Best Specialty Shop

If you feel content with your lot in life, or satisfied with your income level, you obviously haven't been to AJ's recently. This specialty supermarket is so lovely, so well-stocked with gorgeous delicacies and culinary temptations, that it could turn a Buddhist monk into a greedy pig. Why just buy regular food when you can browse the salad bar and the olive bar at AJ's? Why just buy spring mix when you can buy fresh greens garnished with edible flowers at AJ's? Did we mention the full-on sushi bar? The butcher shop is a sight to behold, large and well-stocked, and the wine and cheese selections are impressive. But perhaps the best part of AJ's is the truly first-rate selection of seafood-fabulously fresh, gorgeously displayed, ruinously expensive.

Runners up:

2. Trader Joe's, 1101 N. Wilmot Road, 733-1313; 7912 N. Oracle Road, 797-4207; 4766 E. Grant Road, 323-4500

3. Rumrunner Wine and Cheese Co., 3200 E. Speedway Blvd., 326-0121

Sign of the impending apocalypse: Wal-Mart (one vote)