No, I don’t work for them, nor does anyone I know. I’m not trying to pitch them or anything. This is just truly mundane and pointless thanksgrubbing.
But I just feel the need to say, thanks, Trader Joe’s! You’ve made my grocery shopping a more pleasant experience. Your employees, from the littlest stockgirl to the manager to the guy who gives me free samples are always bright and cheerful. Last week, one went so far as to ask me for a recipe I mentioned, and actually remembered me when I brought it in to her yesterday!
Your produce is fresh, your wine is cheap and tasty and you have the best prices on all my pantry favorites. I love the dried fruits and nuts selection. Your frozen foods section gives me yummy crabcakes in the privacy of my own home. But mostly, what makes you so damn special is the people who work there. How the hell do you manage to keep all your employees in a good mood all the time - even in the craziness of the holiday season? Either you have spectacular management or opium in the back room.
Thanks, Trader Joe’s. Now when are you going to open a little closer to me?
Well, I usually notice the staff are very friendly, and it seems they can wear just about whatever they want. I’ve noticed more than once a distinct odor of the Hemp Weed when shopping for my cheap wine at T.J’s .
Love the store, and am extremely happy they are close to me.
sniff sniff I miss Trader Joe’s so much. For a long time, the closest Trader Joe’s was at least a day or two drive away, one way. However, happy dance, they finally put a store within 4 hours of where I am now exiled, and supposedly, they are looking to put a store in my town. (crossing fingers)
I will be such a happy camper if they put a Trader Joe’s here—words will not describe how happy I will be. But at least I can get to one (if I really, really want to) within a day (round trip) away. I’ll just have to find an excuse to drive to that town, so I can load up on Trader Joe’s stuff . . . .
Ok, now I feel like a greedy bastard. I live several city miles (which are at least 4 times as long as country miles - more during rush hour) from the nearest TJ’s. It takes a little over an hour to get there in bad traffic. I deeply apologize to **yosemite **for my pointless griping and promise to count my TJ blessings.
Trader Joe’s is EVIL! Evil, I tells ya. How come if everything is so damn cheap, one always spends way more than expected at this palace of cunning?
Gerolsteiner at 99 cents the bottle, and 70% bittersweet chocolate for cookies and brownies, and good strong goat Gouda and aged cheddar, and Triscuit knock-offs that are better than the real thing, and all manner of dried fruits and nuts, and big bottles of Orangina…
Get the picture? I always say oh I’ll pop in for yogurt and eggs and some cheese and some good sandwich bread, some Kashi cereal and Plugra butter, all way cheaper than anywhere else, mind, and before I know it I’m staggering out under the weight of six bags, stunned and broke, wondering how the hell that happened to me again.
Damn you Trader Joes! (waves ineffectual fist at shy)
Where I was born and spent most of my years, there was a Trader Joe’s about 20 minutes (or less) away at all times. I had several to pick from. The 20 minutes or less one (Foothill Blvd., La Crescenta, Calif.) is kind of small, but very nice. Then there’s a bigger and newer one in La Cañada, then the one in downtown Glendale, plus the one in Eagle Rock . . . All of which were in areas where I was often going to be anyway (school, work, shopping). They were everywhere. I was very spoiled.
Now, I am pathetically grateful to have one that is four hours away. It’s pitiful, I’m telling you.
So, definitely, count your TJ blessings. An hour drive? Bah! That’s nothing!
That’s it! They must pump hashish through the ventilation system! That explains why their employees are so happy and why we all get the munchies and buy too much when we shop!
Why you Trader Joe’s…I oughtta…ohhh - peeled chestnuts! For only $3.99! I must have some! Even though I’ve never cooked chestnuts before in my life! I never knew how empty my existence was without chestnuts!
