
Big Idaho Retail Chain Recently Named ‘Best Employer’ In the State
A new year has just begun and maybe one of the things you have on your hypothetical 2025 Bingo card is a fresh start at a new job. If you’re looking for somewhere where employees say they’re truly happy, this might be a great place to start!
A few months ago, Statista and Forbes teamed up to find the best-in-state employers in every state in America. It was no small task as they sorted through over 4.4 million employer recommendations.
READ MORE: 2 of America's Biggest Retailers Are Surprisingly Based in Idaho
What Methodology Was Used in the Study?
According to Statista, only employers with at least 500 employees across the United States were considered for the list. They surveyed approximately 234,000 employees and asked them to score two categories. On a scale of 0-10, how likely would they be to recommend their own employer to friends or family looking for a job.

In the other category, they were shown a list of employers in their industry and could voluntarily say “yes, this would be a good place to work” or “no, you probably shouldn’t apply there.”
Then they ranked the best-in-state employer in every state. We broke that down even further to find the top employer in their “retail and wholesale” category in every state.
Best Retail Employer In America Has Several Locations In Idaho
If you look at the top “retail and wholesale” employers across America, Costco wins by a landslide taking the #1 spot in 11 states including Idaho’s neighbor, Utah. The membership warehouse operates seven locations in Idaho: Boise, Meridian, Nampa, Twin Falls, Idaho Falls, Pocatello and Coeur d’Alene.
Ironically, they didn’t take the #1 spot in the state where they’re headquartered.
Best-In-State Retail Employer Overall in Idaho
Costco also didn’t appear anywhere on the list of “retail and wholesale” employers ranked in the Gem State. So who was the best in the category in Idaho? It’s very cool to see an Idaho-based rank so high! WinCo took the top spot in the category and actually ranked #2 overall behind JR Simplot.
One of the biggest appeals of working at WinCo is the fact that the grocery brand is employee owned. That means that after at least 500 hours of work in the first six months, employees that are at least 19 and accumulate 1000 hours each fiscal year, employees become part of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan. To provide potential employees an idea of how valuable that can be they explain on their website:
Unlike a publicly traded stock valued on the open market, the per share value of WinCo's stock is appraised annually by an independent valuation firm selected by the ESOP trustee. ESOP stock values have averaged increases of 18% compounded annually since 1986. That means an employee who received a company contribution of $5,000 worth of stock in 1986 now has stock worth almost $863,000 from that one year alone!
Other retailers on Idaho's list of best-in-state employers included: Amazon, Lowe's and The Kroger Co. (Fred Meyer.) Albertsons didn't make the list in its home state, but they were the top "retail and wholesale" employer in Montana.
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