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On Tuesday, Dunnhumby released its sixth annual retailer preference index—a nationwide study examining 63 retailers in grocery that surveyed 10,000 consumers—and found that H-E-B was the most preferred grocer in 2022.
- Costco came right after H-E-B, followed by Amazon, Wegmans, and Sam’s Club to round out the top five.
- H-E-B retook the top spot from Amazon, which held it for the past two years.
“The surge to digital and e-commerce adoption by customers—a large chunk of it has stuck. [We] knew that also a large chunk might be temporary,” Erich Kahner, director of competitive strategy and insights at Dunnhumby, told Retail Brew. “H-E-B resuming its spot, pushing Amazon back down, reflects that more temporary nature of all of that shift.”
In evaluating grocers, Dunnhumby examines five preference drivers: price, promotions, and rewards; quality; speed and convenience; digital; and operations. Kahner explained that these factors are what drive long-term retailer results, with costs and quality as the two most important factors.
- Plus, as inflation spiked to 40-year highs last year, consumers sought out grocers that maintained a healthy balance between affordability and product quality.
The devotion of H-E-B’s shoppers tracks to before the pandemic, when the Texas-based grocery chain clocked in at No. 1 in 2019.
- Other grocers that charted highly in the rankings were regional chains, such as Winco and Market Basket, that were able to deliver on a better customer value proposition compared to some of their bigger competitors.
Rounding out the top 10, we have: Market Basket, Amazon Fresh, Trader Joe’s, Winco, and BJ’s Wholesale.