Three years ago, I’d never even heard of TJ’s. Now I wouldn’t know what to do without them. Our newest discovery is their goat cheese - it’s a great snack on wheat thins. I’d list all the stuff I regularly buy there, but it would take too long. I couldn’t live without their peanut butter, or their stir-fry dinners(especially their Kung Pao Chicken, Garlic Chicken, Teriyaki Chicken, and Shrimp stir-fry dinners), or their ‘exotic’ single-serving frozen dinners (peanut satay chicken, chicken biryani, chicken vindaloo, massaman chicken, etc.), their tabbouleh, their hummus, their mini-pitas (to dip the tabbouleh and the hummus with), their pizza crusts and pizza fixin’s, their great coffee assortment, and a whole bunch of other stuff I can’t think of right now.
Four Hours! O, yosemite, you poor sweet thing.
I was pathetically grateful when TJ’s followed me up from the SoCal to the SF Bay Area. But let me tell you, if you want a shop to come to your town, write, write, write letters to the company. Nag all your friends to write as well. Shops want to be where they will make money, and if you tell them a ready base of customers is waiting for them they will come.
I just moved from Miami to Orlando, arguably the two largest, highest-developed, and most tourist-friendly cities in Florida, and we don’t have a Trader Joe’s in either. In fact, I don’t think we have one in the entire state (nor an Ikea, for that matter).
One day, not long after moving to Chicago, my roommate at the time, bristlesage and her fiance at the time (now he’s her husband), dynosaur and I were driving up N. Lincoln when we spotted…Trader Joe’s. I’m from CA and bristlesage went to school in CA and we both just totally freaked out. TJ’s! In Chicago! OMG OMG OMG THIS IS SO AWESOME! dynosaur was worried for our mental health.
We have since converted him. Bwahahahaha!
Anyway, yeah. Closest TJ’s is maybe a mile and a half away from me. Love! I get their prepackaged meals all the time for lunch, and my coworkers are always asking me what I’m eating that smells so good. My mama even sent me a $30 gift card for TJ’s a while ago. What a thoughtful present! I have nothing bad to say about them and their employees are, as mentioned previously, amazingly nice and friendly and so helpful. In most grocery stores, it’s hard to find someone to help you. In TJ’s, they ask if you need help finding anything! Customer service, what a concept!
Hey! That’s my TJ’s, too! I didn’t know they did giftcards! Oh, yea! [happy dance] I may just have to print out this entire love-fest to bring to them next time I go.
I’ve only been to Trader Joe’s once, when I visited friends in Philadelphia in September. My husband thought I was insane to be so excited about a grocery store. In spite of Peanut Butter Joe-Joes, he still thinks I’m crazy. I live five minutes’ walk from two overpriced, pretentious supermarkets with poor selection.
Someone make them open in Toronto! They’d make a killing! Preferably right near me, dammit! We’ve already got a Whole Foods, and I’d much prefer a TJ’s.
They do at Whole Foods too, and it always seems to me that the employees there are happier the stores that let them do that, than in the national chains. I like to see that.
If it weren’t for Trader Joe’s, I fear my freezer would be empty.
Right now I have a frozen cream-of-asparagus soup in the oven (topped w/cheese & hiding a crouton inside, like French onion soup). Get to eat it in 20 minutes.
Love their bagged stir fries, soycotash, roasted frozen corn, frozen cooked rice, capers for cheap, almond butter, dried fruit, habanero pistachios, frozen fish, chicken sausages, whole wheat couscous(!), No-Pudge brownies, cookies & chocolates & all kinds of yummies!
There’s one 3 blocks from where I work and another a short bus ride from where I live, so I end up at Trader Joe’s a lot. Neither sells beer & wine due to Massachusetts’ weird liquor laws (the Brookline, Cambridge & Framingham stores get the booze :mad: ).
The other day I snagged some small fennel bulbs and a huuuge juicy pomegranate.
I too, will drive out of my way to Trader Joes. I actually do the bulk of my shopping there now. You can get odwallah superfood in the BIG size. It is a wonderful fruit drink, despite the fact that it looks like swamp muck.
