TROY, Mich. — With a rising number of neighborhood drug stores closing their doors, more customers seem to be turning to mail order pharmacies, mass market merchandisers and supermarkets—and finding an improved customer experience along the way. According to the J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Pharmacy Study, released Tuesday, overall satisfaction with mail order pharmacies is rising steadily, with a 7-point increase (on a 1,000-point scale) in overall customer satisfaction this year. Meanwhile, chain drug stores have seen their overall satisfaction scores slide far below those of other brick-and-mortar pharmacies, such as those found in mass market retailers and supermarkets, pushing many chain drug store customers to consider switching providers.
“Chain drug store customers are significantly more likely than supermarket or mass market merchandiser pharmacy customers to say they ‘definitely will’ or ‘probably will’ switch pharmacies in the next 12 months,” said Christopher Lis, managing director of global healthcare intelligence at J.D. Power. “That openness to switching, combined with steadily increasing satisfaction scores at mail order pharmacies, helps set the stage for a tipping point in the pharmacy space.”
"The pharmacy space is competitive on multiple fronts. Brick and mortar chain drug stores are not only feeling the heat from mass market and supermarket retailers but from online services well. It’s important for these stores to have the right staffing levels, making ordering prescriptions and filling those prescriptions as easy as possible, and making sure that customers trust their pharmacists. Brick and mortar stores can still play a valuable role. They just need to get a handle on where they are currently struggling," he added.
Following are some of the key findings of the 2025 study:
- Chain drug stores fight headwinds, lose ground to mail order: The average overall satisfaction score for chain drug stores is 643, which is up one point from the 2024 study. Despite the incremental improvement, satisfaction scores for chain drug stores are 54 points lower than the average satisfaction score for mail order pharmacies (697), 63 points lower than mass market merchandisers (706) and 72 points lower than supermarkets (715). Mail order pharmacies show the largest year-over-year gains in satisfaction, rising seven points to 697 in 2025.
- Supermarkets and mass merchandisers deliver on key service metrics: Core areas of the pharmacy customer experience where supermarkets and mass market retailers are substantially outperforming chain drug stores include having sufficient staff, trust in pharmacist, ease of ordering prescriptions and prescriptions being filled quickly.
- The digital tipping point: The leading drivers of mail order pharmacy customer satisfaction scores are digital channels (including website, mobile app and text) and helping customers save time and money. The majority (63%) of mail order pharmacy customers say they are either “very interested” or “somewhat interested” in using a digital pharmacy to fill their prescriptions—a five-percentage-point increase from 2024.
- Digital pharmacies have work to do on consumer awareness: Although interest in digital pharmacies is growing, 33% of pharmacy customers are still not aware of any digital pharmacy brands. Among the 67% of customers who are aware, the majority (58%) are aware of Amazon Pharmacy. Other providers in the space have significantly lower levels of brand recognition.
Study Rankings
Health Mart ranked highest among brick-and-mortar chain drug store pharmacies, with a score of 759. Good Neighbor Pharmacy (732) ranked second.
Sam’s Club ranked highest among brick-and-mortar mass merchandiser pharmacies for a 10th consecutive year, with a score of 778. Costco (765) ranked second.
Wegmans ranked highest among brick-and-mortar supermarket pharmacies with a score of 764. Publix (760) ranked second and H-E-B (756) ranked third.
PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy ranked highest in the mail order segment for the second consecutive year, with a score of 745. Kaiser Permanente Pharmacy (740) ranked second and Amazon Pharmacy (734) ranks third.
The U.S. Pharmacy Study, now in its 17th year, measures customer satisfaction with brick-and-mortar and mail order pharmacies. The 2025 study is based on responses from 14,700 pharmacy customers who filled a prescription within the past 12 months and was fielded from May 2024 through May 2025.
For more information about the U.S. Pharmacy Study, visit https://www.jdpower.com/business/healthcare/pharmacy-study.
