They have a line of sparkling juices that are great, especially the pomegranite and cranberry varieties.
And they occasionally have an excellent frozen sole. Their cage-free eggs are fantastic, and they have a great cheese aisle.
The masala naan is terrific hot from the toaster.
Oddly enough, I like Trader Joe’s for a lot of staples. They are the cheapest in town for:
Cheese
Milk, butter and most dairy products
Eggs
Canned Tomatoes
Pasta
Frozen green beans, corn and peas
Two Buck Chuck (that’s a staple, right?)
Jameson’s (they don’t have it at Costco)
Stuff that is just plain good and cheap:
Wasabi peas
Prepared salads
Pork potstickers
Cashews, pistachios and almost any nut
Dried apricots
Bunches of frozen entrees
Frozen pesto
Granola with antioxidant berries
Random cheap wine
The Simmer Sauces are really good.
Simply remove the skin and bones from three or four chicken thighs and chop the meat into one-inch bits. The jar says to cook the chicken, but I just cook it with the sauce. Peel and cut into one-inch pieces one large-ish potato. Throw it into the pot. Add the red curry simmer sauce. Simmer until the chicken and potato are cooked. Serve over rice.
For the Thai Green Curry Simmer Sauce I cut up a thin, lean cut of beef and cook it in a pot until the liquid contained in the meat boils off. Add the TGCSS and simmer until heated through. Serve over rice.
Two-Buck Chuck is definitely a staple. A very drinkable table wine. And they have some premium wines there at a very good price too.
Unfortunately, no Jameson’s at Trader Joe’s up here. Stupid state liquor laws. Not that I drink spirits very often, but I liked knowing I could go into any supermarket and buy some if I wanted. And TJ’s has very good prices. Oh, well. There’s always the Duty Free shop.
Nuh uh bull crap.
Or, in other words, I guess you don’t have a regular grocery store in your area?
Or in other other words, around here where I am, Trader Joe’s is notoriously expensive for stuff like that. Only the truly dedicated or thoughtless rich buy their staples from Trader Joes.
-FrL-
I don’t know where you live, but I find the prices for the above-listed items here in this major metro area at TJ’s to be well below the prices in major supermarkets. There are a couple of things I might be able to find more cheaply (eggs, when they are on sale at my little neighborhood produce stand, or canned tomato products, if I buy a huge package at Costco). But Trader Joe’s consistently has the lowest prices around here for normal quantities.
Things I love there:
The quart tubs of organic lowfat yogurt
Granola
Coffee (I like the Seattle Roast, or whatever it’s called, in the blue can)
Fresh-squeezed orange and grapefruit juices
The cheese aisle, especially chevre, or goat’s milk brie when they have it
Bread, if I don’t manage to make my own or go to a bakery
Random gourmet items, like orange muscat vinegar for salad dressings
Frozen berries - way cheaper than the supermarket, and better quality
Frozen shrimp - same
Decaf Earl Grey tea
Thai chili-lime cashews
Dried fruit, nuts: very competitive prices, fresher than many other places
Steel-cut oatmeal: cheaper than anywhere but the bulk bin at the health food store
Pound Plus bars of bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, for baking: perfectly adequate for most purposes, and far cheaper than the alternatives
And as far as prepared foods, I love that (unlike supermarket prepared foods) they don’t have all kinds of artificial chemical crap in them.
The frozen cioppino in a bag is outstanding!
ALL of their cheese is amazingly less expensive than anywhere else.
Frozen stuffed salmon.
Frozen gyoza.
Shrimp or vegetarian egg rolls.
Pizza!
I could go on and on…we would shop there every day if it were closer!
Trader Joe’s is less expensive for a lot of these staple things than Jewel, THE major grocery chain in my area. However, both suffer in terms of price and selection to Woodman’s. I do most of my shopping now at Woodman’s, hit Trader Joe’s for the few private label things there that I can’t live without now, and only go to Jewel for in-between-weekly-shopping runs (and broccoli raab, which for some reason I have only found at Jewel around here.)
From home: Jewel - 1 mile; Woodman’s - 5 miles; Trader Joe’s - 6 miles.
Hmmm. I guess you live in my town and know better than me. We do not have any discount supermarkets (No Food4Less and the like). We’ve got a plethora of standard stores: Vons, Ralphs, and Albertson’s. Scolari’s is a regional supermarket. Albertson’s is my local supermarket and they are way more expensive except for the ludicrous loss leader Preferred card specials. I sometimes go there and buy ONLY preferred card specials.
I’m a cheap bastard, and I’m pretty sure I’m right on this account in my ridiculously expensive town. The Mexican market is a the cheapest place for produce (cosmetically challenged as it may be) and for meat (I like the concept of a butcher shop anyhow). The cheapest beer in town is the Rite-Aid. I can tell you off the top of my head what some of the prices at TJ’s are:
1 dozen large eggs 99¢
1 quart 1% milk 99¢
1 lb. pasta 79¢
26 oz. canned tomatoes 99¢
2 buck chuck $2
750ml Jameson’s $19.99
Whatever.
You really can’t beat the milk and egg prices at T.J.'s. 59-cent yogurt isn’t much of a strain on the pocketbook either.
I think maybe you misunderstood me?
What did you think I was trying to say in my post?
In fact what I was trying to say is “You lucky bastard.” As in, jokingly, “No way, nobody could have it that good.”
-FrL-
In fact, just out of curiosity I surveyed a few of my friends about this to make sure I wasn’t remembering wrong.
I guess it must be a regional thing. Here, it was universally affirmed, we love trader joe’s but damn is it expensive, across the board.
I live in Orange County, in Irvine, where everyone but us poor students is rich, so that might have something to do with it.
Now that we’ve heard that everywhere else, TJ’s is actually affordable, we’re kind of ticked off.
-FrL-
Twice I have bought rib eye steaks at TJs. They were the two best steaks I can recall eating in more than 50 years of eating steaks.
I am a big fan of TJ’s freezer aisle. My husband and I love love love the Mandarin Orange Chicken. Small, battered pieces of chicken, fully cooked, that you bake until hot and crisp. Then you toss them with a separately packaged spicy orange sauce. Horribly unhealthy, but incredibly delicious for a prepared frozen pre-cooked product.
They also have some bagged stir-fried rice, both shrimp and chicken, that I always try to have some of in my freezer since they are quick and make a tasty addition to a dinner when my culinary muse is out of town. And speaking of rice, they have some really good rice ‘medleys’ which are seasoned and usually have basmati and wild rice. I often add dried wild mushrooms to these. mmmmm, I think I know what is for dinner now.
Trader Joe’s is the place to buy nuts! And good prices on some European chocolates.
The cilantro jalapeno hummus is much too delicious and I don’t understand how they can call a teaspoon of it a serving.
Does anyone else find that the crowds at Trader Joe’s are amongst the ruder people in the world? It may just be the store I usually shop at (Bellevue, WA, just down the street from the Microsoft campus) but there are more poorly parked cars in the lot, temporarily abandoned carts blocking aisles while the shopper blocks off a different section, unsupervised children racing around. At least the staff are always friendly, the prices good, and the products delicious.
I think the crowds are if anything, less obnoxious. Their cashiers strike me as being unusually competent (don’t get me started on Rite-Aid). I think one of the biggest problems is that TJ’s is notorious for locating in places with inadequate parking. I’ve been to TJ’s in L.A., Santa Barbara, San Carlos and San Francisco and none of them ever had anything close to enough parking.
I’ll try those some time. On occasion, I have bought the Angus beef tenderloin steaks. Oh my…It is to die and go to steak heaven.
In the Twin Cities it’s 3 buck chuck. Still a good deal, but not worth a trip to the ritzy suburb the TJs is in.
What a GREAT store!
Everything is super premium at great prices…
Except…
Alcohol. Do they have good beer and wine?
Yes.
Is most of it complete shit?
Yes.
Oh, and stay away from their fruits and vegetables. I’m lucky because connected to my Trader Joe’s is a store called Limbo which sells organic fruits and vegetables.
My favorite products?
Snack foods, especially rice cracker snacks and sesame sticks.
Battered halibut (as opposed to the shit at most stores that passed for breaded fish).
Shower gel! OMFG…I could make a post on these items alone.
Their virtuoso lip balm is pure heaven.
Great meats and cheeses.
I adore their kosher flaked sea salt, balsamic vinegars, and olive oils.
Reasonably priced freshly cut flowers.
Reasonably priced EmergenC (even though I believe vitamin supplements are like pissing money down the drain).
I love Trader Joe’s.
No-one has mentioned TJ’s Lavash. Great for wrapping up any wrappables you may find there. TJ’s is also the most reliable source for Hansen’s Diet Ginger Ale, one of the best carbonated zero-calorie drinks in my book.