Yesterday, May 20, 2025, the 2025 Axios Harris Poll — an annual survey that gauges the reputation of some of the most recognizable brands in the U.S. — found that, of the 100 different brands included in the poll, Trader Joe’s was the most reputable of all. Among household names of the likes of Patagonia, which was ranked second, Microsoft, Toyota, and Costco, the more than 16,000 Americans who participated in the survey ranked Trader Joe’s based on categories such as brand trust, ethics, culture, trajectory, and products and services.
The results mark the third year since the Axios Harris Poll began in 2019 that TJ’s has been ranked within the top five of the most reputable brands in the U.S. Ranked first place in 2025 and 2022, with a significant drop from its fourth place ranking in 2023 to 13th in 2024, this year’s Axios Harris Poll will forever be marked as Trader Joe’s comeback year in the eyes of Americans — even if you yourself may not have felt the shift in judgement. The drastic change in opinion could be related to the fact that, in 2024, Trader Joe’s experienced multiple product recalls linking everything from its nuts to its organic basil to its green onions to salmonella outbreaks.
That same year, other products, such as its Steamed Chicken Soup Dumplings (which we think you should skip anyway), were found to contain plastic, while its carrots and frozen waffles were linked to potential E. coli and listeria contamination, respectively. That trend can be reflected in the brand’s trust ranking, which increased by 3.7 points between 2024 and 2025. Variation between other categories, such as citizenship, culture, and character, also suggest changes in TJ’s brand perception in the last year.
What other brands took top spots?
Along with Trader Joe’s, two other highly regarded food brands ranked highly for reputability in the 2025 Axios Harris Poll: Costco and Arizona Beverage Company. Throughout the years, Costco has often ranked closely to TJ’s, even following a similar trend in the last year ranking 11th in 2024 and fifth in 2025. Since 2019, Costco’s highest ranking came in the year 2023, when it ranked second only to Patagonia, while its lowest was 26th place in 2022 — the same year Trader Joe’s came in first place. Costco’s rise in popularity follows news of it overcoming Whole Foods in organic food sales and replacing Trader Joe’s as America’s favorite grocery store.
Only, the American Customer Satisfaction Index — the same annual survey that ranked the wholesale grocer first in the supermarket category a year prior — now has Costco ranked six standings behind Trader Joe’s for an overall ninth place. For Arizona Beverage Company, the 2025 Axios Harris Poll represents the brand’s first year of recognition — and in the top 10, no less. The poll works by first conducting a round of surveys to determine which companies are top of mind for Americans, asking respondents which two companies stand out as having the best reputation, and which two have the worst.
Those responses are then tallied to create a total number of nominations for each company, with the top 100 being represented in the second round of the survey in which they’re rated based on categories that determine each individual brand’s reputation. Other food brands that have ranked highly since the Axios Harris Poll began in 2019 include Chick-fil-A, HEB Grocery, The Hershey Company, Wegmans, Publix, General Mills, and The Kroger Company.
