Consumer Reports 2017 Supermarket Rankings

[giantsfan2016]

Consumer Reports has released their 2017 rankings of supermarkets. No surprise at who's at the bottom of the list. Surprised my former employer Stop & Shop was ranked so low on the list. I also don't see how ShopRite and IGA can be on that list as they are all independently owned and operated. Save-a-lot was not on this list. Neither was the small Long Island/NY area chain which also has one CT location - Best Market. The number one store begins with "W" and is based in UpState New York.

http://www.courant.com/os-top-us-supermarkets-ranked-from-worst-to-first-20170501-photogallery.html?track=hc_social_ta__facebook_________hartfordcourant&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=59092b9404d301505fd78c16&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook

[BillyGr]

Consumer Reports has released their 2017 rankings of supermarkets. No surprise at who's at the bottom of the list. Surprised my former employer Stop & Shop was ranked so low on the list. I also don't see how ShopRite and IGA can be on that list as they are all independently owned and operated. Save-a-lot was not on this list. Neither was the small Long Island/NY area chain which also has one CT location - Best Market. The number one store begins with "W" and is based in UpState New York.

http://www.courant.com/os-top-us-supermarkets-ranked-from-worst-to-first-20170501-photogallery.html?track=hc_social_ta__facebook_________hartfordcourant&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=59092b9404d301505fd78c16&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook

I'd suspect they just group all people who pick a store in one (no matter what store in the case of things like ShopRite and IGA).  In the long run, it's probably no worse than doing the same with any chain, as we all know that even if the stores are corporately owned, that doesn't mean they'll all be exactly the same in terms of how they operate, as much of that is the people in any given location.

On the other side of that, it's really hard to even do this kind of a listing, since basically no supermarket (aside from someone like Walmart that they list, and possibly a couple of the discount places like Aldi or Save a Lot) really covers most of the USA.  A couple of the groups have a fair coverage (like the Albertsons/Safeway combo, but even the new Ahold/Delhaize group only covers the eastern coast), but it's hard to judge what store overall is the best when only a small percentage of shoppers are even exposed to that store.
You almost have to do it by area (and even in many cases those are small - for instance a state like NY has several areas where the chains overlap very little).

One also wonders how much of the vote for that W store comes from people who actually have the stores (since they only have around 100 spread over several states), and how much is from "former" residents or those who have only visited one occasionally.

[store215]

Consumer Reports has released their 2017 rankings of supermarkets. No surprise at who's at the bottom of the list. Surprised my former employer Stop & Shop was ranked so low on the list. I also don't see how ShopRite and IGA can be on that list as they are all independently owned and operated. Save-a-lot was not on this list. Neither was the small Long Island/NY area chain which also has one CT location - Best Market. The number one store begins with "W" and is based in UpState New York.

http://www.courant.com/os-top-us-supermarkets-ranked-from-worst-to-first-20170501-photogallery.html?track=hc_social_ta__facebook_________hartfordcourant&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=59092b9404d301505fd78c16&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook

I'd suspect they just group all people who pick a store in one (no matter what store in the case of things like ShopRite and IGA).  In the long run, it's probably no worse than doing the same with any chain, as we all know that even if the stores are corporately owned, that doesn't mean they'll all be exactly the same in terms of how they operate, as much of that is the people in any given location.

On the other side of that, it's really hard to even do this kind of a listing, since basically no supermarket (aside from someone like Walmart that they list, and possibly a couple of the discount places like Aldi or Save a Lot) really covers most of the USA.  A couple of the groups have a fair coverage (like the Albertsons/Safeway combo, but even the new Ahold/Delhaize group only covers the eastern coast), but it's hard to judge what store overall is the best when only a small percentage of shoppers are even exposed to that store.
You almost have to do it by area (and even in many cases those are small - for instance a state like NY has several areas where the chains overlap very little).

One also wonders how much of the vote for that W store comes from people who actually have the stores (since they only have around 100 spread over several states), and how much is from "former" residents or those who have only visited one occasionally.

They should have just grouped the stores by parent company, as long as the formats are similar (eg. Acme/Safeway/Albertsons, all the Kroger banners, all the Ahold banners, etc.)

[EddieJ1984]

I ain't clicking through 62 pictures to see these rankings.

[busman_49]

I ain't clicking through 62 pictures to see these rankings.

I'm so tired of these slideshows...
"12 people who did something!" turns out to be a 28-page slideshow.  Drives me nuts...

