Consumer Reports Says This Is The Absolute Best Grocery Store Chain In The Entire Midwest

Consumer Reports was founded in 1936 as an independent, non-profit organization aimed at helping consumers buy the best, safest products. Almost a century later, it's still a respected arbiter of quality thanks to its secret shoppers anonymously entering stores and buying products to make sure everything is on the up and up. So, when CR makes an evaluation about the best supermarket chain in a given area you can be sure it genuinely believes it's position to be true. With that in mind, it's worth applauding Heinen's (a supermarket chain located around Chicago and Cleveland) for topping the Consumer Report rankings for Midwestern grocery stores.

Founded in 1929 by one Joe Heinen, you may have heard about Heinen's from its decision to ditch Instacart. If you happen to live in the area, it's well worth checking out. Heinen's scored a terrific 89 out of 100 according to the Consumer Reports rubric. It received perfect scores in several categories, including the attentiveness of its employees, checkout speed, and the selection of healthy options. It also received top marks for the variety and quality of its meat and produce. The only category where it fell short was for its prices, which received a 2 out of 5. But hey, pobody's nerfect, right?

If you don't live in Ohio or Illinois (or if you'd rather not deal with a chain that doesn't have competitive prices) there are a few other chains in the Midwest that are roughly comparable to Heinen's, according to Consumer Reports. There's old reliable Trader Joe's, of course, which got great marks for its high quality store brands and the variety of its international products (like these Asian-inspired Trader Joe's items) but faltered when it came to locally produced products; it got an 87, two points behind Heinen's.

There is a three-way tie for the bronze medal, with a troika of different organizations getting an 86. There's Costco, the beloved wholesale store that offers great food finds for under $5 (excellent meat and store brand quality, low scores for locally sourced products); there's Fareway Stores, an Iowa-based supermarket chain (terrific prices, but middling food quality apart from its meat department); and then there's the Defense Commissary Agency, which is run by the U.S. government for military officers past and present. (As you might expect from the military, the stores are clean as a whistle and offer competitive prices to boot — albeit at the cost of truly excellent product quality.) All these stores are solid choices, but are they Heinen's? According to Consumer Reports, they sure aren't.