This Regional Grocery Chain Is Vegetarians' Favorite Place to Shop
A new survey found that the most vegetarian-friendly place to shop in the country isn't exactly where you'd guess. Beating out Whole Foods and Trader Joe's is a regional grocery chain called Vons that has a devoted following in Southern California and Nevada.
According to the new report from inMarket, a location-intelligence company, vegetarians like to buy their meat alternatives at Vons, with Publix coming in second and Sprouts in third. Business Insider, which published the study, reports that "inMarket analyzed all major US grocery chains for the report, using anonymous location data to find the chains that someone who buys Beyond Meat or Morningstar are more likely to visit compared to the average American shopper." (Whole Foods took the fifth spot on the list, and Trader Joe's, the sixth. We knew they would pop up somewhere.)
Despite not having locations nationwide, Vons has cultivated quite a bit of loyalty since its 1906 founding in Los Angeles. A 2018 Temkin Group survey found that Vons scored 75% on customer satisfaction, and having visited the supermarket recently, we can confirm that the deals are quite good.
And it should come as no surprise that a California chain is popular with vegetarians. This year, PETA named Los Angeles the "most vegan-friendly city" in the world, which makes a whole lot of sense: L.A. routinely ranks as one of the best places for vegetarians and vegans to live in the country.
Vons has 273 locations in Southern California and Nevada. While the grocery chain has yet to inspire a musical (like Publix) or rap song (like Wawa), it is very, very loved.
As Business Insider mentions, "Albertsons acquired Vons in a $9 billion deal in 2014, when the grocery company purchased Vons' parent company, Safeway."
