NEW YORK — Smith’s, Sprouts, Mariano’s, Publix and ShopRite garnered the top five spots on Newsweek’s annual list of best grocery store loyalty programs.

Smith’s, a Kroger banner, won for its Smith’s Rewards World Elite Mastercard. 

Sprouts was honored for its app, Mariano’s for its Rewards World Mastercard, Publix for its Club Publix and ShopRite for its Price Plus Club.  

The 2022 ranking of America's Best Loyalty Programs was compiled based on the results of an independent survey of more than 4,000 U.S. customers who are members of loyalty programs of retailers or service providers in the U.S Customers were given the opportunity to evaluate various loyalty programs: around 20,000 evaluations were collected. The survey period ran from October to November 2021.
 
The survey was conducted on retailers and service providers from 36 categories, providing results for a broad spectrum of loyalty programs in traditional retail, online retail, and service segments. The awarded loyalty programs each received an above average overall score.
 
The final assessment and rankings were based on six criteria:
 
1. Ease & enjoyment: Measures the value of the perks of being in the rewards program.(weighted 5 percent)
 
2. Benefit: Measures whether the rewards are – in the customer's perception – worth being part of the program. (weighted 20 percent)
 
3. Overall satisfaction: Measures whether personal expectations were fulfilled, and whether the customer is satisfied with the experience of the loyalty program overall. (weighted 25 percent)
 
4. Customer support: Measures the level of assistance provided to customers when signing up for the program or having trouble redeeming benefits. (weighted 10 percent)
 
5. Trust: measures the trust in the loyalty program around how they use the personal data provided through the program. (weighted 10 percent)
 
6. Recommendation: Measuresthe likelihood of recommending the program to friends and family.(weighted 30 percent)