Costco on top for customer satisfaction

Supermarket giant Costco is king of happy shoppers among Australia’s discount department stores, after winning research group Roy Morgan’s annual Customer Satisfaction Award.

The bulk retailer, which now has nine stores across Australia, saw off heated competition from Kmart and Target to grab the gong for the first time.

Roy Morgan’s awards, which take in research from around 50,000 consumers throughout the year, saw Costco and Kmart wage a bitter battle throughout 2017, with Costco topping the ratings for five months earlier in the year, and Kmart leading the way for four consecutive months through to November.

Commercial Insights: Subscribe to receive the latest news and updates

Meanwhile, 2016 discount department store satisfaction leader Target slipped out of the top two, despite being the highest-rated store in March, 2017.

Costco wasn’t the only first-time winner at the awards, with JB Hi-Fi collecting the prize as Furniture/Electrical Store of the Year, My Chemist winning Chemist/Pharmacy of the Year, burger bar Grill’d named Quick Service Restaurant of the Year, ALDI Liquor leading the list of liquor stores and Tasplan named as the number one industry superannuation fund for customer satisfaction.

In other categories, Myer won Department Store of the Year for the third time in a row, while Japanese luxury car brand Lexus took home Car Manufacturer of the Year for the fourth consecutive year.

To see the full list of award winners, visit Roy Morgan.