Market Basket, WinCo and Aldi occupy the top 3 in the Price, Promo, Rewards pillar overall.

Aldi remains the leader in base price perception, while WinCo and Market Basket are also strong in this area but also tend to score well in other elements of savings, like promotions.

Kroger Co. banners Kroger, King Soopers and Fry’s sweep the top 3 in loyalty and rewards, while Costco edges H-E-B in private brand savings.

Wegmans, Trader Joe’s and Sprouts are the top 3 in the Quality pillar.

Within specific levers, Wegmans leads in overall product quality and ambiance. H-E-B, also in the top 10 in the Price, Promo, Rewards pillar, delivers on product quality, customer service, private brand quality and local variety.

Natural Grocers and Sprouts have carved out a leading spot in better-for-you related needs.

Amazon, Target and Sam’s Club (followed by two other Walmart banners) lead in the Digital pillar.

The story is the same within specific levers. H-E-B again makes an appearance, with the strength of its app and using technology to make customer experiences better.

Fareway, Publix and Brookshire’s/Super 1 win in Speed and Convenience.

Amazon is tops in checkout speed, but its lack of locations leaves it out of the top quartile for the pillar overall.

Independent banners IGA and Piggly Wiggly are new to the study this year, and they do land in the top quartile of the Speed and Convenience pillar. Independents and the smallest of the regional supermarket banners in our study tend to struggle in the overall RPI rankings, however. While a strength in Speed and Convenience helped produce a bump in market share and profits in 2020, for smaller regional supermarkets, the further we get from the events of 2020 and 2021, the more we’re observing a return to the importance of the Value Core – providing the right balance of Price, Promo, Rewards and Quality for your customer. In this area, smaller regional supermarket banners in general still have ground to make up on larger regionals and national chains.

Market Basket cracks the top 3 in the Operations pillar, crashing the party of wholesale club formats, who tend to score solid across levers in this pillar, even though they don’t occupy a top spot in any single lever.

Fresh Thyme (in stock perceptions), Market Basket (price consistency) and Publix (store cleanliness) win out in key dependability levers in the Operations pillar.