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.
