Although it comes as little surprise to many Floridians, Publix has been named once again as one of America’s best retailers.
In its annual survey, the Reputation Institute ranked the Lakeland-based grocer second on the list of America’s 50 most reputable retailers, just behind online giant Amazon.
Overall, supermarket chains moved up in the ranking this year, with Whole Foods jumping five spots to third place.
“The overall reputation of America’s top retail companies has steadily improved over the last three years, signaling that these companies are being proactive and making a conscious decision to manage their reputations,” says Reputation Institute chief research officer Brad Hecht.
America’s top 10 companies in the retail industry in 2015 (in order) are:
- Amazon.com
- Publix Super Markets Inc.
- Whole Foods
- Tiffany & Co.
- Costco Wholesale
- Lowe’s Home Improvement
- Home Depot
- Ace Hardware
- Cabela’s
- Ahold
The list comes from data collected for the 2015 U.S. RepTrak 100 study, which includes firms engaged in the selling of finished products to end user consumers as well as apparel stores, food stores, department stores, warehouse retailers, convenience retailers, specialty retailers, resale stores, and online stores.
Four companies were new to the top 10 this year: Tiffany & Co., Ace Hardware, outdoor recreation merchandiser Cabela’s and Ahold, a Dutch international retailer.
Reputation Institute, based in New York City, conducted more than 50,000 interviews, and identified 15 groups with over 7,000 companies in more than 25 industries. The firm consults on reputation issues for a variety of business sectors.
The full list of America’s 50 most reputable retail companies is available at http://www.reputationinstitute.com/US-Retail-RepTrak.
