Best natural-food store

It's good to give credit where credit is due, and Whole Foods is indeed due lots of it for doing the nearly impossible: balancing for-profit corporate concerns with nonprofit ethics, while providing well for both gourmet and granola consumers. And grouse though we may about the prices, we keep coming back -- for the wide range of excellent produce; for the impressive cheese display; for the deli that puts the prepared-food counters of most supermarkets to shame; and for all the impulse buys that make our day, from Adbusters magazine to Burt's Bees lip balm (consider this a vote for Best Check-Out Line).

If the Harvest Co-op pushes a progressive agenda, more power to 'em. Or rather, more power to you, since the co-op is, of course, member-owned. The Cambridge store (there's also one in Jamaica Plain) hosts lectures and screens films, holds elections and meetings, provides pamphlets on sustainable agriculture, and establishes programs like the One-Minute Activist, which provides form letters for a different political cause each month. Oh yeah, and it also sells food and stuff.

Whole Foods, various locations. Harvest Co-op, 581 Mass Ave, Cambridge, (617) 661-1580; 57 South Street, Jamaica Plain, (617) 524-1667.