Walmart Ranks 1st Among YouGov’s 2025 Grocery Store Brands
Walmart is the most considered grocery store among U.S. shoppers, while Amazon Fresh is gaining the most ground with consumers, a new brand ranking from YouGov has found. The global research data and analytics group’s “U.S. Grocery Store Brand Rankings 2025” surveyed 22,000-plus Americans on their perceptions of 34 national and regional brands.
Among the key findings from the report:
- Walmart led the consideration rankings by a wide margin, with 63.3% of U.S. adults saying they would consider the brand for their next shopping trip, followed by Target (42.5%) and ALDI (32.8%). The rankings also delved into differences in brand preferences among women, men and each generation of shoppers.
- Amazon Fresh has gained the most ground with U.S. grocery shoppers, with consideration among American adults reaching 12.0%, a 48% rise from last year. Amazon Fresh consideration was highest among Gen Zers (25.8%) and Millennials (21.5%).
- Whole Foods Market is perceived as providing the best quality, with a net Quality score of 36.5, in front of Target (35.4) and Trader Joe’s (35.3).
- While Walmart also ranked top for Value, with a net score of 42.0, ALDI (38.6) and Costco (35.1) were also thought of as good deals for shoppers.
As well as the brand rankings, the report probed variations in shopping attitudes and habits across generations, finding that:
- Gen Zers were most likely to say that grocery shopping is boring (40.5%), and that they only buy what they need when at the supermarket (59.9%).
- Millennials were most likely to say that they like to plan their weekly shop (61.9%), and prefer shopping “little and often” rather than “big and less often” (51.1%).
- Gen Xers were most likely to seek the lowest prices when shopping (78.%), but also they also admitted that they end up buying things they hadn’t planned to purchase (63.4%).
- Baby Boomers were least likely to make Saturday their regular usual shopping day (10.7%), but most likely to always be on the hunt for special offers (84.7%).
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“Amid rising food prices and the shift towards delivery, the grocery shopping preferences and expectations of American consumers are evolving,” said Kenton Barello, VP at New York-based YouGov America. “While Walmart remains the dominant grocery shopping destination nationwide, the rise of Amazon Fresh – driven by Gen Z and Millennials – will put traditional grocery brands on notice.”
YouGov’s “U.S. Grocery Store Brand Rankings 2025” is powered by YouGov BrandIndex, which tracks almost 2,000 brands daily across 16 key metrics. The rankings looked at Purchase Consideration, Value and Quality scores from Feb. 1, 2024, through Jan. 31, 2025, comparing scores with the previous year to identify the biggest improvers. Attitudinal data was drawn from YouGov Profiles, an audience intelligence tool.
Each week, approximately 270 million customers and members visit Walmart’s more than 10,750 stores and numerous e-commerce websites in 19 countries. With FY2025 revenue of $681 billion, the company employs approximately 2.1 million associates worldwide. Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart U.S. is No. 1 on Progressive Grocer’s 2024 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. Part of Amazon’s Worldwide Grocery Stores, Whole Foods Market serves customers in more than 530 stores across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The food retailer’s parent company, Seattle-based Amazon, is No. 2 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2024 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. Walmart, Whole Foods and Amazon were named among PG’s Retailers of the Century.
