River Valley Market

The culmination of a lot of hard work by a lot of principled people in the community, River Valley Market walks its talk like perhaps no other. Thirty-two percent of its purchased products are from within 100 miles, including organic local cheeses, breads, beer, wine, seafood, meat and produce, and over 350 items are available in bulk (minimalizing packaging), including flour, cereal/granola, nuts, coffee, local maple syrup, supplements, herbs, laundry soap, shampoo and green cleaning products. It has a café that offers breakfast, lunch and dinner and a bakery with fresh cakes, pies and cookies, and given its shopping bag incentive program, 36 kw solar array and 80 percent recycling/composting of its own waste, the supermarket of the future could do a lot worse than model itself on this market's laudable achievement.