America's Best Retailers 2022

By Ed Barredo

Over the last few years, a funny thing happened to brick-and-mortar retailing. It didn't die. Not only that, it appears to be thriving as American retailing continues its recovery from the pandemic. According to the National Retail Federation, total retail sales are expected to grow at a healthy clip of between 6 percent and 8 percent this year to $4.86 trillion, and most of those sales will take place not online but in actual stores. According to the NRF, e-commerce sales peaked at 19 percent of total retail sales in April 2020 and are now about 15 percent.

All of which means, the experience of shopping in a store—the ability to touch and try different products in real life, to get sales help and advice, to enjoy the experience of browsing—is something customers still want and value. To find out which U.S. retailers are doing the best job of satisfying their customers, Newsweek and Statista worked together to create the 2022 America's Best Retailers rankings.

We asked shoppers to rank stores in 39 product categories and awarded the 195 best. Shoppers who participated in our survey were asked how likely they were to recommend a retailer to friends and family as well as how they ranked the retailer on factors including price, selection and overall atmosphere. The number of winners in each category varies by the total number of eligible companies. For supermarkets, for instance, where there is a very large number of entrants we've named the top ten; for auto parts, where there are fewer brands eligible, we've named the top three. We hope you find our ranking useful as you make your own choices about where you and your family shop.

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Parent Category

Category

Rank

Retailer

Score

ClothingApparel1Uniqlo90.73ClothingApparel2Hollister89.71ClothingApparel3JoS. A. Bank89.47ClothingApparel4Tilly's89.46ClothingApparel5Guess88.14ClothingApparel6Vineyard Vines87.94ClothingApparel7Levi's87.7ClothingApparel8J. Crew87.55ClothingApparel9rue2187.04ClothingApparel10Brooks Brothers86.83ClothingAthletic Apparel1Under Armour88.22ClothingAthletic Apparel2Nike87.99ClothingAthletic Apparel3Puma87ClothingAthletic Apparel4Adidas86.61ClothingAthletic Apparel5Fleet Feet86.6ClothingBaby/Children's Clothing1OshKosh B'gosh88.56ClothingBaby/Children's Clothing2Carter's88.13ClothingBaby/Children's Clothing3Pottery Barn Kids87.51ClothingBaby/Children's Clothing4The Children's Place87.12ClothingBaby/Children's Clothing5Baby Depot86.47ClothingBridal Fashion1Bella Bridesmaids88.81ClothingBridal Fashion2Camille La Vie87.47ClothingBridal Fashion3Fabulous Frocks85.31ClothingBridal Fashion4David's Bridal83.62ClothingBridal Fashion5Lovely81.78ClothingDepartment Stores1Von Maur92.54ClothingDepartment Stores2Neiman Marcus89.46ClothingDepartment Stores3Saks Fifth Avenue89.35ClothingDepartment Stores4Nordstrom89.24ClothingDepartment Stores5Bloomingdale's88.11ClothingDiscount Clothing1Nordstrom Rack85.27ClothingDiscount Clothing2Marshalls84.73ClothingDiscount Clothing3TJ Maxx84.46ClothingDiscount Clothing4Gabe's84.19ClothingDiscount Clothing5Burlington84.02ClothingFashion Accessories 1Spencer's90.53ClothingFashion Accessories 2Brighton88.4ClothingFashion Accessories 3Hot Topic87.85ClothingFashion Accessories 4Fossil87.64ClothingFashion Accessories 5Charming Charlie87.08ClothingFootwear Retailers (multi-brand)1Boot Barn97.09ClothingFootwear Retailers (multi-brand)2Shoe Sensation89.87ClothingFootwear Retailers (multi-brand)3Journeys86.46ClothingFootwear Retailers (multi-brand)4Shoe Show85.54ClothingFootwear Retailers (multi-brand)5Foot Locker85.16ClothingFootwear Retailers (single-brand)1UGG91.58ClothingFootwear Retailers (single-brand)2Vans90.23ClothingFootwear Retailers (single-brand)3Dr. Martens88.22ClothingFootwear Retailers (single-brand)4New Balance87.75ClothingFootwear Retailers (single-brand)5Ecco87.34

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Licensing Information:
If your company is listed above, you can find out more about the licensing options by visiting the Statista website.

Methodology:

THE 2022 AMERICA'S Best Retailers rankings were identified from the results of an independent survey of more than 10,000 U.S. customers who have shopped at the retailers in-person in the past three years. In total, over 150,000 evaluations were collected. The awarded retailers each received on average 100 evaluations from customers. The survey was conducted on retailers in 39 categories, providing results for a broad-spectrum of customer experiences in traditional retail.

For each category, only retailers present in at least two census regions have been included in the list (with exceptions for retailers with 600 or more locations).

The survey took an average of 9-11 minutes to complete, and the field period ran from February to March 2022. The survey was conducted using online access panels set up by a survey company.

Anyone could register and agree to take part in the surveys. Each participant gave an evaluation of several retailers:
The final assessment and rankings are based on the likelihood of survey participants recommending the retailer to friends and family (50% of the final score) and five evaluation criteria (also 50% of the final score).

The evaluation criteria were weighted according to the importance survey participants put on them.

The five evaluation criteria are:
1. Products: measures the quality, price, range and variety of products offered in-store (weighted 19%).
2. Customer Service: measures the friendliness, helpfulness and availability of employees in-store (weighted 19%).
3. Atmosphere: measures the general atmosphere, lighting/illumination, music, cleanliness of stores (weighted 19%).
4. Accessibility: measures the parking availability, store hours, convenience of store location (weighted 19%).
5. Shop Layout: measures the order that products are displayed, aisle size, product-presentation, mannequins, store size (weighted 18%).

The top 3-10 retailers based on category size receiving the highest scores in each category were awarded as America's Best Retailers 2022.

Download the full methodology here.