This Little Grocery Store Is America’s Favorite (Again)

A grocery store chain with a modest footprint continues to steal the hearts of many shoppers, according to a recent study.

The No. 1 grocer in customer data science firm dunnhumby’s latest annual Retailer Preference Index has stores in just one U.S. state. It also took top honors in 2023.

Dunnhumby says its ranking is the only one to combine financial results with customer perception, which is based on a survey of more than 10,000 U.S. shoppers.

The study looked at the 65 largest retailers in the grocery industry and weighed five things that drive customer value:

• Price, promotions and rewards
• Quality
• Digital
• Operations
• Speed and convenience

Here are America’s favorite grocery stores.

H-E-B

This grocery retailer’s rank in:

• 2024: No. 1
• 2023: No. 1

This is the second consecutive year that H-E-B has topped the list of grocery chains, and the third time in the seven years dunnhumby has conducted the study. No other retailer has finished first three times.

H-E-B finished first this year due to its “superior ability to deliver a combination of better savings and better experience/assortment, supported by time savings through superior digital capabilities,” according to dunnhumby.

You can find 420 H-E-B stores in Texas and Mexico — and nowhere else.

Amazon

This grocery retailer’s rank in:

• 2024: No. 2
• 2023: No. 3

Amazon has finished somewhere in the top three slots in all seven years of the dunnhumby grocery study. It has finished No. 1 twice, most recently in 2022.

Costco

This grocery retailer’s rank in:

• 2024: No. 3
• 2023: No. 2

Costco also finished in the top three again this year, and likely to no one’s surprise. The beloved retailer has secured the loyalty of millions of customers, with more than 70 million households belonging to the warehouse club. Costco has 600 locations in 47 U.S. states and Puerto Rico.

The rest of the top 10

The rest of the top 10 grocery retailers in the latest annual ranking are:

• Market Basket
• Sam’s Club
• Wegmans
• Aldi
• ShopRite
• Walmart Neighborhood Market
• Walmart