Best Grocery Store in America? No Longer in Minnesota

It's been called the Best Grocery Store in the entire country, but if you're looking to shop there, you'd better make your way out of Minnesota.

There are a LOT of grocery stores spread across the Land of 10,000 Lakes these days. The Minnesota Grocers Association (MGA) defines a 'grocery store' as a store that sells 'a line of dry groceries, canned goods, some perishable items, as well as some non-food items.' It also says there are currently over 38,000 of these stores in the U.S.

Closer to home, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture notes that there are over '8,000 licensed retail food establishments currently in operation across the North Star State. However, none of those over 8,000 stores are apparently the most popular grocery store in the country.

Because *that* chain has zero locations here in the North Star State, and hasn't for a while already.

SEE ALSO: The Most Expensive Grocery Store Chain in the U.S. Has 7 Locations in Minnesota

That's the word from this new Food & Wine story, anyway. It quoted a survey done by YouGov, a market research and analytics firm that ranked the favorite grocery stores in the nation.

Food & Wine said YouGov researchers interviewed 1,220 people in the U.S. over October, November, and December of 2024. And after breaking down all the responses, the survey named... 7-Eleven as America's favorite grocery store for all adults. Really. 7-Eleven!

Now, while using the MGA definition, it would appear that 7-Eleven convenience stores *could* be considered grocery stores, but I'm guessing not many Minnesotans would agree with that assessment, right?

When you say 'grocery store' here in Minnesota, you think of names like Cub, HyVee, Lunds & Byerlys, Trader Joe's, Aldi, and Fareway, right? Not 7-Eleven. And if 7-Eleven is a grocery store, shouldn't Wisconsin-based Kwik Trip or Iowa-based Casey's then *also* be considered grocery stores?

Get our free mobile app

Either way, though, here's the thing: There aren't currently any 7-Eleven locations here in Minnesota. It's true. When you hit up the location finder on the 7-Eleven website and search for locations in the Bold North, here are the results:

That wasn't always the case, however, as there used to be several 7-Eleven locations in Minnesota, especially in the Twin Cities, as this 2020 TCB story noted. That same story said that the Speedway Gas and Convenience Store chain had then just been purchased by 7-Eleven and that it was likely the familiar 7-Eleven brand would reappear across the Gopher State.

But that appears to have *not* been the case, because while there currently aren't any 7-Eleven locations in Minnesota, the location-finder on the Speedway website says there are still 10 of its stores here in our fair state.

So while there aren't any 7-Elevens, there *are* other well-known grocery chains with locations across all of Minnesota, some of which have been called the Most Popular in the entire country. Keep scrolling to see which stores made the list!

Listen to Curt St. John & Samm Adams
Weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. on Quick Country 96.5