Hy-Vee, a 235-store supermarket chain headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa, was ranked the overall favorite in a recent national survey of more than 2,000 grocery shoppers.

The poll, called the “2012 Supermarket Showdown,” was conducted by WD Partners of Dublin, Ohio, which describes itself as a “global design and program management partner for multi-unit food and retail brands.”

According to Supermarket News (SN), survey respondents were asked to rank the in-store experience, product offering, service and other attributes at the one or two stores where they normally shopped.

SN reports that the survey was limited to 12 national chains: Food Lion, Giant Eagle, Giant Food, H-E-B, Hy-Vee, Kroger, Meijer, Publix, Safeway, Stop & Shop, Wegmans and Whole Foods Market. 

"Hy-Vee came out on top in both the in-store experience and customer service. Whole Foods topped the list for community service and product offering and tied for first with Publix on store navigation," SN reveals.