San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A.-based H-E-B was named America’s most-trusted retailer of fresh seafood in the fith annual BrandSpark American Grocery Trust Study.
The other top four most-trusted retailers of fresh seafood, according to BrandSpark’s survey of more than 10,000 Americans, include (in order): Publix, Wegmans, Kroger, and Price Choppers.
As ranked in the survey, the most-trusted grocery chains are (in order): Walmart, Kroger, Publix, Safeway, and H-E-B/ShopRite (tied). Aldi, H-E-B, and Walmart were voted most trusted for affordability, while H-E-B, Walmart, and Kroger are strongest for store brand/private-label products.
“As inflation continues to hit grocery categories heavily, conventional stores with strong private-label offerings are going to be popular with consumers because they can meet their needs in terms of price and effective options,” BrandSpark International Vice President of Shopper Insights Philip Scrutton said in a press release.
The companies making the list of most-trusted seafood retailers have each deepened their focus recently on seafood sustainability issues and strengthened their commitments to traceability and transparency in recent years.
Publix has been an advocate of supporting sustainable seafood brands, including Atlantic Sapphire, which raises salmon at a land-based recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) farm in Miami, Florida, U.S.A. It recently donated USD 40,000 (EUR 37,700) to the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership and announced its “enhanced commitment to marine life conservation by collaborating with SFP to analyze and understand current fishing practices within the supply chain,” the retailer said.
Publix and SFP have collaborated since 2009, and Publix has donated USD 480,000 (EUR 453,000) over that time to support fishery and aquaculture improvement projects and other efforts to advance the sustainability of seafood.
“It’s a priority to Publix to source from healthy, well-managed fisheries,” Publix Business Development Director of Seafood Guy Pizzuti said. “We look forward to continuing to work with SFP and across the seafood industry to address unintended catch of endangered, threatened, and protected species.”
H-E-B participated in a major National Seafood Month campaign last September, featuring products with Best Aquaculture Practices certification along with Alaskan seafood products. H-E-B and Publix did not respond to SeafoodSource’s request for comment.
Walmart and Aldi performed very well across the country because they “not only have an extremely strong presence but offer consumers attractive private-label options offering greater value than national brands, which is very attractive to consumers who will continue to see their grocery budgets being stretched,” Scrutton said. "Despite inflation, the trust drivers are remarkably stable, suggesting that retailers should stick to their strategies.”
Even with shoppers' increased focus on prices, quality-driven conventional grocers still rank highly in each region, including Kroger in the South and Midwest, Safeway in the Western U.S., Publix in the South, and ShopRite in the Northeast, Scrutton said.
Photo courtesy of Chris Perello/Shutterstock
