The market at a glance

• Consistent funnel leader: Walmart held the top position on all primary metrics across three waves, reaching 91% aided awareness, 75% consideration, 76% past six-month purchase, and 45% preferred brand status by May 2026.
• Consideration momentum: ALDI and Target recorded consideration gains among well-recognised brands across the three waves, with ALDI climbing from 47% to 52% and Target from 36% to 40% between March and May. This growth was consistent with rising trust scores over the same period, with ALDI improving from 81% to 86% and Target from 77% to 83%.
• Conversion benchmark: Among mid-to-large brands, ALDI and Kroger had the strongest awareness-to-preference ratio across three waves. The former converted 76% awareness into 19% preferred brand status in May 2026 and the latter converted 62% to 13% in both March and April, outperforming Target and Whole Foods Market by a significant margin.
• Diagnostics leaders: Walmart led across all diagnostic dimensions for all three waves, scoring 85–90% on price value and 87–91% on assortment. Costco stood out on availability and assortment, Stop & Shop and H-E-B on convenience, and Sprouts Farmers Market and Whole Foods Market on fresh produce.

Initial findings from the first three waves of 2026

Walmart dominated the US supermarket landscape, maintaining the highest scores across every tracking metric throughout all three waves. By May 2026, it recorded 91% aided awareness, 75% consideration, 76% past six-month purchase, and 45% preferred brand status, more than double the preference score of its nearest rivals. ALDI and Costco were its closest challengers, each reaching 76% aided awareness, with ALDI converting that into 52% consideration and 19% preferred brand status, and Costco into 44% consideration and 16% preferred. Target, despite slightly higher awareness at 79%, converted far less efficiently, recording just 10% preferred brand status compared to ALDI’s 19%.

ALDI and Target recorded notable consideration movement across the three waves, growing from 47% and 36% in March to 52% and 40% by May. This growth was consistent with rising trust scores over the same period, with ALDI improving from 81% to 86% and Target from 77% to 83%. Kroger held stable at 62–65% awareness and 33–34% consideration, while Costco grew awareness from 71% to 76% and consideration from 41% to 44%. Sam’s Club grew awareness from 63% to 68% and consideration from 29% to 32%.

The most pronounced funnel efficiency story in the category belonged to ALDI and Kroger apart from Walmart. With 76% aided awareness in May 2026, ALDI achieved 19% preferred brand status. Kroger converted 62% into 13% in both March and April, a conversion ratio that significantly outperformed peers with comparable or higher awareness. Target, with 79% awareness, recorded only 10% preferred brand status, and Whole Foods Market, with 68% awareness, recorded just 5% preferred.

Among regional and mid-tier brands, H-E-B, with 22% awareness, achieved 4% preferred brand status and 6% P6M purchase, a conversion efficiency that reflected its intensely loyal customer base in the markets it operated in. Publix demonstrated strong conversion relative to its footprint, recording 44% awareness, 22% consideration, and 7% preferred brand status in May 2026. On the other end, Sprouts Farmers Market converted 37% awareness into 7% P6M purchase and 1% preferred in May.

Walmart led across all diagnostic dimensions throughout the tracking period, recording 90% on price value in March and 91% on assortment in both March and May, well above category averages. ALDI and WinCo Foods also performed well on price value, while Costco stood out on both availability and assortment, with ShopRite also performing strongly on assortment. Stop & Shop and H-E-B performed well on convenience. Sprouts Farmers Market and Whole Foods Market consistently scored above 70% across all three waves, 77% and 74% in May, confirming that premium and specialty grocers held a distinct perception advantage on product quality.

“The US supermarket data across the three waves of 2026 reveals a market with a clear leader and a genuinely competitive mid-tier,” says Yutian Shen, Market Researcher at Conjointly. “Walmart’s dominance on both the funnel and the diagnostics is unambiguous. But the data also shows that ALDI and Kroger have built a conversion engine that punches well above its awareness weight, and that specialists like Sprouts Farmers Market and Whole Foods Market hold real diagnostic advantages in fresh produce that other chains cannot easily replicate.”

The findings are based on a syndicated study of 3,272 US adults conducted across three waves in March (1,089), April (1,082), and May (1,101) 2026. Qualifying respondents confirmed that they had shopped at or visited at least one supermarket chain in the past 6 months. Participants were recruited via Conjointly’s panel network and compensated for their time, with the sample weighted to national demographics to ensure findings are market-representative.

Explore the US supermarket chains data at https://brandtracker.conjointly.com/united-states/supermarket-chains/.

About Brand Tracker by Conjointly

Brand Tracker delivers automated brand performance reporting with rigorous, market-representative insights. Businesses across industries can now access statistically weighted brand funnel data, including awareness, consideration, purchase intent, and preference.

“We built Brand Tracker because we want to make insights about brand tracking to be accessible to everyone: big and small businesses alike,” said Nik Samoylov, Founder of Conjointly. “Brand Tracker has easy-to-use and easy-to-digest analytics about brand positioning, brand awareness and more, without requiring a six-figure commitment.”

Brand Tracker currently offers US businesses free access to detailed public brand data across five industries. For monitoring of your own brand with advanced analytics and real-time dashboards, Priority Access starts from the industry-breaking price of $10,000 per year, a fraction of traditional agency costs. Custom tracking solutions are also available for businesses with specific needs.

About Conjointly

Conjointly started as a simple online tool for conjoint analysis in 2016 and has since evolved into an industry-leading market research platform. Conjointly holds ISO 20252:2019 (Sampling), ISO 27001:2022, ISO 27701:2019, and SOC 2 Type II certifications, and is a member of the Insights Association and the British Healthcare Business Intelligence Association.

Conjointly’s tools address the most common pricing and product research problems and are supplemented with expert support and guidance from experienced researchers. With thousands of projects performed on the platform, Conjointly is the go-to research place for hundreds of clients.