The 21 Best Grocery Stores in America
Photo courtesy of Wegmans1/21Wegmans
Locations across the mid-Atlantic and New England
For many Americans, living near a Wegmans isn't just a convenience—it's a luxury. Delving into Wegmans is like listening to one of Frank Sinatra’s best albums: big and lush, yet somehow also small and personal. Jam-packed with top-notch prepared foods like fancy frozen lobster mac and cheese and freshly squeezed blood orange juice, and a dizzying variety of raw ingredients to match, there's no better place to be obsessed with food.
Photo by Brooke Shanesy2/21Jungle Jim's
Fairfield, OH
Call it a Disneyland for food. Or an audio-animatronic supermarket playground. Or a temple devoted to culinary diversity. However you attempt to define the inimitable Jungle Jim's, descriptions fail to compete with the experience of browsing through the 180,000 products, including 800 different kinds of produce, 140 types of honey, 1,400 types of hot sauce, and 4,000 local and craft beers. Ohioans lucky enough to live near chaotic temple to gastronomy and reclaimed "junk" decor know what a treasure it is; it's up to you to see it for yourself.
Photo courtesy of Rouses Food Market3/21Rouses Food Market
Locations across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama
This Gulf Coast chain, packed with local specialties like Doberge cake, freshly boiled crawfish, and boudin, inspires fierce devotion. Case in point: Some folks would like to be buried in one of them.
Photo courtesy of Kalustyan's4/21Kalustyan's
New York City
It's impossible to stump the stockists at Kalustyan's, who carry what seems to be an almost impossible assortment of specialty foods from around the world. And if you want to deep dive into Indian (or Pakistani, or Bangladeshi) cooking, there's no better place (aside from Queens) to find everything on your list.
Photo courtesy of Shun Fat Supermarket5/21Shun Fat Supermarket
Locations in California, Nevada, and Texas
This pan-Asian supermarket chain isn't shy about flavor—or bashful about fat. The seafood department looks more like an aquarium, packed to the gills with live fish and shellfish, the produce section boasts both stinky durian and minty-fresh rau ram. Stroll the aisles, and you'll find yourself traveling across Asia, from Thai peanut puffs to Japanese matcha panda cookies. The best part? All of this deliciousness is almost ridiculously cheap.
Photo courtesy of H-E-B6/21H-E-B
Locations across Texas
Where else can you get That Green Sauce? Even if H-E-B's sole claim to fame was its mysteriously creamy, definitively addictive salsa verde, it would have deserved a place in this supermarket pantheon. But the fame of its private-label foods is only rivaled by the skill with which it serves its communities. Every H-E-B has a custom selection (house-made fresh tortillas, organic produce, cheap craft beer) depending on its demographic. One thing's for sure, though: Here Everything's Better.
Photo by Matt Duckor7/21Net Cost Market
Locations in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania
Whether or not you're in the market for an entire frozen baby pig, you'll want to explore the Slavic delights of Net Cost, a chain of Russian supermarkets where the selection of smoked sausages overshadows the raw-meat selection, the sour cream comes in dozens of varieties, and the commemorative gift boxes of chocolate are downright glamorous. Craving some caviar? They've got it here, at affordable prices. Hankering for herring? It's right there at the mile-long buffet. Pretty much the only Russian thing you can't find here is a sheepskin coat.
Photo by Shutterstock8/21Trader Joe's
Locations across the United States
Sure, the average Trader Joe's contains a small fraction of the selection of the typical supermarket. But that hardly matters. Because the rigorous taste-testing process and store-brand camouflage means that everything from the chicken gyoza and sunflower-seed spread to the frozen kabocha squash and guacamole kits is going to be insanely delicious and absurdly affordable. And don't even get us started on the snacks.
Photo courtesy of Reading Terminal Market9/21Reading Terminal Market
Philadelphia, PA
So what if Reading Terminal isn't a supermarket—at least in the modern sense of the term? Fact is, Philadelphians have been shopping for ingredients (and stopping for lunch) at this indoor market for over 100 years, bouncing from Amish whoopie pies, apple dumplings, and soft pretzels to fresh-from-the-farm produce and freshly made sausage from old-school butchers. Just don't forget to fuel your shopping with a couple roast pork sandwiches (and some Peking duck and a few famous chocolate-chip cookies) along the way.
Photo by WhisperToMe via Wikimedia10/21Fiesta Mart
Locations across Texas
Yes, Fiesta Mart is your source for three kinds of freshly cooked chiccharones, freshly shorn cactus paddles, and all the strawberry masa you can steam into tamales. But side by side with dizzying variety of Mexican ingredients, rows of pinatas, and range of cowboy boots, you'll also find aisles devoted to Jamaican curry powder, South African piri piri sauce, and Korean rice cracker snacks. As Fiesta caters to the growing immigrant communities in its neighborhoods, it only gets more delicious.
11/21Mitsuwa Marketplace
Locations in CA, IL, NJ, and TX
Like giant, seafood-stuffed rice ball, this Japanese supermarket is stuffed to bursting with unexpected delights. The produce section is packed with giant burdock root and teeny-tiny exotic herbs; the seafood section swims with pre-sliced sashimi, and the meat department is stocked with top-notch Wagyu beef. Bounce from one aisle to another, gathering chewy squid snacks, cartoon-festooned tofu, and matcha-flavored Kit Kats, and you'll soon achieve a level of glee. And that's not even counting the moment you start exploring their shockingly authentic food court for lunch.
