Market Force: Walmart U.S. ranks at bottom of favorite grocery chains

When it comes to grocery loyalty, Walmart U.S. ranks well below Publix, Trader Joes, Wegmans, Aldi, Costco, H-E-B and Kroger, according to the latest Market Force consumer survey of more than 10,000 consumers across the U.S.

New York-based Wegmans scored the highest marks overall to garner the top spot among favorite grocery chains. Market Force said this was a big turnaround for the grocery chain that didn’t garner enough votes to make the list in 2015.

Florida-based Publix has held the No. 2 spot on the favorite list for four years in a row. Trader Joe’s was a close third followed by Missouri-Based Hy-Vee Foods, and Aldi to round out the top five favorite grocers for 2016. Costco, Texas-based H-E-B, and Kroger took the sixth, seventh and eighth spots, respectively. Walmart fell way behind at No. 16  at the bottom of those grocers listed.

When it comes to value, deep discounter, Aldi was the winner with the highest score, followed by WinCo, Costco, Trader Joe’s and Walmart rounding out the top 5 grocers. When it comes to value for money. Walmart failed to make the top 10 listing in any of the other categories mentioned in the survey report.

The highest marks in cashier courtesy went to Trader Joe’s, then Publix, Aldi, Hy-Vee and Wegmans. Publix had the fastest checkouts, followed by Aldi, Wegmans, Hy-Vee and Trader Joe’s.

Publix also took the top spot in store cleanliness, ease of finding items, and item availability. Wegmans was the No 2 retail grocer in the categories. Kroger, Trader’s Joe’s, Hy-Vee and H-E-B consistently made the top 5 in all those categories. Costco snuck in a fourth place showing in the cleanliness category while scoring 7th in cashier courtesy and 6th place in the  specialty services.

Also, 99% of those survey said they shopped using traditional store visits in the past 90 days, 5% ordered groceries online and had them delivered, and 4% ordered online and picked up in store or collected through drive-up options.