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Five Food Retailers Named Top Employers

Wegmans Food Markets and Nugget Markets each cracked the top five of Fortune magazine's annual list of the best places to work in the U.S. Nugget, a family-owned, nine-store chain based in Woodlands, Calif., moved up five places on the list from No. 10 a year ago. Fortune recognized the company for having given employees discounts on groceries each month. Wegmans, which had attained the No.

NEW YORK — Wegmans Food Markets and Nugget Markets each cracked the top five of Fortune magazine's annual list of the best places to work in the U.S.

Nugget, a family-owned, nine-store chain based in Woodlands, Calif., moved up five places on the list from No. 10 a year ago. Fortune recognized the company for having given employees discounts on groceries each month. Wegmans, which had attained the No. 1 ranking previously, moved up two places from last year to No. 3.

Other food retailers on the list include Whole Foods Market (No. 18), Stew Leonard's (No. 64) and Publix Super Markets (No. 86).

Stew Leonard's and Publix were lauded for their ability to withstand the recession by adding or protecting jobs.

Stew Leonard's, Norwalk, Conn., has never undergone layoffs and in 2009 made certain that cost-saving initiatives it implemented did not negatively impact hourly employees.

Publix has been ranked 13 times on the Fortune list, and was one of only four companies on the list with more than 100,000 employees.

“This recognition goes straight to our people who help make Publix a great place to work every day. All of our retail and support associates should be proud of this achievement,” said Ed Crenshaw, chief executive officer of Publix, said in a statement.

“We continuously strive to make Stew Leonard's a better place to work; each year looking for new ways to recognize and thank our team members for their hard work and dedication,” Stew Leonard Jr., CEO of Stew Leonard's, said in a statement. “We've implemented extensive training and mentoring programs to help our team excel and grow within the company and have been rewarded with tremendous loyalty and longevity — something that makes us all very proud.”

Whole Foods, which was ranked No. 22 last year, was recognized for adding jobs and capping its top executive pay at 19 times that of average hourly workers.

Food and consumer packaged goods companies on the Fortune list included JM Smucker (No. 47), Monsanto (59), McCormick & Co. (72), SC Johnson (83), General Mills (90) and Colgate (100).