And the America’s Best Grocery Chain Award Goes to…

This year’s most beloved grocery store in America is Wegmans. Trader Joe’s had to hand over its crown despite being No. 1 for four straight years. According to Market Force, the group that conducts the annual survey, Wegmans won over U.S. consumers’ hearts with “its fresh produce, reasonable prices, and massive stores.”

According to the recent report, 76 percent of survey participants who shopped at Wegmans gave the grocery retailer maximum scores for overall consumer satisfaction and said that they would recommend the store to others.

Florida-based Publix Super Markets landed on the second position with 75 percent of satisfied customers, and Trader Joe’s slipped to the third spot with 73 percent. The bottom of the list was occupied by Wal-Mart which scored just 29 percent on consumer satisfaction.

Customers gave the highest scores for pricing to Texas-based ALDI, which ranked fifth on the list of America’s favorite grocery stores. Wegmans got the eight place in terms of pricing.

ShopRite landed on the top place when it came to sales and promotions. But Trader Joe’s apparently has the most courteous cashiers in America; Wegmans ranked fifth in this matter.

Americans picked Publix for its cleanliness, short checkout lines, and availability of products. Wegmans ranked fifth in terms of checkout lines while ALDI landed on the second spot. Wegmans occupied the second position in cleanliness.

The recent rankings are a big surprise since Wegmans didn’t have enough traction to even make it on the list in the last few years. But its popularity has skyrocketed in the meantime and helped it garner twice as many votes and land on the top position.

Rebecca Scanlan of Market Force noted that the grocery chain now has a loyal customer base since more and more Americans would rather do their primary grocery shopping at the Rochester, NY-based supermarket chain.

The group that carried out the study said that Wegmans had no involvement in the survey nor it had influenced it in any way. Wegmans shoppers were not specially targeted to take part in the study.

The analysis also revealed that U.S. customers are currently more interested in organic food. Half of the respondents said that they would go organic whenever it is possible especially for dairy, meat, and fresh produce.

In-store prepared foods are also on the plates of more Americans now than in recent years. Around 70 percent of survey participants said that they bought such foods at least once every 30 days.

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