This North Carolina Grocery Store Was Just Named America’S Best For The Second Year In A Row
Most grocery runs are forgotten before the bags reach the trunk. This one keeps collecting trophies.
In North Carolina, a market that started with a single neighborhood shop has now been voted America’s best for the second year in a row.
That is quite a promotion for a place built around everyday errands. The original location is still there, quietly connected to a much bigger story.
Somewhere along the way, buying dinner became a national competition.
And apparently, this store came prepared.
The real surprise is how a local idea grew into something shoppers across the country now recognize.
America’s Best Grocery Store Started Right Here In Greensboro
March 5, 1982 was an ordinary Friday for most people, but for Ray and Beverly Berry it was opening day.
The couple had traveled through Europe and fallen for the bustle of open-air food markets, where bread cooled on racks and fruit sat piled in wooden crates.
They wanted that same friendly, unhurried feeling in America, at a time when most supermarkets felt like warehouses with fluorescent lights.
Their answer was a 14,000-square-foot shop that smelled of roasted coffee the moment you stepped inside.
From the start, the store paired an in-house bakery with a traditional butcher counter and a coffee area where beans were roasted on site.
Flowers greeted shoppers at the door instead of shopping carts and stacked soda cases.
Today that original shop keeps hours of 7 AM to 9 PM every day of the week, so an early coffee run or an evening dinner rescue both work.
Standing in the aisles, it is easy to see how one modest idea in Greensboro grew into a national favorite. You can still visit it at 3712 Lawndale Dr, Greensboro, NC 27455.
Two Straight Years At No. 1 Is Only Part Of The Story
Winning once can be luck. Winning twice in a row, then sweeping every single category you are entered in, is a different kind of story.
In the 2026 USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards, The Fresh Market took first place for Best Grocery Store, repeating its 2025 victory.
That alone made headlines, but readers went further and handed the company top honors in all five grocery categories on the ballot.
Counting earlier years, this marks the fifth time readers have crowned the company the nation’s best grocery destination.
USA TODAY 10Best experts and contributors select the nominees, then readers determine the winners through a 28-day public vote. What the wins really point to is consistency.
A single great bakery or one strong produce table can carry a store for a while, but sweeping every category suggests the standards hold up across the whole building.
For anyone planning a visit to the Greensboro flagship, that record is a useful hint: whichever counter catches your eye first is probably worth a closer look.
Shoppers Also Put Its Bakery At The Top Of The Country
Follow your nose past the front doors and you will understand the bakery award before anyone explains it to you. Warm butter and toasted crust have a way of steering a shopping cart off course.
Readers voted the bakery first in the country, and the case makes the case.
Croissants shatter into flaky layers, fruit pies show bubbled edges where the filling escaped, and round artisan loaves carry a deep, crackly crust that sings when you slice it.
Cakes get plenty of attention here as well, from berry-topped celebration layers to lighter, spongy options with delicate flavor.
Honey lavender appears among the bakery’s current specialty flavors, including pound cake and tea cakes. At the Lawndale store, hot biscuits are baked and served warm throughout the day.
Whether you need a dessert for a birthday or a small treat to carry home with coffee, the bakery is the department most likely to turn a quick errand into a lingering one.
Bring a little patience for browsing.
The Deli And Prepared Foods Took Home First-Place Honors Too
Busy weeknights are where the deli earns its reputation.
Instead of choosing between fast and good, shoppers here get both in the same trip. The department claimed first-place national honors, and the lineup shows why.
Rotisserie chickens turn golden and juicy, ready to carry straight to the table, while imported cheeses and charcuterie boards give hosts an easy head start on a gathering.
There is more variety than a typical grocery counter offers. Pressed panini, fresh-made sushi rolls, bright salads, and build-your-own burrito bowls mean four people in one household can each get what they actually want.
Butter Garlic Shrimp is also currently sold by the pound among the store’s seafood offerings.
Meal prep kits are also popular for households that want the home-cooked feeling without the chopping and measuring.
The selection spans panini, sandwiches, salads, sushi, hot-case entrees, cheeses, charcuterie, and other prepared foods.
If you are stopping by the original Greensboro location after work, arriving before the 9 PM close gives you the widest selection still on display.
Even The Produce Department Walked Away With A National Win
The produce department carries seasonal fruits and vegetables alongside organic staples and other fresh selections sourced from the U.S. and abroad. Voters ranked produce number one in the nation, and the selection leans hard on peak-season picking.
The company says it sources peak-season, non-GMO-verified produce from selected growers and also carries organic options.
Organic staples share space with more unusual seasonal finds, so a simple trip for apples can end with a vegetable you have never cooked before.
Staff at the counters are generally happy to explain what something is and how to use it.
Convenience options round things out nicely.
Fresh-cut fruit cups, pre-packaged vegetable kabobs, and steamer bags make healthy cooking possible even on nights when you barely want to use a knife.
For visitors exploring this corner of North Carolina, the produce tables offer an easy snapshot of the season, and a bag of fruit makes a fine snack for the drive that follows.
This North Carolina-Born Market Has Grown Far Beyond Its First Store
One store became two, two became a region, and the region eventually became a map dotted across much of the country.
Growth like that rarely happens by accident. The company now operates 174 stores across 22 states.
Corporate headquarters stayed home rather than moving to a bigger city, and in 2019 the company expanded its Greensboro operations with a $5.4 million investment that created new jobs.
That choice matters to the community. The corporate office remains in Greensboro at 300 N.
Greene Street, keeping the company’s headquarters in the city where the chain began.
Despite the size, the stores avoid the feeling of an oversized warehouse.
Each one keeps the smaller footprint, the specialty imports, the butcher counter, and the flower displays that made the first location different in 1982. The Lawndale Drive location remains notable as both the original store and the company’s remodeled flagship.
The Original Lawndale Drive Location Is Still Serving Shoppers Today
Plenty of first locations quietly close once a company grows. Not this one. The shop that opened in 1982 is still busy every day, and it has picked up some genuinely fun upgrades along the way.
You will find it at 3712 Lawndale Dr in Greensboro, where coffee is roasted right in the store and poured hot for shoppers who want a cup while they browse.
Warm biscuits come out through the day, and brick oven pizza is sold by the slice or as a whole pie for taking home.
Custom salads, sandwiches, and burrito bowls are built to order at the counters.
The store also carries floral arrangements and other gift-oriented merchandise beyond its grocery departments. The butcher and seafood counters remain staffed by people happy to talk through cuts and cooking times.
Doors open at 7 AM and close at 9 PM daily, including weekends.
Five National Wins Made 2026 A Huge Year For This Greensboro Favorite
Five first-place finishes in one awards cycle is a remarkable haul for any business, let alone a grocery store that began with a single storefront.
The 2026 USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards handed The Fresh Market top honors for Best Grocery Store, plus wins for its bakery, deli, produce, and prepared foods.
Taken together, the results describe a store where no single department is carrying the rest.
The company credits its team members, food selection, and hospitality as central parts of the shopping experience behind the recognition. Atmosphere plays its part too.
Between the flower buckets at the entrance, the coffee aroma, the sushi bar, and the hot food case, the place invites browsing rather than rushing.
For anyone mapping out a food-focused trip through North Carolina, the original Greensboro market makes an easy and rewarding stop.
The original Lawndale Drive store remains open daily from 7 AM to 9 PM. Better hurry to see it yourself why it won this award again.
