QUINCY
Consumer Reports just ranked 10 of the country’s biggest retail chains, with input from more than 26,000 readers. Surprisingly, there’s not that big of a difference between the top-rated chains, and the ones at the bottom.
Costco stood out as a clear leader, according to the rankings published in the March 2012 edition of the magazine. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart and Kmart came in last. But there wasn’t that huge of a gap between Costco’s winning scores (84 in person, and 88 online) and those received by Kmart (71 for the bricks-and-mortar version) and Wal-Mart (71 in-person, 77 online).
A perfect score of 100 would indicate that all respondents were completely satisfied, a score of 80 indicates that respondents were very satisfied, on average, with the chain, and a score of 60 shows that respondents were fairly well satisfied. In general, the ratings put most of the chains – Kohl’s, JCPenney, Target, Macy’s, Meijer, Sears and Sam’s Club – within four points of that “very satisfied” threshold of 80.