Wegmans Dropped More Than Any Grocery Chain in a 2026 Satisfaction Ranking
For many New Yorkers, Wegmans is part of the weekly routine.
So it may sting to hear that a new national survey found shoppers rating the chain lower than they did a year ago.
The new scores show where Wegmans stands against its rivals.
Do you agree with Wegmans’ downgrade?
Where the Scores Come From
Wegmans’ 2026 score comes from the American Customer Satisfaction Index, or ACSI. It scores companies from 0 to 100.
ACSI began at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
Its 2026 retail study is based on 31,293 completed surveys. It included a ranking of supermarkets.
Customers were picked at random and contacted by email during 2025.
The supermarket table lists 19 brands by name, plus a line for all other smaller companies.
Here are the biggest changes in that table, starting with the largest drop.
The 83-to-78 Drop
Wegmans fell 6%, from 83 in the 2025 study to 78 in 2026.
That’s the biggest drop of any brand in the table.
Think of a test grade sliding from an 83 to a 78.
The whole supermarket industry slipped 1%, from 79 to 78.
Wegmans fell much further.
Most brands barely budged.
Of the 19 named brands, 7 were unchanged and 7 more moved by 1%.
Five brands moved more than 1%: Wegmans, Trader Joe’s, Save A Lot, Hy-Vee and Albertsons Companies.
Save A Lot made the biggest gain. It rose 4% to 78, the same score Wegmans has in 2026.
ACSI says Save A Lot expanded its loyalty program and mobile app in 2025.
It also refreshed stores and improved layouts that year.
The Next-Largest Drops
Wegmans’ 6% drop is twice the size of the next-biggest drops in the table.
Hy-Vee slipped 3% to 76.
Albertsons Companies fell 3% to 74.
At the bottom, you’ll find Giant Eagle at 73 after a 1% slide.
Wegmans still scores higher than all three.
How Wegmans’ 6% Works Out in Points
Wegmans’ 6% drop equals five points on the 100-point scale, from 83 to 78.
Hy-Vee lost two points, from 78 to 76. Albertsons Companies also lost two, from 76 to 74.
In points, Wegmans’ drop is more than double either chain’s.
ACSI’s Reasons for the Drop
ACSI’s release gives a short reason for Wegmans’ drop.
Customers are less pleased with the in-store experience at Wegmans.
Examples include store layout, staff courtesy and checkout speed.
There’s one score for Wegmans as a whole company.
So you can’t use it to rank New York stores against one another.
Psst! How much do you know about grocery satisfaction scores? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
Grocery Satisfaction IQ
Answer nine questions on grocery satisfaction scores and the surveys behind them. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
In the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) 2025 supermarket results, which chain suffered the biggest satisfaction slide?
ACSI's 2025 Results
Wegmans rose 1% to 83 in the 2025 results.
That made it one of only four grocers whose scores rose that year.
The release named Wegmans best in the Northeast. Its 83 tied Sam's Club for third in the table.
Trader Joe's and Publix sat one point ahead at 84.
Then came 2026.
The Northeast in 2026
In 2026, Wegmans didn't keep its Northeast lead.
ACSI says Aldi, ShopRite and Walmart share the lead in the Northeast.
Nationally, Aldi scores 81 in the supermarket table, ShopRite 79 and Walmart 75.
Wegmans' 78 sits between ShopRite's 79 and Walmart's 75.
The New Top Three
Look down the January 2026 table, and nine brands score above Wegmans.
They run from Trader Joe's at 86 down to Target and ShopRite at 79.
Wegmans is no longer in the top three.
Trader Joe's rose 2% to 86 and passed Publix, which stayed at 84.
ACSI says Trader Joe's has kept its customer experience steady while it grows across the country.
That kind of growth can strain a store's operations.
H-E-B improved 1% to 83.
A year earlier, it had dropped 4% to 82.
H-E-B still gains from what it has put into pricing, quality and product selection.
That 83 is where Wegmans stood in the 2025 study.
The Five-Way Tie at 78
Wegmans' 78 matches the supermarket industry's overall score of 78. ACSI weights that score by how much money each company brings in.
Wegmans isn't alone at 78.
Four other brands share that score: Ahold Delhaize, Kroger, Meijer and Save A Lot.
Kroger and Ahold Delhaize are unchanged at 78.
Meijer slipped 1% from 79.
Costco, Aldi and Whole Foods each score 81, three points above Wegmans.
The 2025 Six-Percent Slide
Wegmans' 6% drop matches the biggest slide in ACSI's 2025 results.
That year, BJ's Wholesale Club fell 6% and Costco fell 5%.
Neither club fell again.
In the 2026 table, BJ's held at 77 and Costco held at 81.
J.D. Power's Pharmacy Ranking
Wegmans also ranked highest among brick-and-mortar supermarket pharmacies in J.D. Power's 2025 U.S. Pharmacy Study, with a score of 764.
That survey covers pharmacies only.
Sam's Club ranked highest among mass merchandiser pharmacies in the same study, with a score of 778.
So the ranking speaks to your visits at the pharmacy counter, not the rest of the store.
The ranking is based on responses from 14,700 customers who had filled a prescription within the previous 12 months.
It collected those answers from May 2024 through May 2025.
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