The Grocery Store Chain Consumer Reports Ranked The Absolute Lowest Might Surprise You

It's a good idea to get a dose of perspective sometimes. You may think your room is perfectly neat because you can find anything you need after less than a minute of digging, but all it takes to be disabused of that notion is one person stepping inside and going, "Geez, you live like this?" Similarly, you might not think your local grocery store does anything exceptionally well or exceptionally poorly, but along comes Consumer Reports to correct the record. According to its independent, anonymously conducted evaluation, the absolute worst grocery chain is Key Food.

Using a rubric that scores chains out of 100 points, Key Food received 69 points — a figure that is decidedly not "nice." It brings up the rear behind the likes of Walmart (which received 70 points, getting good marks for its price competitiveness but lackluster scores pretty much everywhere else) and Safeway (which got a 72 due to middling food quality and abysmal checkout speed). Some of the top-ranked supermarkets further up the list include Wegmans (2nd place at 90), Trader Joe's (87), and Publix (86); but Key Food does not breathe that rarefied air (which may or may not smell like Trader Joe's beloved giant Danish kringles).

Maybe you're not sure what Consumer Reports is complaining about. Perhaps you've been to a Key Food recently and had a perfectly normal supermarket experience — sure, you didn't get your tired soul soothed by the dulcet tones of classical music like at the European-inspired Fresh Market (which got an 85 from CR, by the way), but you got in and out without being attacked by a swarm of wasps — or something similarly unpleasant. What does Consumer Reports think is so bad about Key Food? Well, pretty much everything with the sole exception of checkout speed (which gets a solid 3 out of 5).

The quality of its food was ranked 1 out of 5 across the board aside from the quality of meat and poultry, which got a 2. That would be one thing if it were cheap, but Key Food also got a 1 out of 5 for competitive prices; the same score as more upscale chains like Gelson's, The Fresh Market, and Whole Foods without the benefit of high-quality food to make up for it. To top it all off, it got low marks for cleanliness as well as for the helpfulness of its employees, getting a 2 in both categories.

If you're a loyal Key Food shopper and this isn't your experience, that's perfectly fine. Consumer Reports says that a score of 60 still means the shoppers were "somewhat satisfied", so at 69 it's not like they were completely appalled. But as so many grocery store items get more expensive, it's worth knowing where you'll get your money's worth.