SAN ANTONIO – Do you love or hate your supermarket?
A lot of it may depend on how fresh it seems, according to a Consumer Reports survey. The survey found that some supermarkets deliver much fresher food than others.
Consumer Reports rated 68 supermarkets across the country on the quality of their fresh food, based on a survey of almost 63,000 of its readers. They were 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.
Of the San Antonio stores included in the survey, the highest scores for fresh produce and meats went to Whole Foods, HEB and Sprouts Farmers Market.
Costco,Trader Joe's and Whole Foods scored best for fresh store-prepared foods.
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 chain in the country, scored near the bottom of the ratings. People gave Walmart low marks in all freshness categories. It also didn't do so well for its courteous staff and store cleanliness. 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, Doug McMillon, which he delivered to an investors meeting and said 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, which also took factors like cleanliness, service and price into account, included several regional stores as well as Trader Joe's and Costco, which both got better ratings than Walmart for prices.
HEB, Whole Foods and Sprouts received overall scores that showed shoppers were very satisfied.