Consumer Reports: Nation's best, worst supermarkets

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Do you love or hate your supermarket? A lot may depend on how fresh it seems, according to a Consumer Reports survey, which shows that some supermarkets deliver much fresher food than others.

Americans average 83 trips a year to the supermarket, spending a total of $5,400 each, with more than half that money going for fresh food found around the perimeter of the store, including produce, meat, bread and ready-to-eat food.

Consumer Reports rated 68 supermarkets across the country on the quality of their fresh food based on a survey of nearly 63,000 of its readers.

"We asked about the quality of fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, store-prepared foods and baked goods, as well as things like cleanliness, staff courtesy and prices," Consumer Reports' Tod Marks said.

Only about 60 percent of shoppers say they're highly satisfied with the quality of their store's poultry and meat, and only half are happy with their store's prepared-food and bakery options.

Walmart Supercenter, the biggest grocery store in the country, scored near the bottom of the ratings. People also gave Walmart low marks in all freshness categories.

"Walmart also didn't do so well for its courteous staff and store cleanliness," Marks said. "It did score better than many chains for its prices, but it wasn't the best for price."

Consumer Reports contacted Walmart for a comment and was given a statement from the CEO, which read in part, "Every store I go in has room to improve...And if we nail those, one store at a time, our short-term performance gets better."

Consumer Reports' top-scoring supermarkets include several regional stores, as well as Trader Joe's and Costco, which both got better ratings than Walmart for prices.

Here are the full rankings:

1 Wegmans

2 Publix

3 Trader Joe's

4 Fareway Stores

5 Market Basket (Northeast)

6 Costco

7 Raley's

8 Sprouts Farmers Market

9 Fresh Market

10 Stater Bros.

11 WinCo

12 Hy-Vee

13 H-E-B

14 Aldi

15 Whole Foods Market

16 Fry's

17 Harris-Teeter

18 King Soopers

19 Fred Meyer

20 Food City (KY, TN, VA)

21 Hannaford

22 Meijer

23 Dillons

24 Smith's Food & Drug

25 Lowes Foods (NC)

26 ShopRite

27 Schnucks

28 Food 4 Less

29 County Market

30 QFC

31 Kroger

32 Save Mart

33 Ingles

34 IGA

35 Bashas'

36 Marsh

37 Piggly Wiggly

38 Tom Thumb

39 Giant (PA)

40 Cub Foods

41 Shoppers Food & Pharmacy

42 BJ's Wholesale Club

43 Big Y

44 Ralphs

45 Target/SuperTarget

46 BI-LO (GA, NC, SC, TN)

47 Sam's Club

48 Brookshire's

49 Vons

50 Albertsons

51 Price Chopper (Northeast)

52 Food Lion

53 Weis

54 Giant Eagle

55 Winn-Dixie

56 Giant (DC, DE, MD, VA)

57 Randalls

58 Safeway

59 Jewel-Osco

60 Stop & Shop

61 Acme

62 Pick 'n Save

63 Tops Markets

64 Shaw's

65 Pathmark

66 A&P

67 Walmart Supercenter

68 Waldbaum's

To read the full report, visit ConsumerReprts.org