# Trader Joe's vs Whole Foods **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 12, 2019, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654 "2019-01-12T19:43:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/41 "2019-01-14T11:49:37Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That’s spoiled? Huh. I’ve got an Aldi, a Bi-Rite, and something called Lucky’s (overpriced and mediocre quality, but it’s there) within easy walking distance, two Giant Eagles, a Marc’s, and a Discount Drug Mart in easy bike distance, a Sav-A-Lot that’s a little further but that I go right past on a number of my other errands anyway, and a Dave’s, a Heinen’s, a Whole Foods, another Sav-A-Lot, and the West Side Market close enough that I could reasonably bike to them if for some reason I thought it was important. By any reasonable standard of “driving distance”, I could also add a Wal-Mart, another Heinen’s, another Dave’s, another Aldi, another Marc’s, a Trader Joe’s, and probably a few others I’m forgetting or not familiar with. I guess you win. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/42 "2019-01-14T12:33:45Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That’s spoiled? Huh. I’ve got an Aldi, a Bi-Rite, and something called Lucky’s (overpriced and mediocre quality, but it’s there) within easy walking distance, two Giant Eagles, a Marc’s, and a Discount Drug Mart in easy bike distance, a Sav-A-Lot that’s a little further but that I go right past on a number of my other errands anyway, and a Dave’s, a Heinen’s, a Whole Foods, another Sav-A-Lot, and the West Side Market close enough that I could reasonably bike to them if for some reason I thought it was important. By any reasonable standard of “driving distance”, I could also add a Wal-Mart, another Heinen’s, another Dave’s, another Aldi, another Marc’s, a Trader Joe’s, and probably a few others I’m forgetting or not familiar with. So, you live in an urban/suburban environment? My local brands are different than your local brands, but I’ve always assumed that anyone that doesn’t live in the sticks has this plethora of choice. On the other hand, what’s a reasonable standard of “driving distance”? For that matter, of bicycle distance (asks the cycle tourist)? What I don’t have, though, is a Whole Foods. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/44 "2019-01-14T15:06:15Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That’s spoiled? Huh. I’ve got an Aldi, a Bi-Rite, and something called Lucky’s . . . > . . . I could also add a Wal-Mart, another Heinen’s, another Dave’s, another Aldi, another Marc’s, a Trader Joe’s, and probably a few others I’m forgetting or not familiar with. Did you really just turn this into a competition? Why do people do that? What is the prize? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/45 "2019-01-14T17:45:05Z")
I like Trader Joe’s because it has a sort of… fun(?) vibe to their store and product choices. It’s somewhere you can go and buy your staple foods, but you can count on them to have quirky and fun and unusual snacks and foods. Whole Foods seems to be a retail form of virtue signaling for a lot of people. It seems to be the place where wealthy people who want to display that they “care about what they eat” shop. I only go there because they have a great beer selection, otherwise I can find everything they have cheaper and/or better somewhere else because I don’t give a crap about buying organic. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/46 "2019-01-14T18:09:32Z")
Trader Joe’s but mostly for some of their store-brand teas; they have a couple I just really love. Whole Foods just never did much for me and it hasn’t improved, to me, since Amazon took over. Although their Whole Foods Now project is interesting. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/47 "2019-01-14T19:51:42Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Did you really just turn this into a competition? Why do people do that? What is the prize? Dude, you don’t get to be a moderator if you have a paucity of food stores near where you live. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/48 "2019-01-14T20:29:31Z")
I have found Whole Foods a lot better in terms of selection and produce, but the price was MUCH higher than Trader Joes. However, ever since Amazon bought WFs, I’ve found the prices to far better. They just opened a Whole Foods 365 market near me which combines the best of both worlds, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/49 "2019-01-14T20:56:31Z")
> [@ISiddiqui](#): > > I have found Whole Foods a lot better in terms of selection and produce, but the price was MUCH higher than Trader Joes. However, ever since Amazon bought WFs, I’ve found the prices to far better. I remember how excited I was when, to celebrate the new ownership, Whole Foods had a sale on avocados. For a limited time, they were only twice as expensive as the avocados sold everywhere else, rather than triple the price. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/50 "2019-01-14T21:30:11Z")
I didn’t mean it to be competitive. I just take it for granted that everyone has a wide variety of grocery stores within reasonable range. As for what counts as “reasonable distance”, let’s say 15 minutes travel time each way. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/51 "2019-01-14T22:15:23Z")
I stopped at Whole Foods today because it was convenient and also because their dairy is better quality than Giant and 7-Eleven’s and I needed milk. I ended up buying a lot of 365-brand canned beans of various types—kidney, cannellini, garbanzos, etc.—because they were 79 or 99 cents a can. That’s not a bad price. I have had trouble finding cannellini beans at Giant and other places, so that might become a regular Whole Foods item for me. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/52 "2019-01-14T23:39:11Z")
