How We Rated the Stores
Last updated November 2025
To evaluate prices, we conducted a market basket price survey. It consisted of 150 items and included national-brand nonperishables and fresh produce, meat, and dairy products. Our ratings tables show how each store’s prices compared to the average prices for national-brand and non-brand (fresh meat, produce, and dairy) items at all the stores we surveyed.
Our ratings tables report price comparison scores, which indicate how the chains and stores stack up. A score of $90 indicates prices were about 10 percent cheaper than the all-store average for the same products; a score of $110 indicates prices were about 10 percent more expensive than average.
Since the market basket includes fresh meat and produce, store-to-store quality differences may account for some price differences. Also, savings might vary depending on such factors as the extent to which shoppers take advantage of specials and coupons.
For our survey, we used available sale prices and assumed shoppers would use club cards at all stores that offered them. We did not, however, take into account savings from “digital-only” discounts or coupons. Most consumers don’t yet use these programs, which require shoppers to log into their accounts and select items to get lower on-sale prices, or scan barcodes while shopping in stores. Plus, they can be problematic for older shoppers or those who can’t afford or use smartphones.
To compare prices at Trader Joe’s, we used a modified survey. Because our market basket largely consists of national-brand products, and because Trader Joe’s offers mainly its own brands, we couldn’t compare its prices using our standard price survey. Instead, we developed a special survey that included the same fresh produce, meats, and dairy items as in our standard survey, but for conventional grocery stores we substituted their cheapest available comparable store brands. (When comparing prices, we used per-unit pricing—for example, price per ounce.)
We also used a modified survey to compare prices between conventional supermarkets and Costco. Because Costco stocked so few items in the sizes of our basic market basket, we looked for items of any size, so long as they were the same brands. We then used unit prices (for example, price per pound) to calculate Costco’s prices for amounts specified in the market basket. After this adjustment, we compared the prices of items at Costco with prices for the same brands at several other stores. Bear in mind that this is not an “apples-to-apples” comparison; the sizes of the items priced at Costco were usually larger than the sizes of the items priced at the other stores, so Costco enjoys an advantage in such a comparison.
Our price survey was conducted from August 11 to 15, 2025.
Our ratings tables report how Consumers’ Checkbook’s members and previous subscribers rated stores’ products and service. The survey asked respondents to rate supermarkets “inferior,” “adequate,” or “superior” on various aspects of quality, from “quality of fresh produce” to “convenience of store layout” to “overall quality.” Our ratings tables report for chains and stores that received at least 10 ratings the percentage of customers who rated it “superior” on each question.