You probably already know that grocery carts and plastic bags contain all sorts of germs and bacteria, but unless you’ve noticed major spills or sticky floors, you probably haven’t given too much thought to how clean your favorite grocery store really is.
Luckily, the nonprofit consumer group, Consumer Reports is there to help. They recently conducted a survey of over 75,000 people across 96 grocery stores nationwide to find out which supermarkets were the cleanest—and which ones needed a major cleanup on aisle 5.
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The survey criteria was based on certain qualities named by executives of the Cleaning Services Group (CSG), which included how clean the stores’ sidewalks and entryways were, the number of working hand sanitizers and cart wipes available, how often stores cleaned their floors (and how quickly spills were wiped up), and how spotless restrooms were.
The six grocers that got the highest marks included regional stores such as Central Market, Wegmans (which was recently voted America's favorite grocery store), Heinen’s, Gelson’s, Market Basket, and one of our favorite places, Trader Joe’s.
More about Trader Joe's from Cooking Light:
- These Are the Most Popular Trader Joe’s Items in Every State
- 5 Healthy Items Trader Joe's Crew Members Love
- These Trader Joe’s Meals Have Fewer Than 4 Ingredients and Take Under 10 Minutes to Make
17 other stores scored high marks in cleanliness. You can read their article here, to find out which made the list. Several popular chains placed among the lowest overall in cleanliness—including Walmart Supercenter, Tops, and Key Food. Yikes.
If you’re not seeing your go-to grocery store on the “clean” list, you may not need to panic. Here’s why: several major retailers—such as Costco, Sam’s Club, Aldi, Target, and Whole Foods—were noticeably absent from the list. But since Consumer Reports only asked survey members to report on the one or two stores where they most frequently shopped, these stores may not have had enough data to sufficiently rank.
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