Skip to main content

Where To Buy Seafood: The Best and Worst Grocery Stores

Support Provided By

 

Once a year, the environmental activist powerhouse Greenpeace evaluates the country's biggest supermarket chains and rates them on how well they take seafood sustainability into consideration when choosing what fish to stock their stores with. This means looking through a wide range of factors, including how often they sell "Red Listed" seafood (species that shouldn't be sold at all due to environmental concerns), how transparent they are in regards to where they source their seafood, and how engaged they are with conservationist groups.

Add those numbers up, and you get a set of Good/Pass/Fail grades. Of the 26 grocers examined this year, only four of them received good grades. So, let's go through the list and see what California shoppers should be mindful of, shall we?

The four that rank at the top of the list with "good" grades of at least 7 out of 10 are Whole Foods, the East Coast chain Wegman's, Safeway (which is Von's in SoCal), and Trader Joe's. But even those come with criticisms, with Greenpeace wagging their finger at Whole Foods for reintroducing a few Red List species, Safeway having destructively-caught tuna on their shelves, and Trader Joe's not being very transparent about their offerings.

As far as the rest of California offerings go, Target and the soon-to-be-all-over-California Aldi are in the next tier. Target got docked mostly due to their failure to provide information to customers about where they source, and Aldi lacks relationships with sustainability initiatives, and they do business with "known pirate fishing companies." Both of them, however, score well when it comes to having sustainable policies and staying away from Red Listers.

Further down are Walmart and Costco, the former getting massively docked for not being transparent and also selling nine of the 22 red-listed fish. Costco, meanwhile, only sells eight of the Red Listers, but they're very poor when it comes to giving customers information at the store. Some of that is offset, however, by Costco's participation in programs to help improve how shrimp and salmon are caught.

Kroger (owner of Ralphs), Albertson's, and WinCo bring up the rear -- as far as California offerings are concerned -- with grades barely getting them out of Greenpeace's red "failing" category. Kroger gets their biggest demerits for being the biggest seller of Red Listed fish, offering 18 of the 22 varieties. While they've made bold policy adjustments over the past few years -- including a promise not to carry GMO salmon -- as Greenpeace puts it:

The company's claim of promoting seafood sustainability cannot be taken seriously until it deals with the glaring problem posed by its Red List inventory.

Albertson's, meanwhile, confuses the customer at the point of sale with poor labeling, does not make "tangible commitments" when it comes to seafood sustainability, and does not support improvements in the fishery management. And while WinCo only sells nine of the Red Listed fish, that's about the only good thing to say about them.

So, what are we to make of all of this?

Primarily, if you're heading out to buy fish, you're better off splurging a little and shopping at Whole Foods, Safeway or Trader Joe's. Another thing to consider, no matter the store, is what kind of canned tuna you buy. If the label says "Pole & Line," that's good. If it says "FAD-free" or "ocean-safe longline," that's also good. Anything else, and it starts getting questionable and necessitates further research.

Another thing that may have hit you as I was going through the grades above is why a lack of transparency is so important, and why certain stores are getting docked harshly by failing in that category. The thing is, transparency doesn't just mean clear labels for the consumer deciding what to put in their cart. It also means allowing information to be accessible by watchdog groups who are keeping their eyes out for any nefarious activities.

For instance, certain fisheries offer their workers no real monetary compensation, others physically abuse their workers, and others are essentially dealing with human traffickers to obtain slave labor. There's a real human cost associated with a lack of transparency that goes beyond environmental reasons, which is why it's such an important category.

So keep that in mind when you're picking up fish at the market. These decisions matter more than you realize.

Support Provided By
Read More
A black and white photo of an adult dressed as the easter bunny with a giant costumed head, holding a little girl on their left who gives it a kiss on the cheek and, with his right arm, holding a little boy who brings his hands to his eyes as though wiping away tears.

Behold the Bunnies and Bonnets of L.A.'s Past Easter Celebrations

The onset of the spring season heralds the arrival of fragrant flowers in bloom — and all the critters that enjoy them, including the Easter bunny and families who anticipate his arrival with egg hunts, parades and questionable fashion choices.
A black and white image of an elephant holding a broom with its trunk. A man is seen near the elephant, walking towards the animal.

Lions and Tigers and Cameras! How the Movies Gave Los Angeles a Zoo

The early days of the movies in Los Angeles inadvertently allowed visitors to experience the largest collection of animals in the western United States. When animals weren't appearing in a movie, they were rented out to other film companies, performed for studio visitors, or in the case of filmmaker William Selig's collection — an opportunity to create one of Los Angeles' first zoos.
A vertical, black and white portrait of a blonde woman wearing a sparkly four-leaf clover costume as she holds her arms out and extends a leg as though in a curtsy.

Irish for a Day: L.A.'s History of 'Going Green' on St. Patrick's Day

Whether it was a parade, dance, tea party, home celebration or just enjoying a good ol' wee dram of whisky, here's a photo essay of how Los Angeles donned its green apparel to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and embrace the luck o' the Irish over the years.
San Pedro Wholesale Fish Markets | Photo by Linda Ly

Locals' Secret: San Pedro's Saturday Morning Fish Market

At 3:30 in the morning, a long pink building at the dead end of 22nd Street on the San Pedro waterfront is abuzz with activity while the rest of the city is asleep...
Seafood lovers flock to Newport Beach's Dory Fleet market to find fresh fish. | Photo: Alicia Clark/KCET

5 SoCal Fish Markets Where You Can Find Your Favorite Catch

If you want the very freshest seafood in SoCal, this beachside markets are the best places to shop. They sometimes have pretty good deals, too.

Fishing - Our Favorite Spots

Sepulveda Basin, Lake Balboa The lake has stocked fish and easy access.Glendale Narrows There are a number of spots with deep pools in the shadows of the…