The Best Grocery Store in the U.S.? Rare in Minnesota
It's just been called the Best Grocery Store in the United States, but it has surprisingly few locations here in Minnesota.
Minnesota is known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes, right? But we're also the Land of 1,176 grocery stores. At least according to the industry site, grocery-stores.org, that is. Minnesota's grocery store landscape contains both large chains and independent retailers.
Check out the largest grocery store chains in Minnesota in 2025:
- Cub Foods with 104 locations
- ALDI with 79 locations
- Hy-Vee with 41 locations
Additionally, there are around 277 independent grocery stores, grocery-stores.org noted, spread around Minnesota's 87 different counties. And of course, there are the large big box chains, like Walmart, Target, Sam's Club, and Costco, which also sell groceries.
But according to this recent Kiplinger's story, the best grocery store chain in the U.S. is one that only has 10 locations in Minnesota. Here's how Kiplinger's determined just which store was the best in the U.S.
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Kiplinger's looked at a study by Solitaired, which compared Google grocery store reviews from the 100 most populated cities in the United States. They then looked at 3,000 individual grocery store review pages to determine where certain grocery stores stood out or fell short for their customer service, prices, speed of checkout lines, and food quality.
And their choice for the Best Grocery Store in the U.S.? That would be Trader Joe's!
The beloved grocery store chain, founded in 1967 and headquartered in Monrovia, California, topped their survey with a 4.68 rating out of 5. Trader Joe's describes its business model like this:
Trader Joe’s is a national chain of neighborhood grocery stores. We are committed to providing our customers outstanding value in the form of the best quality products at the best everyday prices.
But if you want to shop at Trader Joe's here in Minnesota, your options are a bit limited, as the chain currently has only 10 locations in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
Minnesota Trader Joe's Locations in 2025
- Bloomington
- Eagan
- Maple Grove
- Minneapolis
- Minnetonka
- Rochester
- Shoreview
- St. Louis Park
- St. Paul
- Woodbury
Trader Joe's doesn't just operate in the U.S., however. The industry site LeadIQ notes that the chain has locations spread across 6 different continents, with over 23,000 employees worldwide, and sales of over $500 billion!
While Trader Joe's topped this survey of the best grocery stores in the country, keep scrolling to check out some other grocery stores that are favorites here in America and nationwide.
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