I love Trader Joe’s. I’ve been shopping there since 1987. Mostly, their food is very good. There are a couple/few things I don’t like, but I haven’t returned them. But…
I bought a bottle of Trader Joe’s limoncello for Mrs. L.A. She didn’t like it. I had a taste, and we agreed it tasted like bug spray. Yesterday I took it back. I was refunded the purchase price and state alcohol tax.
It’s nice when customer service is a thing. 
10 years ago, when Trader Joe’s first came to Salt Lake, I was looking for something that I had gotten there on a previous visit and really enjoyed, but couldn’t find it (it might have been a frozen Indian entree). One of the employees saw me kind of looking around and came up and asked me if I needed help. I told her what I was looking for and she told me that the item had been discontinued, but pointed out something similar and said that it was really good, but I hesitated, and told her that I wasn’t sure if that would be something I would like or not. She told me to go ahead and try it, and if I didn’t like it, to bring back the empty outer box and the reciept, tell the people at the Customer Service desk that I didn’t enjoy it and I would get a full cash refund, no questions asked. I said that in most stores, if you get something and it isn’t any good, you might be able to take the uneaten portion back and they would maybe give you store credit, although you might need to claim it was inedible due to spoilage, but I didn’t know of anyplace that would give you a refund for something that you ate the entire package of and then got a full refund by telling them it simply wasn’t your cup of tea. She said cheerfully, “Well now you do!”
I have been a huge fan of T.J ever since and have tried dozens of items that I might not have otherwise purchaced, knowing that there was no risk involved. (I also found out later that if you lose the reciept, you can still take an item back and get full store credit, just not cash)
I’m a TJ fan and one of my favorite things about the place is how pleasant and cheerful all of the employees are. On my last visit the checker asked me how I was doing and I said, “great, how are you, for a person who’s at work?” She said, without a hint of irony, “oh I love my job. It’s a great place to work.” I get this attitude from TJ workers all the time and I wonder how they find all these up-beat people. Do they pay a lot more than average or what?
What I’ve noticed is that the checkers are masters at cramming all of the stuff I’ve purchased into the one bag I bring in. (Not to the point that it’s spilling over or too heavy, but it’s well packed.)
SMDB’s finest raconteur, ladies and gentleman!
What I find suspicious is for a place called Trader Joe’s, the only thing they take in exchange for their products is money.
I used to know someone who worked part-time at Trader Joe’s. According to him, starting pay was well above minimum wage and all employees got significant raises every year (according to him, another worker who primarily worked as a bagger and had been with the company for some time was making something like $16+ an hour, in a local job market where workers in other grocery stores start at minimum wage and often go years without a raise). He also said management was very employee-friendly in flex scheduling shifts and time-off.
He was also working part-time at the company where I was working. He was stocking shelves at Trader Joe’s, but working in a much more responsible position at my company - but making more at TJ. TJ was apparently fine with him working another PT job, and was flexible about rescheduling him when we needed him, but our HR department gave him flak about having a second part-time job. Eventually, he asked for some unpaid time-off over the holidays from my company because TJ was going to put him on temporary full-time during the holiday rush. Our supervisor approved - he was a good, reliable worker, and we had enough coverage that we didn’t actually need him for that period. Our HR department refused and told him he either had to work his regular part-time schedule or he’d be dismissed. He didn’t even hesitate and immediately resigned. (That company was bought out by another company that I currently work for, with much saner time-off policies for part time workers - the old company’s basically made it impossible for part-time workers to ever take time off).
I returned something to TJ’s earlier this year. They didn’t even need to see a receipt, just scanned it and refunded my money. I love TJ’s.
I’ve been shopping at the same Trader Joe’s store for over a decade. I’ve noticed a lot of the same employees are still there after all those years. It must be a great place to work if people are actually staying there for years and years. The definitely don’t have the turnover of a typical grocery store.
I know someone who used to work for TJ’s. He loved it. The only reason he quit was because the business he’d started at the same time he took the TJ’s job finally became successful enough to pay the bills. He’s a huge extrovert, though, and I think that’s pretty much a requirement for a floor job there.