ever tried.” I’m so sorry, but it’s so true. —Ariana Losch

Credit: Merc / Publix

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Other Products We Tried: Walmart Original, Reser’s Deviled Egg, Reser’s Original, Signature Select Deviled Egg, Signature Select Loaded, Kroger Southern Style, Kroger Mustard, Kroger Egg Mustard, Walmart Mustard, Walmart Amish, Walmart Loaded, Walmart Red Skin, Amazon Grocery, Classic Potato Salad, Whole Foods Market Red Bliss Potato Salad, Whole Foods Market Red Bliss Potato Salad, READ Salads Potato Salad German, Walmart Deviled Egg Potato Salad