Walmart Is America’s Worst Retailer

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Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is America’s largest retailer, but it is also its worst one according to two widely regarded surveys.

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Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is not only America’s largest retailer but also its worst according to two widely regarded surveys. Walmart performed poorly on rankings of both customer satisfaction and company reputation. Some investors get rich while others struggle because they never learned there are two completely different strategies to building wealth. Don’t make the same mistake, learn about both here.

The ACSI Retail and Consumer Shipping Study 2025 is put out by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. That is one of the most widely regarded research firms in the country. Its study is based on 41,850 completed surveys. Customers were chosen at random and contacted via email between January and December 2024. Companies were rated on a scale from 0 to 100.

In the Supermarket category, Walmart finished next to last with a score of 75. The top company was Publix. Its score was 84, and the average across the industry was 79.

Among Online retailers, in the Online Multimarket segment, Walmart ranked last with a score of 75. Amazon ranked first at 83.

Among General Merchandise retailers, in the Hypermarket segment, Walmart ranked last with a score of 73. Target ranked first with a score of 80.

The ACSI Retail and Consumer Shipping Study 2025 examined several categories. These included apps, store hours, selection of merchandise, courtesy, store layout, location, and ease of pickup.

And in the Other PollSDI Productions / Getty Images

The 2025 Axios Harris Poll 100 ranks companies by reputation on a scale of 0 to 100. Walmart ranked 81st among 100 companies, with a score of 68.3, dropping two places from last year. Walmart ranked behind retailers Target (68th place), Macy’s (67th), Dollar Tree (78th), Walgreens (65th), CVS (57th), Kroger (35th), and Costco (fifth place).

The Axios study’s methodology included a survey of 6,231 Americans from a nationally representative online sample from January 22 to February 12. It aimed to understand the public's top-of-mind awareness of companies that either excel or falter in society. Then a list of the 100 most-visible brands in America was deployed in a second online survey to analyze those companies further. The second survey of 16,585 Americans was from a nationally representative sample run from March 6 to 22. Finally, the study asked a third and final set of respondents in separate online surveys about contextual questions on topics related to brands and politics.

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