The market at a glance

• Highest market presence: Walmart stands alone at the top in awareness (86%), consideration (69%), recent purchase (70%), and preferred brand status (31%).
• Brand stickiness: Walmart turns 1 in 3 who know it into devoted fans. Kroger, Costco, and ALDI follow at a distance as national brands. The real surprises are regional, H-E-B converts 53% of its shoppers into committed fans, the highest of any chain.
• Trust and perception leaders: Walmart leads the category on brand trust (92%), ahead of ShopRite (89%) and Ralphs (88%). Walmart also tops the market on assortment (91%), price value (90%), convenience (86%), availability (83%), and fresh produce (80%).

Initial Findings from the US Supermarket Market

Walmart commands a dominant presence in the US supermarket landscape, leading across all tracking metrics: 86% aided awareness, 69% consideration, 70% past-6-month purchase, and 31% preferred brand. It is followed by Target (72% awareness) and ALDI (70%), reflecting a deeply established and fiercely competitive market, with multiple brands exceeding 60% awareness. ALDI and Costco rank second on consideration (41% and 34%, respectively), P6M purchase (33% and 28%, respectively), and preferred brand among non-Walmart chains (8% each), demonstrating a strong ability to convert recognition into genuine loyalty. The next similarly preferred chain is Kroger (7%) with relatively lower awareness (58%).

Walmart leads all chains with a 36% awareness-to-preferred conversion rate, turning more than 1 in 3 people who know the brand into loyal advocates who name it their favorite supermarket. Among other nationally recognized chains, Kroger, Costco, and ALDI, also achieve strong awareness-to-preferred conversion rates (13%, 11%, and 11%, respectively). Some of the most interesting observations are about chains that fewer people have heard of, but those who have tend to love them. As a regional chain, WinCo Foods converts 16% of aware consumers to preference. H-E-B, another regional brand with similarly modest awareness (around 20%), converts more than half (53%) of those who try it into devoted regulars, the highest trial-to-loyalty conversion rate of any chain analyzed.

Consumer perception data reveals further differentiation across the market. Walmart scores highest on assortment (91%), price value (90%), convenience (86%), availability (83%), and fresh produce (80%) among all tracked brands, reinforcing its positioning as the all-around leader in the supermarket category. ALDI performs notably on price value (81%) and convenience (76%). H-E-B performs well on price value (80%) and fresh produce (78%), and ShopRite performs well on assortment (80%), availability (76%), and price value (74%), suggesting strong perceived delivery on core functional promises for regional shoppers. Brand trust tells a compelling story at the top of the market: Walmart leads at 92%, ahead of ShopRite (89%) and Ralphs (88%), all well above the category average.

“In the US supermarket market, strong national leaders coexist with a long tail of regional players,” says Nik Samoylov, Founder of Conjointly. “Walmart is the clear leader on awareness, but the data shows that scale is not the only way to win loyalty. H-E-B and WinCo Foods prove that a sharp focus on value, trust, and quality can generate disproportionate brand equity even from a much smaller awareness base.”

The findings are based on a syndicated study of 1,427 US adult consumers, with 1,089 qualifying respondents confirming that they had purchased groceries or items from a supermarket chain in the past 30 days. 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 chain 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 $4,000 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.