Fame Is the Name of the Grocery Game

Even among the top names in the grocery channel, a few convenience-store chains managed to join the ranks of the most popular grocery store brands, two of them in the top 10, according to the most recent YouGovAmerica report reflecting consumer opinions from fourth-quarter 2022.

The report gauges fame—whether the survey participant has heard of a brand—and popularity—whether the participant likes, dislikes or feels neutral about the brand.

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Irving, Texas-based 7-Eleven Inc. took the No. 4 spot:

• Fame (have heard of): 97%
• Popularity (liked by): 60%
• Disliked by: 8%
• Neutral: 29%

7-Eleven is No. 1 on CSP’s 2022 Top 202 ranking of the largest U.S. c-store chains by number of company-owned retail outlets.It operates, franchises or licenses more than 72,800 convenience stores in 17 countries and regions, including about 13,000 in the United States, including about 9,500 under the 7-Eleven banner, around 3,800 under the Speedway banner and about 500 under the Stripes flag, as well as the Laredo Taco Company and Raise the Roost Chicken and Biscuits brands.

Laval, Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.’s Circle K took the No. 6 spot:

• Fame (have heard of): 88%
• Popularity (liked by): 51%
• Disliked by: 7%
• Neutral: 31%

Alimentation Couche-Tard is No. 2 on CSP’s 2022 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count.Couche-Tard’s 24-country network of approximately 14,300 c-stores includes more than 7,100 in the United States, primarily under the Circle K and Holiday Stationstores banners.

Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey’s General Stores took the No. 23 spot:

• Fame (have heard of): 50%
• Popularity (liked by): 32%
• Disliked by: 3%
• Neutral: 15%

Casey’s General Stores is No. 3 on CSP’s 2022 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.Casey’s operates more than 2,400 convenience stores in 16 states.

The YouGovAmerica survey ranked 46 brands (click here to view the full list). The top 10 included:

1. Aldi (Fame: 91%; Popularity: 65%
2. Trader Joe's (95%; 63%)
3. Kroger (95%; 61%)
4. 7-Eleven (97%; 60%)
5. Whole Foods Market (96%; 57%)
6. Circle K (88%; 51%)
7. Safeway (86%; 49%)
8. Winn-Dixie (81%; 44%)
9. Albertsons (77%; 44%)
10. Publix (77%; 44%)

London-based international research data and analytics group YouGov’s rankings show nationally representative popularity percentage scores. It calculates the positive popularity score by taking the proportion of people who view something positively and showing it as a percentage of all of the people who have given any opinion about that thing, including “have heard of.” It uses the same calculation for the neutral, negative and have heard of percentage scores. The sample mirrors U.S. demographics, and YouGov weighs the data to be nationally representative. The key demographic variables it targets and weights are gender, race, age and education. YouGov collects data each day, updated every Monday. The data it collects accumulates, and every quarter, it updates the website with the data collected over the past 90 days.