12/21Harris Teeter
Locations throughout the Southeast
Billing itself as "Your Neighborhood Food Market", The Teeter is just that—a grocery store that weaves itself into its communities and earns their love over decades of visits and generations of families—and plenty of regional Southern delicacies like stone-ground grits, benne wafers, and fresh pecans. The free sugar cookies they pass out in the store? That's just a bonus.
Photo courtesy of Seabra Markets13/21Seabra Foods
Locations in NJ, MA, RI, FL
The name of this Portuguese and Central and South American grocery chain doesn't really convey the delights contained within its walls. And how could it? There's no way to prepare for endless varieties of house-made smoked sausage, a rainbow of tropical fruit purees, fiery, almost fluorescent hot sauces, and an entire room devoted to salt cod. The tender, quivery custard tarts and crunchy shrimp fritters ready to eat right on the spot? Just a bonus.
Photo courtesy of Berkeley Bowl14/21Berkeley Bowl
Berkeley, CA
Sure, wandering the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market is a delight every Bay Area cook should experience on the regular. But for everyday grocery shopping, there's no better place to go than Berkeley Bowl, a temple to the agricultural abundance of Northern California and a cornerstone of the East Bay. The produce section seems to go on for miles, with a shocking variety of local fruits and vegetables. The variety keeps on going in the rest of the store—a vast cheese selection, an entire aisle of bulk bins, and a dizzying spread of ingredients for the home cook, from fresh beet fettucine to ground, um, camel meat. Berkeley Bowl will trigger full-fledged joy while making you hungry. Luckily enough, there are plenty of fresh oysters and poke bowls to savor on site.
Photo courtesy of HMart15/21HMart
Locations nationwide
The easiest (and most delicious) way to explore Korean food beyond BBQ bulgogi is to visit this ever-expanding chain of supermarkets, where the kimchi comes in dozens of varieties, the ramen aisle (yes, aisle) is stacked with spicy, seafood-infused varieties, and the grab-and-go assortment of little appetizers called banchan is near-encyclopedic. Snack on crispy seaweed or tiny dried fish, or save room for massive quantities of sweet, spicy, saucy fried chicken from the food court inside the supermarket.
16/21Olive Fresh Garden Marketplace
North Hollywood, CA
You might be familiar with the classics of Greek cooking: Taramasalata, feta, grape leaves. But walk through the doors of this small but densely packed supermarket, and you'll dive into the cuisines (and countries) that neighbor Greece, too. The Olive is actually an Armenian market, but that doesn't stop them from selling ingredients from Bulgaria, Georgia, Turkey, and Russia as well. The freezer section alone is a feast, with everything from Indian-spiced kofte to cheese-stuffed Georgian bread. Stop by the meat counter and graduate from mild-mannered prosciutto to robust, spice-rubbed basturma, score a deal on some caviar, and walk out eating a Soviet-style ice cream snack.
Photo by Laurie Woolever17/21Tops Friendly Market
Chittenango, New York
This quirky outpost of of a regional supermarket chain is located in the upstate New York birthplace of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum, and strolling its aisles really is wonderful. Oz references are woven throughout the store, with framed prints of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman, and the Cowardly Lion lining the walls, and banners depicting chapter headings hanging above displays of carpet cleaner and puppy kibble. In this magical market, mundane shopping errands are transformed into nostalgic journeys.
18/21Whole Foods Market
Locations nationwide
It's easy to take Whole Foods for granted. Once you have one in your neighborhood, it's tempting to take its comforts for granted—the organic produce, the wide aisles, the fancy-pants grain bowls in the food court. But the supermarket chain took watchwords like sustainable mainstream, and by making a profit, they inspired mass-market retailers like Wal-Mart to get into the organic game, too.
Glenn Kaufmann19/21Dekalb Farmers Market
Decatur, Georgia
Pay no mind to the name of this emporium of exotic produce and packaged goods. It might have started out as a modest produce stand, but the Dekalb Farmers Market eventually moved into a massive warehouse outside Atlanta, where it expanded into a Willy Wonka-style wonderland of flavor. Local chefs and intrepid home cooks rely on the market as a reliable source to explore—and score—everything from Korean chile peppers to Indonesian chile sauce.
20/21Seafood City
Locations in California, Hawaii, Nevada, Illinois, Washington, and Canada
Don't confuse Seafood City with your average Asian market. Filipino cuisine is one of the world's most fascinating, and here at Seafood City, you get an irresistible invitation to dive into its super-flavorful world, dining on super-crispy garlic rice with pancit at food-court favorite Crispy Town, or strolling the aquarium-like tanks in the seafood counter, or picking up some sweet Filipino-style spaghetti sauce.
Photo by Molly Yeh21/21Amazing Grains
Grand Forks, North Dakota
The best supermarkets don't just deliver ingredients that inspire you to cook—they can be an oasis of community, too. That's what Amazing Grains does for its Midwest customers, offering them a curated selection of pretty much everything an avid food blogger could ask for, from produce and groceries to naturally colored sprinkles and garlicky muhammara.
