Trader Joe’s named most innovative for supermarkets

Trader Joe’s ranks first in the supermarkets category, and fourth overall, in The American Innovation Index (Aii) from Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business and market research firm Rockbridge Associates, which scores and ranks the innovativeness of U.S. companies based on their customers’ experiences.

The Aii covers more than 150 companies from more than 20 industries based on experiences captured from 40,000 customer touchpoints. It ranks companies on two types of innovation — customer-focused innovation and social innovation. 

“Customer-focused innovation is the degree to which a company is perceived as creative, innovative, and a game-changer when providing value to customers,” according to the Aii. “Social innovation is the degree to which a company is a force for positive change for society and the environment.”

Here are the top 10 innovative grocery retailers when filtered by the “supermarkets” category: 

Trader Joe's (81.6 American Innovation Index Score; 72.9 Social Innovation Index Score)

Whole Foods Market (75.6; 69.4)

Aldi (73.6; 65.8)

Publix Super Markets (70.9; 63.5)

Kroger (64.8; 60.4)

CVS (64.6; 62.6)

Walgreens (64.4; 61.3)

Albertsons (62.9; 59.3)

Safeway (60.7; 57.9)

Ahold (includes Food Lion, Giant, Martins, Stop & Shop) (58.8; 59.5)

Also making the Index was Amazon coming at No. 8 overall, and Costco at No. 10 overall — both in the general merchandise retailers/etailers category. 

For 2022, 11 retailers made the Aii “Supermarket and Drug Stores” sector benchmark, with Trader Joe’s (79.1), Whole Foods Market (76.7), Publix Super Markets (75.3), Aldi (74.7), and CVS (67.8) posting top-five scores. 

Also making the 2022 Aii food and drug sector index were Kroger at No. 6 (score of 66.8), Albertsons at No. 7 (66), Walgreens at No. 8 (65.1), Safeway at No. 9 (61.2), Rite Aid at No. 10 (61.1), and Ahold Delhaize USA at No. 11 (59.6). Aside from Trader Joe’s, the highest overall Aii finisher was Whole Foods at No. 31.