#1 mistake hurting your credit score (4 2 24)

Author

Anthony Hazzard
April 02, 2024

The new grocery store customer satisfaction scores are out! Find out the score for your store later on in this email.

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💵 Clark’s Take on the Nation’s Most Prominent Grocery Stores

The new grocery store customer satisfaction scores came out recently. We have a full story on them at Clark.com.

Costco, H-E-B and Publix tied for first at 85. All but one grocery store saw a year-over-year increase in customer satisfaction.

Clark had some hot takes on many of the stores on the list during the Feb. 22 podcast:

  • On Costco: “They pulled in an unbelievable 85 customer satisfaction score. That is very, very high. To give you a comparison, if we were talking about cable companies or something like that, the scores would be in the 50s or 60s. So Costco is really pleasing people right now in the grocery section of the store.”

  • On H-E-B: “People who shop H-E-B are loyal to it like it’s a member of the family. They are intensely loyal to the store. I’ve been very impressed when I’ve visited H-E-Bs. It matters because regional supermarkets have been going extinct in the United States, getting crushed by big national players. But the very best of them continue to do very well.”

  • On Publix: “Publix is employee-owned. And having ownership, being owned by your employees, is a big motivator. And Publix has continued to defy gravity. Publix has a reputation for being a more expensive place to shop. But people who shop in it love it because it’s clean, the employees have hustle. They’re well-run stores.”

  • On Walmart: “Who is again this year rated by consumers as having the lowest customer satisfaction in the supermarket aisle? The nation’s largest supermarket. Walmart is 20% cheaper, more or less, for groceries than the typical grocery experience. But at the same time not making people happy. That’s obviously something they need to work on.”

  • On Whole Foods: “Normally I buy a lot of our grocery staples at Aldi. I was in sticker shock beyond all sticker shock at what things cost there. And Aldi, to its credit, more and more share of the merchandise they have in the store is organic. So it’s not like you have to go pay all that money at Whole Foods to get organic. It’s available so many different places at so much cheaper prices.”

📊 Stat of the Day

🥡 13%: The “take rate” of food delivery service Doordash. The company kept just 8.5% of total order volume for itself as of Q1 2019. It slowly raised that number 4.5% through Q4 of 2023.

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🎙️ Podcast

Clark has been a fan of home security systems for years. But there are big security risks you need to know before you install cameras in your home – including a warning on one specific brand. Also, Clark often talks about how to hire a financial planner, but what about becoming one yourself?

☎️ Need Money Help?

The Team Clark Consumer Action Center is a free helpline that can help you navigate your money questions. Call 636-492-5275. Visit clark.com/cac for more information.

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