The Most Trusted Grocery Store in America in 2026, Kicking Florida-Born Publix Out of #1

More than 35,000 Americans weighed in on which grocery store they trust most for 2026.

One retailer walked away with more trust awards than any other grocery chain in the country. To the surprise of many Floridians, it wasn’t Publix again.

Here’s who won America’s most trusted grocery store title in 2026, and how Publix fared.

How the 2026 Ranking Works

Newsweek and the research firm BrandSpark International run the grocery trust study behind this ranking, called the Most Trusted Awards.

Researchers asked more than 35,215 American shoppers which brands they trust most, across hundreds of categories that include supermarkets, discount grocers, and superstores.

The survey has run every year since 2013, so the 2026 results build on more than a decade of the same trust questions.

Grocery chains compete both nationally and by region, since a chain like Publix barely operates outside the South.

That regional split is exactly how Publix keeps landing on the list at all, even though it runs far fewer states than a nationwide chain like Walmart.

BrandSpark tracks 359 separate product and service categories in total, and grocery stores are just one slice of that whole study, according to Inc.

Region matters here.

Walmart Wins the Trust Crown

Walmart took home twelve trust wins across every regional category in the 2026 BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards, more than any other grocery chain earned.

That includes its headline win, the overall national title for Grocery Store for Customer Service.

Walmart also topped the list for store-brand and private-label products, quick and easy shopping, sales and promotions, and grocery pickup and delivery, sweeping every one of those categories nationally rather than region by region.

The superstore category tells the same story. Walmart won Superstore/Hypermarket in the Midwest, Northeast, South, and West all at once, a clean sweep of every region BrandSpark tracks.

Philip Scrutton, BrandSpark’s vice president of shopper insights, describes trust as the tiebreaker shoppers reach for when two similar options sit side by side.

Publix Loses Its Top Title

Publix built its whole reputation on customer service, the kind of thing that gets a cart pushed out to the car in the rain without anyone asking.

Walmart took the Grocery Store for Customer Service crown from Publix in the 2026 rankings, a title Reader’s Digest notes Publix had long been known for holding.

Publix has spent decades building that goodwill, with “Where Shopping Is a Pleasure” printed across storefronts and trucks all over the state.

That’s a big shift.

Publix didn’t drop out of the study. It just lost the exact category its name was built on.

South’s Supermarket Crown Changes Hands

Walmart pushed into Publix’s own territory for 2026, taking the South region’s Conventional Supermarket title outright.

That category covers every conventional supermarket across the South, the exact region every Florida Publix sits in, alongside Georgia, Alabama, and the rest of BrandSpark’s Southern footprint.

Kroger and Publix had shared strong footing there before, and BrandSpark’s 2026 results show Walmart overtaking both of them in that same category.

It’s Florida’s home turf, technically.

Aldi Sweeps the Midwest and Northeast

Aldi finished second overall in the 2026 trust rankings, with eight category wins across three of BrandSpark’s four regions.

Discount Supermarket went to Aldi in the Midwest, the Northeast, and the South.

Small Format Grocery Store followed the same pattern, handing Aldi six of its eight wins from those two categories alone.

Grocery Store for Low Prices and Affordability rounded out the total, but only in the Midwest and the Northeast.

Walmart claimed that same category in the South and the West, the two regions where Aldi came up short.

The West shut Aldi out entirely.

Trader Joe’s held Small Format Grocery Store there, and Grocery Outlet tied Walmart for the region’s Discount Supermarket win.

Publix Wins a Different Survey

Publix tells a different story in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a separate report that surveyed roughly 31,000 shoppers throughout 2025.

The index rates each chain from zero to 100 using benchmarks like checkout speed, the quality of meat and produce, and how reliable a store's mobile app is.

Trader Joe's topped that index at 86, and Publix followed close behind at 84, ahead of every other grocery chain the survey tracks.

That put Publix ahead of H-E-B, Sam's Club, and a three-way tie between Aldi, Costco, and Whole Foods, all of which landed at 81 or below.

Publix beat nearly every competitor on that particular scoreboard.

The ACSI has tracked American shoppers' opinions since 1994, covering more than 400 brands across 40 industries, and grocery satisfaction overall slipped for 2025.