Bakers spend their days around flour, butter, and ovens, so you might expect them to walk past the supermarket bakery case without a glance. Many of them don’t. When pastry chefs and cookbook authors were asked where they shop, the same names came up again and again.
What follows are nine specific items, each backed by a professional’s pick or a hands-on taste test published in recent years. Some are humble, some are indulgent, and a few cost less than a latte.
Whole Foods Sourdough Loaves
Cookbook author Jamie Milne named Whole Foods as her sourdough stop. She says its bakery usually carries loaves that feel closer to a local bakery’s than typical packaged bread. Her priority is the crust, which she wants crisp outside while the loaf still has a little give when you pick it up.
There’s a regional bonus too. Erik Fabian, co-founder of Sourhouse, points out that Whole Foods sometimes sells sourdough from regional bakeries, such as La Farm Bakery in North Carolina. If your store stocks a local loaf like that, it’s an easy way to support a nearby baker.
Costco Sourdough
Angela Sincore, author of The Sourdough Hoe, picked Costco first. Her reasoning is practical: homemade is better, but on a random Tuesday when your local baker is closed, Costco is where she’d go. She also uses the store’s flour in her own sourdough, which says something about her trust in the brand.
She checks a few visual cues before buying, starting with whether the loaf looks properly baked. That’s a useful habit for any shopper, since a pale, underdone crust usually means a less flavorful loaf.
Stew Leonard’s Corn Muffins
Stacey Mei Yan Fong, who wrote the cookbook 50 Pies, 50 States, is a loyal fan of this Northeast chain. She calls the corn muffins her go to. Coming from someone known for pies, that’s a notable endorsement of a simple muffin.
Her broader point is about look and feel. She says everything in the bakery feels homemade and looks inviting sitting on a kitchen counter. If you live in the chain’s territory, the muffins are an easy place to start.
Sam’s Club Pound Cake
Pastry chef Terrence Gutiérrez, known for viral bakes, is loyal to the Sam’s Club bakery. He’s a big fan of pound cake and gave the Sam’s Club version a triple plus A grade. That’s about as enthusiastic as a grade can get.
He singles out two things. He says it has the best crumb and a next level glaze. A good pound cake lives or dies on texture, so crumb is exactly what a professional would judge first.
Costco Vanilla Sheet Cake
James Beard Award winning cookbook author Abi Balingit weighed in on Costco. She praises its baked goods in general, but she thinks the vanilla sheet cakes are absolutely delicious. Plain vanilla is hard to hide behind, so her praise carries weight.
Sheet cakes also solve a real problem. They feed a crowd, they travel well, and they let you skip the stress of baking for a party.
Whole Foods French Baguette
Not every great buy is fancy. In a Parade taste test of Whole Foods bakery items, the reviewer found the baguette to be exactly what you’d want from a grocery store version. It has a crisp, crunchy crust and a soft, chewy interior with a hint of salt.
The price helps, too. At around $2.99, the reviewer called it an excellent value. It works for sandwiches or alongside pasta, and prices may vary by location.
Whole Foods Everything Croissant
Parade’s reviewer tried 25 Whole Foods bakery items, and this one stood out. She described the everything croissant as one of the biggest surprises of her whole taste test. It blends the flaky pastry with the savory seasoning usually reserved for bagels.
It’s worth noting the source here is a professional grocery shopper and food writer rather than a pastry chef. Still, her review came from tasting widely across the case, which makes this a pick with some comparison behind it.
Sprouts Cookies and Muffins
This one comes with an interesting twist. A Redditor who says they used to work at Sprouts claims the bakery items arrive at the store frozen. The same commenter still found the cookies and pastries delicious, and singled out the jalapeño cheddar muffins.
Frozen doesn’t have to mean disappointing. Bakery workers have noted that many grocery bakeries rely on premade mixes or frozen par baked items rather than baking from scratch. The results can be good, though the evidence here is customer opinion rather than a formal chef review.
Sam’s Club Member’s Mark Chocolate Croissants
A 2026 roundup of the year’s best grocery bakery desserts included these croissants. The list also featured a Trader Joe’s mini lemon sheet cake and a Costco chocolate chip cookie bar cake. Together they show how far supermarket desserts have come.
The article’s broader claim is that store desserts are becoming fierce competitors, offering high quality baked goods at a fraction of the price. For chocolate croissants, that means a bakery style treat without the bakery price tag.
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