SYDNEY — Conjointly’s Brand Tracker announced that it has expanded to include U.S. supermarket chains, providing new insight into brand performance within this highly competitive category. Their findings show that Walmart is dominating the U.S. supermarket landscape, leading across all key brand metrics: 86% aided awareness, 69% consideration, 70% past six-month purchase, and 31% preferred brand. Target (72% awareness) and ALDI (70%) follow, underscoring the maturity and intensity of competition, with several brands surpassing 60% awareness.
ALDI and Costco stand out just behind Walmart, ranking second for consideration (41% and 34%), past six-month purchase (33% and 28%), and preferred brand among non-Walmart chains (8% each). This performance highlights their strong ability to translate awareness into customer loyalty. Kroger follows as the next most-preferred chain at 7%, despite comparatively 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 U.S. supermarket chain data at https://conjointly.com/blog/supermarket-chains-us/
