Trader Joe's day by day

We are in a 1BR VRBO in Washington DC. There is a Trader Joe's on the same block. We came 'home' tonite and stopped there for dinner fixin's. The place was packed! The line to the (15) checkouts was a serpentine from front to back of the store for 5 aisles! It still was orderly, nobody jumping the line, and still just too 5-10 minutes. Now, I have not been to our new TV's 120 miles from home, but if all of them are this busy, I want stock!

Orange Chicken tonite.

Jim

Trader Joe's is very popular! We are hoping to get one in our area, closest one is 50 miles away!

The Trader Joe's at Union Sq. in NYC is so out of control that I've never wanted to wait in the huge line to buy anything. The stores in S. Florida are a pleasure to shop in as are the ones on Long Island

I don't get Trader Joes

I may be the only person who doesn't get Trader Joes. I have been to many Trader Joes in Southern California and the produce is not good, bread is stale, nuts are stale, frozen and refrigerator foods are not healthy options and the prices are high. I just don't get it. Other than the lovely fresh flowers I don't know what the draw is. Must be wine... Two buck chuck.

Kel said:

I may be the only person who doesn't get Trader Joes. I have been to many Trader Joes in Southern California and the produce is not good, bread is stale, nuts are stale, frozen and refrigerator foods are not healthy options and the prices are high. I just don't get it. Other than the lovely fresh flowers I don't know what the draw is. Must be wine... Two buck chuck.

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I somewhat agree. I have been a few times and just don't get the hype. I will take Aldi any day over Trader Joe's. In fact I probably visit Aldi two to three times a week. When we travel now to timeshare, I look for the closest Costco and the closest Aldi. I can get pretty much everything I need between these two stores. Though I loved C&D Product in West Palm Beach. The cheapest produce by far. So whenever we return to West Palm Beach, we will need to visit three stores.

Kel said:

I may be the only person who doesn't get Trader Joes. I have been to many Trader Joes in Southern California and the produce is not good, bread is stale, nuts are stale, frozen and refrigerator foods are not healthy options and the prices are high. I just don't get it. Other than the lovely fresh flowers I don't know what the draw is. Must be wine... Two buck chuck.

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Wow my decades of purchasing from them must be wrong, and I must enjoy stale nuts, produce and like to pay a lot. Lol


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Not Wine Drinkers

Kel said:

I may be the only person who doesn't get Trader Joes. I have been to many Trader Joes in Southern California and the produce is not good, bread is stale, nuts are stale, frozen and refrigerator foods are not healthy options and the prices are high. I just don't get it. Other than the lovely fresh flowers I don't know what the draw is. Must be wine... Two buck chuck.

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For us, can't be the wine because we drink only rarely. Have a Trader Joe's less then two blocks from our house. We don't find everything better or cheaper but do like what we buy there and before retiring about two years ago I worked for 43 years at major grocery chain and wife still does with 39 years in. Like to think we do know something about groceries.
Bart

We loved their vino selections.

I don't understand them either - but I guess they're great for those that do!

Costco is one I just can't shop at anymore. Had a membership last year just for the crack-chickens and giant Folgers coffee. Just can't do those lines, with the people in front of you who stand there 20 minutes and then don't have their costco card and payment ready. Not to mention the chatty Ken's and Cathy's who must only see their neighbors there and have to block entire aisles while they catch up on the gossip in the hood.

I used to dislike Trader Joes's, mainly because of the terrible parking near our store. I'm coming around. I think that a lot depends on what your local store carries. Our store has a million IPA's (ok, I exaggerate) but when I went to the Palm Desert store, it had a significantly smaller selection. My husband was in a bit of shock, only two kinds of Stone IPA, and no Ballast Point. The selection process was so much faster!

My current TJ favorites: their fresh salsa (medium) paired with the organic blue corn tortilla chips. This should be it's own food group.

Bool Kogi - their preseasoned Korean beef. I am sure that the foodies of the world are cringing, but for a quick meal I give them a thumbs up. I especially like these for timeshare stays where I don't have a full cupboard of spices etc.

Wine: Now to make the enologists cringe - Grifone wines ($3.99/bottle) I like the white for summer - nice and light, and I have also enjoyed the Primitivo (the bottle indicates that it is an Old Vine Zinfandel). I can only drink one glass of wine per day - Dr.'s orders - and I was sick of wasting expensive wine so I tried these. These are surprisingly nice wines to have with dinner on the weeknights.

I think that my favorite thing about Trader Joe's is that the store has a limited number of items. I can get in and out in 20 minutes. The clerks are very nice too.

Trader Joe's

Unfortunately, I LOVE a number of their cookies! Am sad that they no longer have the heart shaped lemon cookies they used to sell around Valentine's Day. Also had some great baby back ribs from the meat department. Good selection and price on flowers. Other than that, there's nothing else there yet that we've found we like.

They are the only American grocery chain where I can find Poutine in the frozen section. Have bought a few bags and they are okay, not as good as what I get "up north" or make myself. But a quick decent substitute.

I guess something else holding me back from visiting is that there is only one location close to us and it isn't convenient. I drive past the exit every day where Aldi is located and there is also one within two minutes of work and another 5 minutes the other way from our home. Trader Joe's is about 15 minutes out of the way. We get over that way perhaps three or four times a year.

I regularly shop at TJs. They offer a fine selection of products that appeal to me. As I type this I'm eating Trader Joe's brand Chickenless Salad. That said, I also shop at many other grocery stores because I can't get everything I want all in one place.

From Business Insider:

Trader Joe's is on fire.

The company famously sells more than two times per square foot than the average grocery chain. [...]

Eighty percent of Trader Joe's products are in-house, meaning that customers can't get them anywhere else and the grocer can sell them at lower prices.

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Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/trader-joes-is-overtaking-whole-foods-2014-5#ixzz3GnPKrC4c

Love Joe's 21 Salute salt-free seasoning and their fresh pizza dough and pizza sauce. Lime Chicken Burgers w/guacamole are great for the grill. Good canned Roma tomatoes and pastas, etc. They just have a lot of specialty items, I can't get anywhere else without paying a premium.

We have a Trader Joes in Pittsburgh..... I never go because of the ridiculous state run Liquor Stores in PA. Hence, no liquor sales at Trader Joes.:annoyed:

Pizza dough

SunSand said:

Love Joe's 21 Salute salt-free seasoning and their fresh pizza dough and pizza sauce. Lime Chicken Burgers w/guacamole are great for the grill. Good canned Roma tomatoes and pastas, etc. They just have a lot of specialty items, I can't get anywhere else without paying a premium.

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I forgot about the pizza dough. It is my favorite, having tried those from Harris Teeter and Publix as well. Haven't tried TJ's pizza sauce. Thanks. Will next time we do pizzas on the grill!

Ricci said:

We have a Trader Joes in Pittsburgh..... I never go because of the ridiculous state run Liquor Stores in PA. Hence, no liquor sales at Trader Joes.:annoyed:

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You can buy beer NOW in grocery stores in PA ... very recent change.

More than beer ==> State Liquor stores (or whatever they are calling themselves lately). Isn't Pittsburg near Ohio?

Since we don't have Trader Joe's I always bring some of the 21 Salute seasoning home as well as some of the other spices because the prices are great. I have been tempted to try some of their frozen dinners and packaged dinners but the sodium content is so high I haven't done it yet.

Lynn

I went to our local TJ's today to get the Pumpkin soup and they are already sold out for the year. Had to go to Amazon to get it. :annoyed: