To help American shoppers identify the best places to spend their hard-earned money, Newsweek partnered with Statista to present the list of outstanding retailers in 2025. The independent survey measured customer experiences across 43 retail categories and named 210 U.S. brands to its annual ranking. The study surveyed participants who had made purchases, used services, or sought product information in the past three years. Rankings were determined by likelihood of recommendation as well as five evaluation criteria: products, customer service, atmosphere, accessibility, and shop layout.
In the Natural/Specialty/Ethnic Grocery category, The Fresh Market took the top spot, followed closely by Whole Foods Market at number two and NGVC at number three. Sprouts earned the number four spot with Great Wall Supermarket rounding out the top five.
The list was developed from an independent survey of consumers who had made purchases, used services, or gathered product information within the past three years. More than 140,000 individual evaluations were collected, with each awarded retailer averaging about 100 customer reviews.
To be included, retailers had to operate in at least two U.S. census regions, unless they had more than 600 store locations nationwide.
The survey, conducted between January and February 2025, asked participants to rate retailers across six key measures. Half of the final score came from customers’ Likelihood of Recommendation, while the other half was based on five evaluation criteria:
Depending on the category size, the top three to 10 retailers with the highest scores were recognized as America’s Best Retailers 2025.
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