1st Place: Festival Foods
2nd Place: Just Local Food Co-Op
3rd Place: Mega Foods

Apparently, their “boomerang theory” is working – for the second year in a row, Festival Foods (3007 Mall Dr.) is officially the best grocery store in the Chippewa Valley. Whether you’re there to enjoy the store’s Sunday-morning special on hot ham and rolls, browse two full aisles of organic foods and other products, or pick up some freshly made sushi rolls, this place really has “great stuff … for not a lotta money.” Coming in second is Eau Claire’s own Just Local Food Cooperative (new location at 1117 South Farwell St.), a worker-owned business that offers fairly traded meat, produce, dairy products, and even beer from local and regional suppliers. Rounding out third place is Mega Foods. With two locations in Eau Claire and one in Chippewa Falls, this supermarket has expanded from a co-op founded in 1935 to a company that has divisions in the car-care industry (Mega Oil & Lube and Mega Splash car wash) as well as convenience stores (Mega Express). – Emily Thierfelder

Menomonie Pick: Menomonie Market