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Newsweek ranks supermarkets, discounters, club stores in America’s Best Retailers

americasbestretailers

Supermarket rankings typically go a little like this: 1. Wegmans; 2. Publix… followed by other regional favorites.

Newsweek magazine just published a list of 2022 America’s Best Retailers, ranking supermarkets, club stores, discounters, and more with a No. 3 I hadn’t seen on one of these national lists before: Springdale, AR-based Harps Food Stores.

The list is compiled from results of an independent survey of more than 10,000 U.S. customers “who have shopped at the retailers in-person in the past three years.” More than 150,000 evaluations were collected, and the awarded retailers received on average, 100 evaluations from customers.

It collected data from 39 categories on customer experiences in traditional retailers.

To qualify, retailers had to be present in at least two census regions, with exceptions for those operating more than 600 locations.

The Top 10 Supermarkets were:

  1. Wegmans
  2. Publix
  3. Harps
  4. Sprouts Farmers Market
  5. Whole Foods Market
  6. Fresh Thyme Farmers Market
  7. The Fresh Market
  8. WinCo Foods
  9. Kroger
  10. Earth Fare

The list also ranked “discount” grocers separately. In smaller categories, there were fewer rankings. The Top 3 were named:

  1. Trader Joe’s
  2. 99 Cents Only
  3. Aldi

In the Superstore/Warehouse Club Store category, five retailers were listed:

  1. Costco Wholesale
  2. Target
  3. Sam’s Club
  4. BJ’s Wholesale
  5. Meijer

And, finally, the list also recognized the Top 5 Convenience Stores:

  1. Wawa
  2. Sheetz
  3. Thorntons
  4. QuikTrip
  5. Flying J

As a retail observer (and Texan), I noticed a few glaring omissions. I suspect it was the two-census-region qualifier that left out H-E-B and Buc-ee’s, though I will note that Lake Jackson, TX-based Buc-ee’s has been expanding outside of Texas over the past year. New stores have recently opened in South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Kentucky.

You’ll be seeing more about Buc-ee’s on these types of lists very soon.

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Pamela Riemenschneider is the Retail Editor for Blue Book Services.