Yes, you can buy Walkers crisps in America. You just won’t find them in the chip aisle of most supermarkets. The easiest places to get them are Amazon and Walmart.com, where UK import sellers list Walkers multipacks and boxes, and specialist British food shops such as British Food Supplies in Massachusetts, which ships across the US. Because every bag is imported from the UK, expect to pay somewhere around $1.80 to $2.50 for a single bag and $30 to $60 for a multipack. If you want the nearest everyday equivalent, it’s Lay’s, which is made by the same parent company, PepsiCo.
Walkers is the biggest crisp brand in Britain, and anyone who has spent time in the UK has probably eaten a bag of them. The trouble starts when you get home and try to find them. PepsiCo sells its potato chips in the US under the Lay’s name, so Walkers never get a proper American distribution deal, and everything you find on US shelves or websites has been shipped over from the UK by an importer.
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That’s the summary. Below is where to actually buy them, what they cost when we checked, which flavours are worth ordering first, and why so many Americans searching for “Walkers” end up looking at a tin of shortbread instead.
Do they sell Walkers crisps in America?
Not in the normal way. You won’t see Walkers stocked as a regular line at Kroger, Target or your local grocery store, and PepsiCo doesn’t distribute them in the US. What you will find is a decent import market. UK-based and US-based sellers buy Walkers in Britain, ship them over and sell them online, mostly through Amazon, Walmart.com and dedicated British food shops.
So when people ask “are Walkers crisps sold in America”, the honest answer is yes, through importers, at import prices. The crisps themselves are the same product you’d buy in a UK supermarket, made for the UK market, with UK labels and UK flavour names.
Where to buy Walkers crisps in the USA
Amazon
Amazon US is the simplest option and usually has the widest choice. Import sellers list everything from small six-packs to 32-bag boxes. When we checked, listings included a Walkers Prawn Cocktail box of 32 bags, a Meaty Variety pack with Roast Chicken, Smoky Bacon, Prawn Cocktail and Cheese & Onion, and a Walkers Classic Variety multipack of 22 bags.
Prices on Amazon move around a lot because several sellers list the same products. It’s worth comparing two or three listings for the same pack size before you buy, and checking the seller’s ratings, since some ship from the UK and take longer to arrive.
Walmart.com
This is the one most people don’t know about. Walmart.com has a large range of Walkers listings from marketplace import sellers, covering Classic Variety packs, Meaty Variety, Prawn Cocktail boxes, Walkers Squares, Walkers Max, Quavers and Monster Munch. Walmart also says some of these imports are available in select stores, though that varies a lot by location, so check the listing for your nearest store before making a trip.
When we checked, a 12-bag Classic Variety pack was listed at $35.98, a 20-bag Meaty Variety at $29.57 and a 32-bag Classic Variety at $61.98. Those are marketplace prices, so expect them to change.
British food shops that ship across the US
If you’d rather buy from a specialist, there are a few established British grocers that stock Walkers.
- British Food Supplies was founded in 2016 in Littleton, Massachusetts. It’s family owned, run by English owners, and carries over 2,500 British products. It ships Walkers from a US warehouse, which tends to be quicker than ordering from a UK seller, and sells single bags as well as other Walkers brands such as Quavers, Wotsits and Monster Munch.
- Blighty’s British Store is based in Orangeville, Ontario, and has been trading since 2005. It’s a Canadian shop, but it ships across Canada and the USA.
The advantage of a specialist shop is that you can bulk out the order with other British food, from biscuits to tea, which makes the shipping cost easier to justify.
British shops in person
There are British-themed shops in 34 US states, according to Anglotopia’s directory of British stores in America. Many of them stock Walkers alongside tea, biscuits and sweets. Stock varies from shop to shop, so if you’re making a special trip it’s worth calling ahead to check they have the flavour you want.
How much do Walkers crisps cost in the US?
Expect to pay several times the UK shelf price. You’re covering the cost of the crisps, international shipping, the importer’s margin and, if you’re buying online, delivery to your door.
Here’s roughly what we found when we checked:
- Single 32.5g bags from British Food Supplies: about $1.82 for Salt & Vinegar and $2.48 for Prawn Cocktail
- A 12-bag Classic Variety multipack on Walmart.com: $35.98
- A 20-bag Meaty Variety pack on Walmart.com: $29.57
- A 32-bag Classic Variety box on Walmart.com: $61.98
The per-bag price drops as the box gets bigger, so if you know you like them, a large case works out much cheaper than buying six-packs over and over. If you’re buying as a gift or just want to try them once, a small mixed pack makes more sense.
What are Walkers crisps called in America?
They’re called Lay’s. Walkers and Lay’s are both owned by PepsiCo and sold under the same red-banner-on-yellow-sun style of logo, which is why the bags look so familiar to American visitors in the UK. Lay’s was introduced in 1932. Walkers started in Leicester in 1948, and PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay bought the company in 1989. Walkers was already a household name in Britain by then, so PepsiCo kept it rather than rebranding everything as Lay’s.
The same thing happens in other countries too. PepsiCo’s potato chips are sold as Smith’s in Australia and Sabritas in Mexico. Even the sub-brands line up: Walkers Max is the UK equivalent of Ruffles.
That said, Lay’s and Walkers aren’t identical. The flavour ranges are different, and classic British flavours like Prawn Cocktail have no Lay’s equivalent in the US. We go into the full story in are Lays and Walkers the same crisp and why Lays is called Walkers in the UK, and if you want the corporate history, who owns Walkers crisps covers it.
