America’s Most Hated Grocery Store Has 26 Locations in Idaho

When it comes to grocery stores, Idaho is in a really unique position. If you scroll through Stacker’s list of the biggest retailers in America, 14 of them are stores where you could buy enough food to feed your family for the week. 

Idaho’s one of two states that is home to two grocery brands’ headquarters.  Pennsylvania is home to Royal Ahold Delhaize USA, which runs Stop & Shop, Hannaford and Food Lion stores and Giant Eagle. One’s based in Carlisle, while the other is three hours away in O’Hara Township. Idaho’s home to Winco and Albertsons, which (for now) are both based in Boise. 

READ MORE: One of America's Cheapest Grocery Stores is Based in Boise

We say for now because Albertsons, despite the legal hurdles, is still very much trying to merge with Fred Meyer’s parent company, Kroger. 

America’s Most Hated Grocery Store Revealed

Earlier this year, the American Customer Satisfaction Index shared their list of how Americans felt about the country’s biggest grocery brands. Survey respondents were asked to give their opinions on everything from convenience of store hours, cleanliness of the store and ease of grocery pick-up to the availability of brand names, helpfulness of staff and how easy a store’s mobile app was to use. Any score below 79 was considered “below average.” 

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Neither Albertsons, nor Kroger did very well. Albertsons tied at #14 with a score of 78. Kroger tied at #16 with a score of 77. 

But there were 20 stores on the list, which means Albertsons and Kroger weren’t the worst stores in America, so which store was? The same one that’s ranked dead last 19 consecutive years in the survey that’s been conducted for three decades. 

With 26 stores in Idaho, Walmart was at the bottom of the pile again. Coupons in the News, which analyzed the rankings, explains that even though they were last, they’re doing a little better each year: 

Walmart has shown some improvement, as its rating is up four points from last year, for its strongest showing since 2020. But Walmart was dead last back then, too. With every other retailer rising in the rankings, even an improved Walmart apparently isn’t good enough.