Wegmans, H-E-B, Publix Tops in Customer Experience

Wegmans Food Markets, H.E. Butt Grocery Co. and Publix Super Markets provide the best customer experience in the supermarket industry, according to the 2018 Temkin Experience Ratings, an annual customer experience benchmark of companies, based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

With a score of 86 percent, Rochester, N.Y.-based Wegmans not only received the highest score among supermarkets, it received the highest score in the entire Ratings – coming in first out of 318 companies across 20 industries. Similarly, San Antonio-based H-E-B and Lakeland, Fla.-based Publix garnered the second-highest scores for both the supermarket industry and the Ratings overall, each earning 83 percent. Also making the top 10 were Batavia, Ill.-based deep-discounter Aldi and Media, Pa.-based c-store chain Wawa Food Markets, each of which scored 82 percent, thereby tying for seventh place overall.

The supermarket industry averaged a 79 percent rating overall in the 2018 Temkin Experience Ratings, ranking first out of 20 industries. The average rating of the industry edged up by 0.4 percentage points between 2017 and 2018, from 78.1 percent to 78.5 percent.

The ratings of all supermarkets for 2018 are as follows:

• Wegmans: 86 percent
• H-E-B: 83 percent
• Publix: 83 percent
• Aldi: 82 percent
• Wawa Food Markets: 82 percent
• Trader Joe’s: 81 percent
• ShopRite: 81 percent
• Save-a-lot: 80 percent
• Food Lion: 80 percent
• Meijer: 79 percent
• Kroger: 79 percent
• Hy-Vee: 79 percent
• Winn-Dixie: 79 percent
• Albertsons: 78 percent
• Safeway: 77 percent
• Piggly Wiggly: 77 percent
• Stop & Shop: 76 percent
• Vons: 75 percent
• Giant Eagle: 74 percent
• Bi-Lo: 73 percent
• Hannaford: 72 percent
• Whole Foods: 72 percent
• AmazonFresh: 67 percent

In Temkin’s ratings, a score of 70 percent or above is considered “good” and a score of 80 percent or above is considered “excellent,” while a score below 60 percent is considered “poor.” Wawa’s customer experience score improved the most over last year, gaining nine percentage points, while AmazonFresh declined the most, falling 13 points.

“Supermarkets have been the highest-scoring industry since 2012, and this year was no different,” said Bruce Temkin, managing partner of the Waban, Mass.-based Temkin Group. “But the leadership has changed, as Wegmans jumped over H-E-B to earn the top spot.”

The 2018 Temkin Experience Ratings, along with other ratings, can be accessed free online.