{"id":52942,"date":"2026-01-22T03:35:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T09:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=52942"},"modified":"2026-01-22T06:39:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T12:39:55","slug":"texas-chain-crushes-costco-and-trader-joes-to-claim-americas-top-grocery-store-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=52942","title":{"rendered":"Texas chain crushes Costco and Trader Joe’s to claim America’s top grocery store title"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

San Antonio-based H-E-B was ranked the No. 1 grocery retailer in the U.S. for the fifth time in nine years, according to Dunnhumby\u2019s latest<\/a> annual ranking of grocery stores. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The family-owned company, which was founded in 1905 and operates more than 440 stores, is “firmly entrenched as the top retailer due to its superior ability to deliver a combination of better savings, quality, experience, and assortment,” the study found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Massachusetts-based Market Basket ranked second, followed by Wisconsin-based Woodman\u2019s in third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An H-E-B grocery store in Prosper, Texas, Sept. 2, 2025.  (Jake Dockins\/Bloomberg via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For the first time, the leading three retailers<\/a> in the United States are all regional chains,” Dunnhumby noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Costco was<\/a> ranked No. 4, followed by Aldi, WinCo Foods, Trader Joe\u2019s, Amazon, Wegmans and ShopRite rounding out the top 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazon, which topped the rankings in 2021 and 2022, slipped two spots this year, while Sam\u2019s Club dropped six places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customers shop at a Trader Joe’s store Dec. 10, 2025, in Chicago.  (Scott Olson\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study evaluated 81 major U.S. grocery stores, combining financial performance with survey responses from more than 11,000 American shoppers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participants were asked about pricing, quality, convenience, operations and online ordering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rankings come as consumers face<\/a> mounting financial pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shopper confidence declined last year amid concerns over rising prices, limited job opportunities and stagnant wages, according to Matt O’Grady, president of the Americas for Dunnhumby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A woman selects croissants from Costco’s bakery department in Queens, N.Y. (Lindsey Nicholson\/UCG\/Universal Images Group)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Consumers across all income levels are feeling the squeeze and making more price-conscious choices,” O’Grady said in a statement. “In this environment, building trust with American shoppers has never been more critical.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall food prices were up 0.7% in December and 3.1% from a year ago, according to the December consumer price index (CPI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The all-items CPI index showed inflation pushed prices 0.3% higher last month and 2.7% on an annual basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

foxbusiness<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

San Antonio-based H-E-B was ranked the No. 1 grocery retailer in the U.S. for the fifth time in nine years, according to Dunnhumby\u2019s latest annual ranking of grocery stores.  The family-owned company, which was founded in 1905 and operates more than 440 stores, is “firmly entrenched as the top retailer due to its superior ability to deliver […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":52943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[22472,1860,1441],"class_list":["post-52942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-grocery","tag-top","tag-was"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52942"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52944,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52942\/revisions\/52944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}