Walkers crisps and Walker’s Shortbread are different companies
If you search for “Walkers” in an American grocery store, you’re far more likely to find tartan boxes of shortbread than a bag of crisps. Walker’s Shortbread is a completely separate Scottish company, founded by Joseph Walker in 1898 and still owned and run by the Walker family in Aberlour, Speyside. It has nothing to do with PepsiCo or Walkers crisps. The shortbread brand even added an apostrophe to its logo in 2023, partly to point back to its founder.
So if you’ve seen “Walkers” in a US store and wondered why there were no crisps, that’s why. The shortbread is widely stocked across the US. The crisps are the ones you need to hunt down.
Which Walkers flavours to try first
If you’ve never tried Walkers, or you’re buying for someone who’s homesick, start with the classics. A Walkers Classic Variety multipack covers most of them in one order.
- Cheese & Onion has been around since 1954 and is probably the most British flavour on this list. It comes in a blue bag, which surprises a lot of people, because other UK brands use blue for salt and vinegar.
- Salt & Vinegar launched in 1967 and comes in a green bag. If you’ve only had American salt and vinegar chips, it’s worth comparing them side by side.
- Prawn Cocktail is the one Americans tend to be most curious about. There’s no prawn in the ingredients. The seasoning uses tomato powder, sugar, onion and citric acid to mimic the sauce from the old-fashioned British prawn cocktail starter, and Walkers lists it as suitable for vegetarians.
- Ready Salted is the plain option and the easiest way to compare Walkers directly with a bag of Lay’s Classic.
- Smoky Bacon and Roast Chicken usually turn up in Meaty Variety packs, which is a good second order once you’ve worked through the classics.
All of these are made at the Walkers factory in Leicester, which turns out over 11 million bags of crisps a day and is the largest crisp plant in the world.
Other Walkers snacks you can buy in the US
Walkers makes more than flat potato crisps, and the same importers usually stock the rest of the range.
Monster Munch Pickled Onion is the one British people get most nostalgic about. They’re baked corn snacks shaped like monster claws, and the pickled onion flavour is sharp in a way nothing in the American snack aisle really matches. There’s also a Flamin’ Hot version if you want something closer to familiar territory.
Walkers Quavers are light, curly cheese-flavoured potato snacks that melt in the mouth, and Wotsits are puffed cheese corn snacks, the British cousin of Cheetos. You’ll also find Walkers Squares, Walkers Max and Walkers Sensations on Walmart.com and Amazon from time to time.
If you want to try a wider spread of British snacks in one go, a British crisps variety box is a good way to do it. For a guide to the other big brands and what each one tastes like, read British crisps explained: what Americans need to know.
Tips for buying Walkers in the US
A few things worth knowing before you order:
- Check the best-before date. Import stock can sit in a warehouse for a while. Reputable shops will tell you, and British Food Supplies says it only ships crisps well within date.
- Read the pack size carefully. A listing showing “25g” bags and one showing “32.5g” bags can look similar at a glance, but the smaller bags mean you’re paying more per gram.
- Compare sellers. The same multipack can vary by several dollars between Amazon listings and Walmart marketplace sellers.
- Buy bigger if you’re sure. Large cases bring the per-bag cost down significantly compared with small packs.
- Bundle orders. If you’re buying from a specialist British shop, adding a few other items makes the delivery charge go further.
And if you’re wondering why the British call them crisps in the first place, we’ve covered that in chips vs crisps. For a wider comparison of what’s different between snacking in the two countries, see British vs American snacks.
The bottom line
You can buy Walkers crisps in America, as long as you know where to look. Amazon and Walmart.com have the widest range from import sellers, British Food Supplies ships from a US warehouse, and Blighty’s ships down from Canada. Prices are higher than in the UK because everything is imported, so bigger boxes give you the best value. If you just want the nearest American equivalent, that’s Lay’s, but you won’t find Prawn Cocktail or Pickled Onion Monster Munch on a US shelf. For the full history of the brand and every flavour it has made, read our complete guide to Walkers crisps, or browse the Walkers range.
Can you buy Walkers crisps in America?
Yes. Walkers crisps are sold in the US through import sellers on Amazon and Walmart.com, and through British food shops such as British Food Supplies, which ships across the country. They are not stocked as a regular product in most American supermarkets.
What are Walkers crisps called in America?
In America the equivalent is Lay’s. Walkers and Lay’s are both owned by PepsiCo, which kept the Walkers name in the UK after buying the company in 1989. The flavour ranges differ, so British flavours like Prawn Cocktail have no Lay’s version in the US.
Does Walmart sell Walkers crisps?
Yes. Walmart.com lists a wide range of Walkers multipacks from import sellers, including Classic Variety, Meaty Variety and Prawn Cocktail packs. Some are available in select stores, but in-store stock varies by location.
How much do Walkers crisps cost in the US?
When we checked, single bags cost roughly $1.80 to $2.50 from a British food shop, and multipacks on Walmart.com ranged from around $30 for 20 bags to around $62 for 32 bags. Prices change often because they come from import sellers.
Are Walkers crisps and Walkers shortbread the same company?
No. Walker’s Shortbread is a separate Scottish company founded by Joseph Walker in 1898 and still owned by the Walker family. Walkers crisps are owned by PepsiCo. The shortbread is widely sold in US stores, while the crisps are mostly found through importers.
Do Walkers Prawn Cocktail crisps contain prawns?
No. The flavour comes from a seasoning that includes tomato powder, sugar, onion and citric acid, designed to taste like prawn cocktail sauce. Walkers lists Prawn Cocktail as suitable for vegetarians.
Which Walkers flavour should Americans try first?
A Classic Variety multipack is the easiest start, since it covers Cheese and Onion, Salt and Vinegar and Ready Salted in one order. Prawn Cocktail is the one most worth trying if you want a flavour you cannot get in the US.
