This Grocery Store Has the Best Customer Service, New Data Shows

It's always nice to have helpful and welcoming interactions with friendly faces while at the grocery store, especially after the coronavirus pandemic flipped shopping on its head. This is also true for shopping online, receiving grocery deliveries, and even talking to an employee on the phone. A new report from Newsweek and Statista looks at all of these instances and reveals the top five best customer service supermarkets of the year!

More than 25,000 customers across the country answered around 160,000 evaluations about the quality of communication, professional competence, range of services, customer focus, and accessibility of a grocery store. The scores from these evaluations plus a Likelihood of Recommendation Score determined the store's overall score out of 10.

"We hope our Newsweek-Statista rankings of the Best Customer Service 2021 companies will help make your shopping an easier, more efficient and more pleasant experience—at a time when even a little bit of satisfaction goes a long way," Nancy Cooper, the global editor in chief of Newsweek says.

Below are the top five, starting with the fifth. (Keeping these rankings in mind during your next trip will be helpful, but there's more to keep in mind—here are the 8 Grocery Items That May Soon Be in Short Supply.)

The Fresh Market

Fresh market grocery indiana — Tracy A./ Yelp

This grocery store chain offers online shopping as well as delivery and curbside pickup. Customers' satisfaction with these options, plus the in-store experiences, means an 8.35 rating gets The Fresh Market the #5 spot.

The first store opened in 1982 in Greensboro, N.C., and now there are 159 locations in 22 states if you want to test the positive customer service yourself. Before you go, though, read up on The 46 Best Supermarket Shopping Tips Ever.

Sprouts

Sprouts Farmers Market is #4 on the list of the top customer service supermarkets. There are over 362 stores in 23 states that are so highly regarded Newsweek gives it an 8.54 rating.

Customer service is deeply ingrained in the company's practices. In-store butchers are trained to know exactly the right cuts, seasonings, and more for seafood, meat, and special orders, the company's spokesperson says. (Related: 7 Discontinued Desserts You'll Never See Again.)

Trader Joe's

Next up in the rankings is Trader Joe's with an 8.57, just above Sprouts. The beloved chain ranks high on this list despite not offering online ordering, delivery, or curbside grocery pickup. Perhaps it's the happy, Hawaiian-shirt wearing employees! One says they enjoy working there because of the flexibility. "We are just happy to be at work," they say. "It's a great job with great people and we get treated humanely. Need a break? Go stretch your legs. Hungry? Grab a snack."

There are other reasons grocery shoppers and dietitians enjoy shopping there involving more than the cheery employees and two-buck Chuck. Here are The Healthiest Trader Joe's Snacks RDs Love.

Wegmans

Over 50,000 employees work for the grocery chain, which has 103 stores across the East Coast. New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, and North Carolina shoppers can see why it got an 8.62 out of 10 rating in the Newsweek survey. Other awards Wegmans has won include the #1 spot on the 2019 Harris Poll Reputation Quotient 100 Most-Visible Companies list, as well as the third-place award on Fortune magazine's 2020 list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For.

Publix

The number one supermarket for customer service according to Newsweek is Publix. The supermarket chain got an 8.79 out of 10, a whole 0.17 points higher than Wegmans. Perks of shopping at the grocery store chain with locations in seven states in the southeast include free cookies for kids, grocery (and liquor) delivery, the convenience of renewing your car registration in some stores, and more!

Publix clearly goes above and beyond expectations as the #1 supermarket for customer service. And it's been like that for a while — the grocery chain was the first of its kind to put in air conditioning. For more fun facts, here are 15 Things You Didn't Know About Publix.