J.D. Power: Sam’s Club pharmacy ranks highest in customer satisfaction
As chain drug stores trim their store fleets, more customers are turning to mail order pharmacies, discounters and supermarkets — and finding an improved customer experience along the way.
Overall satisfaction with mail order pharmacies is rising steadily, with a seven-point increase (on a 1,000-point scale) in overall customer satisfaction this year, according J.D. Power's 2025 U.S. Pharmacy Study. Meanwhile, the overall satisfaction scores of chain drug stores have slide far below those of other brick-and-mortar pharmacies, such as those found in discounters and supermarkets, causing many drug store customers to consider switching providers.
In terms of satisfaction, Health Mart ranks highest among brick-and-mortar chain drug store pharmacies, with a score of 759. Good Neighbor Pharmacy (732) ranks second.
In other study rankings:
- Sam’s Club ranks highest among brick-and-mortar mass merchandiser pharmacies for a 10th consecutive year, with a score of 778. Costco (765) ranks second.
- Wegmans ranks highest among brick-and-mortar supermarket pharmacies with a score of 764. Publix (760) ranks second and H-E-B (756) ranks third.
- PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy ranks highest in the mail order segment for the second consecutive year, with a score of 745. Kaiser Permanente Pharmacy (740) ranks second and Amazon Pharmacy (734) ranks third.
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Chain drug stores lose ground
The average overall satisfaction score for chain drug stores is 643, which is up one point from the 2024 study. Despite the incremental improvement, satisfaction scores for chain drug stores are 54 points lower than the average satisfaction score for mail order pharmacies (697), 63 points lower than mass market merchandisers (706) and 72 points lower than supermarkets (715).
Mail order pharmacies show the largest year-over-year gains in satisfaction, rising seven points to 697 in 2025.
The leading drivers of mail order pharmacy customer satisfaction scores are digital channels (including website, mobile app and text) and helping customers save time and money. The majority (63%) of mail order pharmacy customers say they are either “very interested” or “somewhat interested” in using a digital pharmacy to fill their prescriptions — a five-percentage-point increase from 2024.
Although interest in digital pharmacies is growing, 33% of pharmacy customers are still not aware of any digital pharmacy brands. Among the 67% of customers who are aware, the majority (58%) are aware of Amazon Pharmacy. Other providers in the space have significantly lower levels of brand recognition.
In other findings, core areas of the pharmacy customer experience where supermarkets and mass market retailers are substantially outperforming chain drug stores include having sufficient staff, trust in pharmacist, ease of ordering prescriptions and prescriptions being filled quickly.
“Chain drug store customers are significantly more likely than supermarket or mass market merchandiser pharmacy customers to say they ‘definitely will’ or ‘probably will’ switch pharmacies in the next 12 months,” said Christopher Lis, managing director of global healthcare intelligence at J.D. Power. “That openness to switching, combined with steadily increasing satisfaction scores at mail order pharmacies, helps set the stage for a tipping point in the pharmacy space.”
The U.S. Pharmacy Study, now in its 17th year, measures customer satisfaction with brick-and-mortar and mail order pharmacies. The 2025 study is based on responses from 14,700 pharmacy customers who filled a prescription within the past 12 months and was fielded from May 2024 through May 2025.
