What’s the best grocery store in the US? Hint: It’s no longer Trader Joe’s, study says

Chacour Koop

A Texas grocery store chain topped Trader Joe’s as the best supermarket in the country, a study says.

It could be a sign of regional companies gaining momentum on the likes of Amazon and Costco — as the $700 billion grocery store industry braces for a potential economic downturn, researchers say.

H-E-B dethroned Trader Joe’s in a study of shopper preferences and financial performance released Wednesday, according to Dunnhumby, a customer data science company. The Texas company also jumped Amazon and Costco.

“H-E-B’s move into first place — due to sustained focus and excellence on assortment relevance and private brand — is consistent with our findings that some regional grocers are getting stronger and are now going toe-to-toe with leading non-traditional retailers,” according to the study.

Here is the top “quartile” of the 60 stores in the study.

  1. H-E-B

  2. Trader Joe’s

  3. Amazon

  4. Market Basket

  5. Wegmans

  6. Costco

  7. Aldi

  8. Sam’s Club

  9. Walmart

  10. Publix

  11. WinCo Foods

  12. Fresh Thyme

  13. Sprouts

  14. ShopRite

“When purse strings get tight, people aren’t going to abandon H-E-B,” said Jose Gomes, Dunnhumby’s managing director of North America, according to the Houston Chronicle. “They’re good at value and price perception, and people love them.”

Publix, a popular regional chain in the Southeast, appeared in the top “quartile” of the study for the first time, as did ShopRite with its supermarkets based on the East Coast.

Which grocery stores have the Triangle’s best prices? We visited 16 chains to find out.