Regional Chains Top U.S. Grocery Rankings

H-E-B, Market Basket and Woodman’s are the top three U.S. grocery retailers with consumers, according to dunnhumby’s ninth annual Retailer Preference Index (RPI) for that sector. This marks the first time in the survey’s 9-year history that the leading three retailers in the United States are all regional chains.

Rounding out the top 10 are Costco (4), Aldi (5), Winco Foods (6), Trader Joes (7), Amazon (8), Wegman’s (9) and ShopRite (10).

Back at the top of the list, H-E-B ranked first for the fifth time in nine years. Market Basket ranked second for the second time, while Wisconsin-based Woodman’s, appearing in the RPI for the first time, replaced Costco as the third top U.S. grocer.

“2025 threw a lot of curveballs at the U.S. consumer,” said Matt O’Grady, dunnhumby’s President of the Americas. “Shopper confidence dropped as concerns about higher prices, fewer job opportunities and stagnant wages eroded purchasing power. Consumers across all income levels are feeling the squeeze and making more price-conscious choices. In this environment, building trust with American shoppers has never been more critical.”

The dunnhumby RPI combines financial results with customer perception. It includes the largest 81 retailers in the industry that sell everyday food and non-food household items. The financial data used in the dunnhumby model comes from Flywheel, and the customer-perception data is sourced from dunnhumby’s annual survey of more than 11,000 American grocery shoppers.

Click here for more from the survey and how it was compiled.