alt Hacker NewsPublix is also on that first list, of happy and overstaffed and privately owned. I do most of my shopping there and it's much more pleasurable than Kroger or Walmart.
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While the employees might be happy at Publix, they are in, in my experience, poorly trained. Also, the rest of the shopping experience is utter crap compared to H-E-B. Publix of 2026 is a far cry from Publix of ~2000. This is especially evident in their Produce and Meat departments.
I had to argue with a Meat Department Manager at a Publix in Central Florida who told me that "Top Round Roast" did not exist. I told him I could walk 50 feet to the Deli and get some slices of the Boar's Head Top Round Roast Beef if he'd like to try this non-existent cut. He did not have an answer and I had to show him images of the cut I wanted and he said they don't sell that cut.
This was great given it was a 20-mile round trip to that store for me...
Having spent most of my life in the south, I thought Publix was a great grocery store. But then I spent some time traveling the US and discovered stores like H-E-B, Hy-Vee, Wegmans, and Harmons and realized that Publix was just clean version of a low-end grocery store.
Personally I hated Publix when I lived in Florida and it made me homesick. I've never had so much food come with mold in the packaging than from Publix.