Publix No. 4 on list of most trustworthy grocers in the US

Publix might be the No.1 grocery store in the hearts of many Floridians but it’s No. 4 nationally when it comes to trustworthiness — down two spots from last year and three from the previous year.

That’s according to a Newsweek magazine survey which placed the Lakeland grocer behind Whole Foods, The Kroger Co. and an Oklahoma-based gas and convenience store chain named QuickTrip.

Publix, and the others, were ranked in the grocery and convenience story category in the magazine’s fifth annual Most Trustworthy Companies in America survey.

The ranking is a fall of sorts for the grocer, which was ranked No. 2 in the survey in 2025 and No. 1 in 2024.

The magazine didn’t give a reason for the drop and Publix did not respond to a request for comment on the survey.

The survey, according to Newsweek.com, was conducted along with the market research firm Statista and looked at the 700 most trustworthy companies across 23 industries.

The survey focused on U.S. public and private companies with more than $500 million in annual revenue. To compile the list, researchers spoke with 25,000 people asking them to rate companies they are familiar with on “three touchpoints of trust” customer, investor and employee.

In all, 101,000 evaluations were submitted.

Newsweek and Statista then looked at what said about the companies “to determine whether the public sentiment toward a company was positive, neutral or negative. In total, over 307,000 mentions were gathered.”

Companies involved in recent scandals or lawsuits that touched on the issue of trust were excluded.

Along with Whole Foods at No. 1 and Publix at No. 4, several other grocery and convenience store chains with a presence in the region made the list.

Those include, The Fresh Market at No. 12; WaWa at No. 13; Sprouts Farmers Market at No. 18; Save A Lot at No. 19; RaceTrac at No. 20; and The Winn-Dixie Co. at No. 28.

Interestingly, Aldi, one of the fastest growing grocery chains in the state — and country — did not make the list. Walmart, which has a significant grocery footprint, ranked No. 18 in the retail category.

Publix, according to its website, has 1,433 stores in eight states. Of those, 890 are in Florida. It had $62.7 billion in retail sales last year and employs more than 260,000 people.