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1. Costco
Costco came out on top, with excellent quality, good value and a easy-to-navigate layout. Even better, the website scored well on almost every facet of customer service and quality. Its private label, Kirkland, tends to score well in Consumer Reports tests.
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2. Kohl's
Kohl's scores well on value and layout in the store. For the website, the only sub-par facet is the selection. Otherwise, Kohl's has a pretty good online shopping experience. And with a growing roster of discounted private-labels like Simply Vera Vera Wang and Jennifer Lopez, you get a bit of style for your money, too.
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3. JCPenney
JCPenney scores high on in-store quality, and so-so on all other measures, though some stores boast a Sephora boutique.The website does even better, with similar quality, good value and easy checkout. You might see the in-store experience improve, since JCPenney just brought on the former head of Apple Stores.
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4. Target
With blockbuster labels like Missoni for Target, Target has established itself as a fashionable and pleasant shopping experience. However, the in-store experience only shines in store layout. Otherwise Target does just so-so. Online, the quality, selection, value and checkout process are ranked well.
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5. Macy's
The name behind the famous Thanksgiving Day parade came in at the middle of the pack, with a good website but not-so-good store experience. In fact, the only place in which Macy's website does just OK is in service. Otherwise it shines. The in-store quality and layout are good. No surprise, since Macy prides itself on tailoring merchandise to local tastes.
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6. Meijer
This Midwestern store is credited with being the first one to have a one-stop shopping center, long before Walmart. It does well on store layout, but terribly for the checkout experience. Consumer Reports didn't have enough data to attest to the quality of the online experience.
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7. Sears
Sears has been hurting for a while now, and after a lackluster holiday season said it would close up to 120 stores. In-store, Sears' strengths include quality and the store layout. Online, the quality shines as well as the selection, but service is lacking.
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8. Sam's Club
Owned by Walmart, Sam's Club does terribly in selection and checkout, and not much better in service. But the quality is good, and the layout of the store navigable. Online, the quality is still good, as is the value and checkout, but service and selection suffer.
Photo Credit: Walmart Stores/Flickr
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9. Kmart
Kmart has long suffered since Walmart and Target have squeezed it from both sides. It shows in the in-store experience, with no aspect of shopping doing well. The best we can say is that the layout is ... OK. Consumer Reports didn't have enough data to attest to the quality of the online experience.
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10. Walmart
Despite Walmart's big PR push, it still comes in dead last. (And this isn't even measuring how it treats its employees.) The checkout experience and service are terrible, and the quality and selection aren't much better. Online, the value and checkout experience are good, but everything else is just OK. Oh, and Walmart was the only store to do really poorly on the quality of clothing.
Photo Credit: Walmart Stores/Flickr