[giantsfan2016]

Bottom 5. Starting with the worst.

1. Walmart Super Center
2. Tops Friendly Markets
3. Shaw's/Star Market
4. Stop & Shop
5. Acme

Top 5. Starting with the best.

1. Wegaman's
2.  Market Basket
3. Trader Joe's
4. Publix
5. Fareway Stores

Other Noteworthy:
Costco was 6th best.
Aldi was 13th best.
Hannaford was the highest rated Ahold own store at 28th Best.
ShopRite was in the middle.
Big Y was near the middle.
Both Giant PA and Giant MD were near the bottom.
Safeway was near the bottom as well.

[Bdubs]

I'd rank Stop&Shop near the bottom as well. Terrible employee morale, way behind on being innovative in their stores, bathrooms are all nasty, that's pretty consistent with most stores.
I used to work there for 8 years, it's changed since I was employed there, but I do still visit stores throughout the state due to my current job, and perhaps I'm swayed. Lol.

[giantsfan2016]

I'd rank Stop&Shop near the bottom as well. Terrible employee morale, way behind on being innovative in their stores, bathrooms are all nasty, that's pretty consistent with most stores.
I used to work there for 8 years, it's changed since I was employed there, but I do still visit stores throughout the state due to my current job, and perhaps I'm swayed. Lol.

Don't get me started on the bathrooms. I worked at 642 (Pine Street Forestville) for 13 months. (October 2015-November 2016). The men's room floods a lot. No one knows why. One urinal broke around August 2016 and it was still broken when I was last in there the day before Easter 2017. I've found clothing in there. Half empty bottles of vodka. (When I found them I would joke with the boss "They threw a party without us." I showed the bottle of vodka to one of my bosses one time and they were like "That's cheap s h i t". And the men's room at 684 (Route 10 Southington) looks like it hasn't been remodeled since they opened in 1993.

As for employee morale? The employee morale at both 628 (Route 6 in Bristol) and 684 (Route 10 Southington) sucks. They are not friendly or helpful. The morale at my old store 642 is great. Customers tell us it seems like we have a good time at work. We do. We have a good crew there even though we don't like the store manager. Two of my former bosses have filled in at both 628 and 684 and said while the stores are busier the employee morale sucks. One boss has also filled in on Fenn Road (Newington) and Farmington Ave (Unionville) and he said Unionville has a good crew. He didn't have much to say about Fenn Road. The customers at the Southington store are rude too. LOL. My friend told me the day he filled in there an elderly man complained to the store manager about his long hair. (He keeps his hair either tied up in a man bun or just tied back so it's not not in his face). He's been growing his hair for 2 years and when he filled in in Southington was the only complaint he got from a customer about it. - Then just 3 weeks later when he was working at his regular store (642 Forestville) someone said something about his long hair too. It's was almost 8:30PM. The end of his shift. He was waiting for the other Front End Supervisor to come back from her break so he could go home. He was standing at the podium. He took his hair out of his man bun and was checking his texts on his phone. A female customer comes up to him as if to ask him a question and says "I see you can afford a $700 I-Phone, but you can't afford $20 for a haircut." He just stood there stupefied.

[mixedday]

Trader Joes does well even though their quality (for items like produce) is just average and selection is very limited. All their vegetable produce is bagged. But these supermarket surveys like consistency and low pricing over quality and selection, and Trader Joes excels in this area as you go from one Trader Joes to another and its less variant than other supermarkets, and Trader Joes excels in low prices.

Somehow Consumer Reports excluded Mom's Organic Markets?

[retailisking]

They should have just grouped the stores by parent company, as long as the formats are similar (eg. Acme/Safeway/Albertsons, all the Kroger banners, all the Ahold banners, etc.)

I tend to disagree with that. Anyone familiar with the different Ahold Delhaize banners know that their go-to-market strategies and execution are quite different even if they're all traditional supermarkets on the surface.

[retailisking]

Somehow Consumer Reports excluded Mom's Organic Markets?

Probably insufficient data (not enough survey results) to come up with a ranking. This happens with their auto reliability survey as well.

[Ameskid]

I got about halfway through the "list" (more of a slideshow) but was surprised to see that Kroger was in the middle.  I expected it to be near the top.

I didn't see Save-A-Lot on the list - I expected it to be near the bottom.  Remke Markets are exclusive to the OH/KY/IN region as well but are pretty bad.

[JimSawhill]

Public is 4th ranked? I wonder  if Winn Dixie is at the bottom.