This Grocery Chain Is The #1 Most Popular With Millennials And Gen X In 2026

As in a family where two kids are born some years apart, there are a lot of differences between Millennials and Gen Xers, especially where food is concerned. For example, Millennials are known to be more adventurous with their eating, enjoying a wider variety of cuisines, while Gen Xers are more staid, preferring familiar meals and dishes that can be customized. Despite their contrasts, though, the market research and polling organization YouGov recently found that in 2026, both generations actually favor the same grocery chain: Aldi.

You might be hard-pressed to find anyone that doesn't like Aldi, with its ultra-cheap grocery items and myriad random delights in the Aldi Finds aisles. But it seems these two close-by generations especially appreciate the discount grocer, and it's likely for the same reason: because they can spend less on weekly grocery shopping.

Anxiety over grocery spending has been baked into the Millennial experience, but they are still denizens of the digital age, and rather than deny themselves a trendy food product, they'll figure out a way to make it work within their budget. Enter Aldi, which is known for its dupes of name brand foods. GenX, on the other hand, when they feel the pinch do cut back their spending, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to shop where food simply costs less.

Coming in hot on Aldi's heels, the number two most popular grocery store, according to YouGov, for both Millennials and Gen X is yet another shop in common: 7-Eleven. Surprised? It actually snagged the top spot for Millennials in 2022 and 2025, so it's not a far reach for the convenience store chain to fall to second place for this generation. And in fact, the company positioned itself to appeal particularly to Millennials, starting in 2013, changing up the logo, renovating the interiors, and offering more nutritious snacks, like easy-to-grab-and-go fruit.

If it seems particularly incongruous for Gen X to favor 7-Eleven directly after Aldi, it might be time to discuss how YouGov actually determines its results. Indeed, "popular" doesn't necessarily mean "most-shopped," though it certainly can suggest that, as Aldi claiming the top spot might indicate. 

Instead, for this market research and analytics organization, it means that a percentage of people within a data subset feel positively about a subject. The members of Gen X who were polled, therefore, didn't even have to set foot inside a 7-Eleven within the last year; they just had to report feeling positively about the chain. And that might have something to do with nostalgia, because 7-Eleven played a role in many Gen Xer's childhoods, as a bike-pedaling pit stop mid-adventure in the summertime, for Slurpees or Big Gulps (or a delicious gas station hot dog), or to play arcade games.