I keep hearing, here and elsewhere, how expensive Whole Foods is. I rarely pay attention to prices (much to my wife’s dismay), but I know the grapes I bought were $2.99/lb. and the avocados were 89 cents each; this doesn’t seem that outrageous to me. Is it? mmm ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/53 "2019-01-14T23:47:01Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > If my regular grocery store was besieged by aliens and I needed to buy groceries, I’d go to Whole Foods. Shouldn’t we try and keep political commentary out of the Café Society? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/54 "2019-01-15T16:03:47Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > I keep hearing, here and elsewhere, how expensive Whole Foods is. I rarely pay attention to prices (much to my wife’s dismay), but I know the grapes I bought were $2.99/lb. and the avocados were 89 cents each; this doesn’t seem that outrageous to me. > > Is it? > mmm It’s not so much the produce, although it is usually a bit higher than other places, but everything else in the store. You want a gallon of milk? You can’t just get a gallon of house-brand regular milk for $2 (what I recall a bog-standard gallon of 2% costing), instead you have to get either the organic house brand for $3.50, or some branded organic sort for up to $5. Same thing elsewhere- their house-brand stuff is more expensive than house-brands elsewhere, and their brand names are usually the most expensive, most pretentious versions available. If you want canned tomatoes, you’re getting the 360 brand for about what you’d pay for Hunt’s or Contadina, and if you buy a branded one, you’re paying a LOT more for (usually) organic or specific cultivars. Same thing with sandwich meat- you can’t just go get Oscar Mayer ham, you have to get some sort of twee brand of uncured ham that costs 30% more. Their prices on stuff that you can directly compare, like say… beer, are comparable to everywhere else. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/55 "2019-01-15T16:17:24Z")
Of the two I prefer Trader Joe’s, but Whole Foods is closer. Whole Foods is a 5 minute drive. Trader Joe’s is at least 30. And while like others I find the selection at TJ’s to be limited, I also can’t do 100% of my supermarket shopping at WF, either. When it comes to branded items, both stores’ general ordering policy seems to be, “If you can easily buy it at another store, we probably don’t sell it.” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/56 "2019-01-15T16:18:15Z")
> [@bump](#): > > It’s not so much the produce, although it is usually a bit higher than other places, but everything else in the store. > > You want a gallon of milk? You can’t just get a gallon of house-brand regular milk for $2 (what I recall a bog-standard gallon of 2% costing), instead you have to get either the organic house brand for $3.50, or some branded organic sort for up to $5. That’s actually a really good price for organic milk ($3.50). At my regular grocery, regular milk runs about $3-$4 a gallon. I have to go to Target or Aldi to get a decent price, usually around $2.50. If I’m willing to make a thirty minute drive to Meijer in the suburbs, then I could find it for something like $1.79. I don’t know of any place I could get organic milk for much under $5/gallon. Whole Foods is definitely more expensive than your average grocery store, but some things are priced quite normally. The beer, wine, liquor section is the usual prices; the 365 branded goods are competitively priced. The bulk beans and such are priced well, too, especially given the variety (which is far more than most stores I go to have.) I usually find their produce to be overpriced, but the prices **mmm** mentions are reasonable. Typically, I find it at least 50% more expensive than the usual grocery I use for produce. The meat case is the spendiest part of the store for me, so I never buy any meat there, unless I want something like a dry-aged beef and I don’t feel like going to a specialty butcher to get it. ---
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/57 "2019-01-15T17:02:06Z")
Whole Foods is where I buy almost all meat and a few other things (I love their 365 no salt tortilla chips and some of their deli salads). Trader Joe’s is where I buy ready to eat sandwiches and frozen stuff. The two stores never cross over, for me. I’m at WF weekly, TJ’s maybe once every 4-5 months. Fruits and veggies I buy at Fresh Thyme. Everything else either at Cub or Hy-Vee. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/58 "2019-01-16T19:19:32Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > I keep hearing, here and elsewhere, how expensive Whole Foods is. I rarely pay attention to prices (much to my wife’s dismay), but I know the grapes I bought were $2.99/lb. and the avocados were 89 cents each; this doesn’t seem that outrageous to me. > > Is it? > mmm To the extent that WF fresh fruit is more expensive, IME it’s been worth the extra price. But most of the time I just want cheap bananas, and I don’t need them to be display quality. Once I accidentally picked a bunch off the hanging wall of special organicness, and was blown away to learn I’d just spent $11 on bananas. That’s another con I should have listed for TJs though. The produce there is priced as if it were top of the line, but I have been universally disappointed with it. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/59 "2019-01-16T19:33:18Z")
Oh, and that reminds me, Whole Foods around here usually has Hatch chiles for a week or so in August, and it’s one of the few places I could find them around here in the city. (All the other places I could think of are a bit of a drive to the suburbs, though I’ve made the drive when the local Whole Foods ran out.) Last year, I believe they were priced at $1.49/lb, which I think is more than reasonable all the way out here in Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/60 "2019-01-16T20:50:32Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Oh, and that reminds me, Whole Foods around here usually has Hatch chiles for a week or so in August, and it’s one of the few places I could find them around here in the city. Ohh, thanks for reminding me. I roasted,vacuum bagged, and froze some Hatches last fall for some nice winter stews and tamales, except I had almost forgotten about them since winter hasn’t yet shown up here in Detroit. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654/61 "2019-01-16T21:19:28Z")
I like both, but Trader Joe’s is my fave. Better prices overall. Love their chips, flowers, peanut butter pretzels (oddly, their peanut butter sucks) banana chips, roasted nuts of all varieties, pasta, bread… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trader-joes-vs-whole-foods/827654.md?page=4)