Market Basket 'Stole The Number 3 Position From Trader Joe's' In New Grocery Retailer Rankings

TEWKSBURY (CBS) -- Massachusetts-based Market Basket is moving up in a new ranking of America's best grocery retailers.

The report from customer data science company dunnhumby, released this month, has the Demoulas-owned chain "leap frogging three retailers" to land at No. 3 in its ranking.

"Market Basket stole the number three position from Trader Joe's, with its continued excellence on Price and Operations, while simultaneously making its biggest Covid-era improvements in Speed," the report states. "Market Basket is also like Trader Joe's in that they don't have a Digital offering. They have built value propositions based on what their specific Customers want."

Amazon is at the top of the rankings, benefiting from a demand of online grocery shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic. Texas-based H-E-B comes in second, and Wegmans is fourth.

Trader Joe's fell to 7th, while Westboro-based BJ's Wholesale Club has "moved steadily" up to land at 14th, the report says.

To come up with the rankings, analysts studied customer "preference drivers" like price, quality, operations and digital offerings, and look at how that drives an "emotional connection" for shoppers and impacts a retailer's financial performance.

The report lays out how grocery retailers are undergoing a "Great Reinvention" as they try to meet customer demands in a digital, COVID-affected world and contend with supply chain issues.

"The pandemic has massively accelerated changes in how customers buy their groceries, and their behaviors are continuing to evolve,"dunnhumby North America president Grant Steadman said in a statement. "Retailers who delivered on their customers evolving needs in-store and online performed best. This was mostly the larger players. . .but a number of mid-size grocers gained momentum by understanding their customers better and differentiating their offering accordingly."

Click here to read more and download the full report.