TJ's is a great place!

Pick up some chicken potstickers, triple gingersnap cookies, Hatch chili mac n cheese and some sprouted wheat sourdough.

If your palate can't appreciate those things, to start with, your life is rather shallow. Not everything there is fantastic but like all stores, your have to shop carefully.

My go to place for fat free pasta sauces, brownie and corn bread mixed. Scarlett and Lola, my late Pitties loved their peanut butter dog cookies. I used to make the 70 mile round trip mainly for them.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Just a high priced grocery store, small.

High priced? They are nothing of the sort. They're actually very good food for very reasonable prices. My wife and I shop there on occasion if we happen to be in Salt Lake City.

Their sea salt potato chips are incredible. The closest one is 230 miles away. Not worth the drive.

They “brand” a lot of their stuff. Used to be you could buy Crystal Geyser sparkling mineral water at Vons (think Safeway, a large chain grocery store) or you could buy it at Trader Joe’s for about 20% LESS. Then TJ’s branded it. The same water, but instead of coming in a blue tinted bottle with a label that says Crystal Geyser, it comes in a clear bottle with a label that says a Trader Joe’s. Still considerably cheaper. They do a lot of convenience stuff, meals ready to cook for one or two. That stuff is (obviously) more expensive than buying bulk at Costco, but for singles or small families the convenience can be a winner. College students love it.

They have a sample station where they usually have a meal or snack thrown together from two or three ingredients, as well as a coffee sample station where there’s a hot pot with the coffee of the day, 1/2 & 1/2 for those who want it, and shot glass sized paper coffee cups.

They tend to have interesting things. If you’re like me and could eat the same thing every day and not mind (what’s not to love about bacon? ), you might not explore so much. If you are adventurous in your eats, they make it easy to try things in small doses so you aren’t out a bundle if you don’t love something.

Trader Joe’s isn’t for everyone, but it has its place.

A neighbor put us onto it and over time it has morphed from Mrs. slosig doing most of her shopping at Vons and occasionally hitting TJ’s to the reverse.

They have some quality food at reasonable prices. Some of their in house beers are pretty good too. I really like the small size of the store, I'm not overwhelmed by choices and I can get in and out quickly.

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I really like the small size of the store, I'm not overwhelmed by choices and I can get in and out quickly.

That's a very good point!

TJ's is great. Mostly private label stuff made by the big companies. If it's anything like every Trader Joe's I've been to, parking is going to be a joke. I honestly think they select store locations with the the shittiest parking available on purpose.

I like shopping there. In and out quick, good quality cheeses, ready-to-eat salads, eggs, cream, etc. Two buck Chuck is now 3 bucks but still pretty damn good for the price.

I avoid reading any of their literature for fear of discovering that they are rabidly anti-gun.

TJ’s has some tasty frozen East Indian entrees that I like. Also some off-the-beaten-path breads. The TJ’s near my home has a station that offers free samples – usually tasty.

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Originally posted by 6guns:

quote:

I really like the small size of the store, I'm not overwhelmed by choices and I can get in and out quickly.

That's a very good point!

I like how they check you out too. You line your cart up on the cashier's side, and he takes all your stuff out and rings it up while a second helper bags and loads it in another cart. Pretty efficient.

I like Trader Joe's breakfast cereals. Beats cornflakes anyday.

quote:

Originally posted by GTO:
I like Trader Joe's breakfast cereals. Beats cornflakes anyday.

Their multi-grain pancake mix is pretty good as well.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
It's a smallish, crunchy/hippyish grocery chain.

They cater to the organic crowd.

I've been to them and don't see what the big deal is.

?
Not even close to being hippy-central. Most main-stream grocery stores have Organic aisles larger than a Trader Joe's.

TJ, like many grocery stores has its strengths and weakness. Anybody who does the household grocery shopping knows you can't go to just one store if you're driven by a price/value equation.

They're privately owned, and source their own products, most of which are of very good quality. There's a few familiar brands but, they largely source and package their own which helps keep costs controlled which means no distributors to push them around or obnoxious in-store promotions. They rarely advertise, don't do sales but, will promote a handful of items. Samples and coffee are freely available. In general, their best areas is their frozen food selection, their unique alcohol assortment, dairy to include a very good cheese selection, uniquely pre-prepared food and their sweet snacks, particularly during the holidays. I find their meats and produce on the high-side so, I'll only buy when those items are in-season, their bacon and pre-seasoned meats are quite good. They pre-package a lot of items that work for 2-person servings, thus it works for twenty & thirty somethings, singles and seniors; the hippies and crunches freak-out about this. Employees are paid a bit better than average hence, most are in a good/positive mood, sometimes too cheerful for me. The stores are smaller than avg grocery store as they work to keep things efficient while keeping the product turning, and prevent items from sitting too long.

The only place more overrated than Trader Joe's is In n Out Burger. Been to both once and never understood the attraction to either.

Been to Trader Joes twice. Once in Olympia WA and once in Bethel Park, PA.

Didn't buy or see anything worth getting. To my wife and I, it looked like a store frequented by "chancleteros".

Pachouli oil and Birkenstock sandals are standard for 90 percent of the people at the one my wife drags me to.

I love Trader Joe’s!

Pretty sure Aldi owns them.

I like Trader Joe's. They're a little crunchy but their "culture" seems very libertarian.

I don't shop there but I work there. I can tell you a few things. First if you are into tofu then that's your store. Needed to fix the lights on their tofu shelves. Filled three carts clear to the top of 8-9 different types. I had no clue there are so many.

Next I can tell you they run a clean operation, both in efficiency and cleanliness. They are super on top of getting old stuff off the shelves and making sure all their products are neat and well stocked. If you have a question they look you in the eye, and help you with a giant smile on their faces. They even actually walk you to the product you need instead of saying isle 9 and pointing in a nebulous direction. I always see the same people when I go there, so low turnover.


Their flowers are beautiful. I would not buy a steak there, zero marbeling and prepackaged. I like to see my cow get sliced up fresh. I've tried a number of their samples and never been disappointed. I'm lazy, I go to closest place and I got Wegmans, Costco, Giant, and Safeway all under five miles away, not worth the extra few miles to me to go to them.

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