• Photo by Drew Hyland
• North Coast Co-op

Once again, this category drew a large number of votes with loyalties split among Wildberries, Eureka Natural Foods, Murphy's, WinCo, Safeway and Grocery Outlet, among others (no votes for Wal-Mart). But the clear winner (again) was North Coast Co-op. Note that we lumped together votes for Arcata Co-op, Eureka Co-op, The Co-op, The Coop, and various other misspellings since it's all the same business.

Why is the Co-op most popular? Well, it's been around for going on four decades (founded in 1973), and it's hyper-local. We'll also repeat the assumption that the "we own it" factor plays an important role -- that's what cooperatives are all about. As one reader noted: "I'm not even a member. Probably should be because they have a great deli and wonderful organic and natural products. Plus a wide variety of soy-free, gluten-free, etc. etc." So just factor in etc., and there you go.

The Breakdown: North Coast Co-Op 28.8%, Eureka Natural Foods 19%, Wildberries 17%, Murphy’s Market 12.7%, WinCo 6.7%. Category popularity: Fifth.