Kroger stores are top pleasers

When you’re grocery shopping, what makes it a good experience? For many of us, it’s a combination of price, convenience and the helpfulness of the staff.

Morning Consult Intelligence conducted 200,000 interviews with people since January and asked them about a variety of companies across 11 different industries.

The methodology was simple. Respondents had to give either a thumbs up or thumbs down as they were asked questions about topics such as “favorability, community impact and purchasing intent.”

It turns out there’s a clear winner in the grocery category. Kroger claimed the top spot with a favorability rating of 53 percent.

Kroger operates 2,796 retail food stores under a variety of different names in 35 states and Washington, D.C. These include Ralphs, Dillons, Smith’s, King Soopers, Fry’s, QFC, City Market, Owen’s, Jay C, Pay Less, Baker’s, Gerbes, Harris Teeter, Pick N’ Save, Copps, Metro Market and Mariano’s.

Coming in at No. 2, we have Whole Foods. Despite its pricey reputation, 48 percent of people reported having a favorable opinion of Whole Foods. That may be due in part to the company’s effort to introduce its lower-priced “365 by Whole Foods” line.

Safeway captures the third spot with 40 percent favorability, while Albertsons and Publix round out the top five, with favorability rankings of 33 percent each.

Meanwhile, in a separate study released last September, Publix claimed the top spot in a survey from customer experience research firm Temkin Group. The Temkin survey monitors consumer emotion about 294 companies across 20 industries.