Patients increasingly prefer digital, supermarket pharmacies over chain drug stores

Chain drug stores like CVS and Walgreens no longer rank No. 1 on the pharmacy popularity list.

Patients increasingly prefer mail-order, digital, and supermarket pharmacies, according to consumer insights advisory firm JD Power’s 2025 US Pharmacy Study released July 29.

The study, conducted from May 2024 to May 2025, included responses from 14,700 pharmacy customers who had filled a prescription within the last 12 months.

The increasing satisfaction with alternatives to chain drug stores “helps set the stage for a tipping point in the pharmacy space,” Christopher Lis, managing director of JD Power’s global healthcare practice, said in a statement.

Favored pharmacies. According to the study, supermarkets like New York-based Wegmans and Florida-based Publix and mass market retailers like Costco and Sam’s Club are outperforming chain drugstores when it comes to staffing levels, patients’ trust in their pharmacist, and how quickly they fill prescriptions.

Mail-order pharmacies, on the other hand, are growing in popularity, thanks to digital features like apps, websites, and texts—and they save patients time and money, according to the survey.

But despite digital pharmacies becoming more popular, most companies have pretty low brand recognition, JD Power found. The results show only 67% of pharmacy customers knew about digital pharmacy brands, and while 58% of that pool said they were “aware of” Amazon Pharmacy, other brands were not recognized widely.

Of the different types of pharmacies:

• Health Mart ranked No. 1 in satisfaction scores for brick-and-mortar chain drug store pharmacies, with Good Neighbor Pharmacy coming in second.
• Sam’s Club came in first place for mass merchandiser pharmacies, and Costco came in second.
• Wegmans took first place for supermarket pharmacies, with Publix ranking second.
• PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy took first for mail-order/digital pharmacy, with Kaiser Permanente Pharmacy taking second.