Montañita Co-op selected NM’s best grocery by website survey
The Daily Meal ranks chain among 50 best across country
In New Mexico’s battle of the grocery stores, retailers big and small are slugging it out for market share. But when it comes to customer loyalty, it appears one stalwart grocery chain gets the most love in the Land of Enchantment.
La Montañita Co-op, founded over 40 years ago, was recently identified as the best grocery store in New Mexico and ranked among the 50 best in every U.S. state.
That’s according to The Daily Meal, a website covering food and drink topics, which praises La Montañita as the go-to grocer for many shoppers in the state.
“That’s awesome news — we’ll take it!” said Lea Mae Quale, the marketing and communications director of the
member-owned market that boasts six retail locations — four in Albuquerque, including a small site at the University of New Mexico, and one each in Gallup and Santa Fe. It employs about 285 people.
The Daily Meal said it “scoured the internet” for as much information as it could find, cross-referencing other bestof lists that have previously been written as well as reviews on Google, Yelp, Foursquare, and Facebook.
“We also conducted informal polls of friends, family and acquaintances in faroff states in search of the answer, weighing concerns and praise about price, quality of products and customer service, as well as store cleanliness,” according to the site. The report excluded small specialty and gourmet markets and focused on the everyday shopping needs of the American consumer.
One review said of La Montañita, “Very nice place and every organic grocery (item) I want I can find here.”
Quale said it’s gratifying that the co-op was recognized in light of mounting competition. New options have sprung up on the natural and organic foods front from the likes of Sprouts, Natural Grocers and Whole Foods. Even traditional grocery players are expanding their selections of these products.
La Montañita has about 16,000 memberowners and annual sales of $41 million.