Every year, a small army of shoppers gets asked a simple question: How much do you actually like the stores you hand your money to?
The answers just landed, and a few longtime favorites are sweating.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index’s Retail and Consumer Shipping Study 2026 surveyed over 31,000 people by email across all of 2025, then ranked the country’s biggest chains on a 100-point scale.
I’ve been reading these rankings for years, and the winners almost always share one boring trait — more on that at the end.
We already covered America’s favorite big-box store this year, and it wasn’t Walmart or Target. Now it’s the turn of the three aisles you probably walk most: groceries, warehouse clubs and hardware.
The grocery winner: Trader Joe’s knocks off Publix
Publix had the crown. Trader Joe’s just took it.
TJ’s climbed 2% to a score of 86, edging past Publix (holding at 84) to become America’s most-loved grocery chain. Not bad for a quirky store with cramped parking lots and no loyalty card.
What’s impressive is that Trader Joe’s pulled this off while expanding fast — the kind of growth that usually wrecks the in-store experience. It didn’t. The stores stayed consistent, and shoppers noticed.
H-E-B landed right behind at 83, rewarded again for leaning hard into low prices while everybody’s watching every dollar.
It wasn’t all good news. Wegmans, a chain people usually rave about, tumbled 6% to 78 as shoppers griped about store layout, checkout speed and staff. Giant Eagle brought up the rear at 73.
Where you live matters, too. Aldi, ShopRite and Walmart tied for the lead in the Northeast, Aldi topped the Midwest, Sam’s Club ruled the South, and Trader Joe’s took the West. We broke down the regional grocery favorites in more detail separately.
The warehouse club winner: Sam’s Club holds on
If you belong to a warehouse club, odds are you’re a little obsessed with it. Costco fans practically treat the place like a religion. But on pure satisfaction, Sam’s Club is still king.
Sam’s Club scored 83 to lead the general merchandise category, even after slipping 2%. Costco sat just behind at 81, and BJ’s Wholesale Club climbed 3% to 80.
This isn’t a one-year fluke. Sam’s Club dethroned Costco for this same crown last year, and it’s hanging on by making the boring stuff — checkout, pickup, order accuracy — less painful.
Store brands are doing a lot of the heavy lifting, too. When people trust a house label like Costco’s Kirkland Signature, that trust shows up in the scores. The ACSI credited store brands for helping keep Costco’s satisfaction high and for lifting BJ’s this year.
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The hardware winner: It’s a three-way tie
Here’s where it gets interesting. In hardware and home improvement, nobody ran away with it.
Home Depot, Lowe’s and Menards all tied at 81 for the top spot — and that trio didn’t just lead hardware. They tied for the highest score of any specialty retailer in the entire study.
Ace Hardware and Tractor Supply were a hair behind at 80. So wherever you buy your screws and paint, you’re in solid company. That said, satisfaction and loyalty aren’t the same thing — the chain shoppers say they’re most loyal to isn’t Home Depot or Lowe’s.
The bigger story is how tight the race got. Last year, specialty retail’s best-to-worst gap was 13 points. This year it’s 7 — and that narrowing shows up clearly in hardware.
Translation: the stragglers are catching up, and that’s good news for your next weekend project.
What the winners have in common
Strip away the logos and one theme runs through every category: Value and convenience win.
Forrest Morgeson, a marketing professor at Michigan State University who helps run the ACSI, says shoppers aren’t necessarily spending less — they’re “spending differently.” They’re hunting value, starting holiday shopping earlier and punishing stores that waste their time.
So the chains climbing the rankings aren’t the flashiest. They’re the ones that nailed the basics: fair prices, fast checkout, easy pickup and store brands worth buying.
Next time a store earns your loyalty, notice what it’s actually doing right. Then ask whether the other places you shop are pulling their weight — or just coasting on your habit.
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