I hate you all…:). I have to travel an hour and a half to the closest one and won’t be able to go until next week.
I had the apple stuffing pork chops for dinner. Tasty.
And I had a small piece of the Irish cheddar with porter. Really snacky.
I’m a block and a half from mine. Do I win? 
Right now I’m eating the coconut flavor Sharon’s Sorbet. It is beyond nummy. And I don’t even like coconut!
Oh, and the mini goat brie is excellent and cheap cheap cheap!
Don’t miss TJ’s black licorice bites! Soft and chewy, with real strong licorice flavor. It’s usally over one of the coolers, with the Belgian dark chocolate.
Hmmm…additional stuff I got: dried apple rings with cinnamon, frozen shrimp, frozen spinach, and frozen broccoli (doesn’t sound exotic, but they have excellent frozen vegetables at regular grocery store prices), Sesame Honey Cashews (where do I send the bill, Mr. L.A.?), some apple Lärabars, honey wheat pretzels, and other stuff I’m forgetting.
I blame this thread. 
GT
What? you expect not to like them? :dubious:
Last time over there (I am there probably twice a week), I picked up that frozen rice I mentioned upthread, ditto the chocolate seashells, some frozen mini meatballs, some great sausage and pomodoro pasta sauce, a couple of demi baguettes, sugar and salt-free canned corn, Sweet Savory & Tart Trek mix, sesame seed pretzel bites, chili verde, breaded cod fillets, asian chicken for lettuce wraps, green olive tapenade, ginger spread, a pork tri tip to simmer in the peach salsa, jumbo eggs (why can’t you get really big eggs at the grocery store anymore?), salad veggies like celery hearts & green onions, four packages of asparagus (best in the world) and I can’t remember what else.
It’s all good. 
Of their pre-made salads in boxes, my favorite is the gorgonzola/endive/romaine/walnuts.
When they have the frozen eggplant breaded cutlets in stock, I buy those and cover them with marinara and cheese for a quick dinner. Frozen bag of risotto is pretty good too.
Chunky olive hummus is to die for.
Their orange/cranberry scones are delightful.
I buy several bags of the multi grain sesame pretzel nuggets every time I go.
They opened one in Charlotte a few months back, finally.
I’m currently sipping a cocktail made with dark rum, pineapple liqueur, triple sec, and Trader Joe’s Italian Blood Orange soda. The grapefruit soda is excellent as well.
I can’t claim to love the 2 Buck Chuck, but they have a $3.99 Vinho Verde that is quite refreshing.
Dark Chocolate Roasted Pistachio Toffee… mmmm.
Damn you all.
We have a Whole Foods. Why don’t we have a Trader Joe’s?
‘Whole Paycheck’?
We just got one here in Woodbury. **Dangerosa **and I went over and checked it out yesterday. It was very busy – must have been a lot of pent-up demand. We didn’t buy anything, as we both passionately hate waiting in lines and didn’t really need anything. We did, however, decide that we will be back and will be buying. They have some nice gluten-free options.
The one in Bellingham was also very busy. It just opened two weeks ago. The way people were milling about with their shopping carts, I got the impression that this was the first time they’d been in a Trader Joe’s. They didn’t know where anything was, they wandered aimlessly, and they spent a long time reading labels. And there were probably people like me who have been shopping there 20+ years, and they thronged to the place when it opened near them. So pent-up demand from people who have been there, plus new shoppers who have been hearing about TJ’s for possibly years and years who want to see what all the fuss is about.
Yep, that was very much the feeling.
The one near me has been open for a decade or more, and it’s mobbed at all times, too!
I think the company is very very savvy about where they choose to open new locations. They have expanded surprisingly slowly compared to other national chains. I’m guessing that they are willing to wait to open new stores until they find locations that are pretty much guaranteed to be successful. Now that they are so well known, they can choose areas where there’s already some buzz and “pent-up demand.”
They’ve usually been busy whenever I’ve gone – except for the one that was just a couple of blocks from my apartment, which I was able to hit at slow times. But indeed they are usually busy, and often packed. The difference at this new store is that most of the shoppers seemed to be lost. At all of the other stores people have known where they were going and made room for others. At the new store people seemed not to know where to go, and were so preoccupied looking at unfamiliar items that many of them blocked the aisles with their diagonally parked carts. And it seemed to be a ‘family event’. Lots of people had kids in tow who spread out to further add to the congestion. I’m sure it will calm down to orderly crowding once people get used to it.
One thing I’ve never seen in any of the other stores was a ‘play area’ for kids. It had a blackboard and chalk, and some other things. (I didn’t really notice what the ‘other things’ were, as it was thoughtfully put out of the way in a corner of the store.) Good idea.
I also like the location. There are offramps/intersections in Bellingham that are difficult. For example, I often exit at Meridian. The light is long, and once you get through them there are tons of cars trying to get into the mall (left turn). If you want to turn right to go to Home Despot you need to cross a lane full of people who are exiting the northbound freeway and are trying to move left to go to the mall. Trader Joe’s is located on James. Most people turn left (two lanes, one of which also allows going straight ahead) to another mall. So going straight down James is easy. There’s a signal controlled left turn lane to go into one side of the shopping area, which is nice. (You can also go straight and turn across James into the lot, or go to another intersection to turn left there.)
I have noticed that every single SoCal TJs that I have shopped at have the same funky, let’s-go-sideways shopping carts. Do you guys have them too?
Funny, I never noticed in SoCal. FWIW the ones I went to were Culver City, West L.A. (National), West L.A. (Sepulveda), Westchester, Manhattan Beach, Torrance-Hawthorne, Redondo Beach, Orange, and Santa Ana. Maybe one in San Diego too. Up here I’ve been to the one in Everett and the new one in Bellingham. I can’t remember ever using the four-wheel-steering carts. I think I’d notice, but I could be wrong. And since I often rode a motorcycle, a lot of the time I’d use my backpack as my ‘shopping basket’.
The closest one to me is about 45 minutes away - on the other side of a toll bridge. I go to the one in Tucson AZ more often - it’s only 1600 miles away, but when I visit family there it’s only 5 minutes.
We just moved back to Chicago, and don’t think that having Whole Foods, World Market, Trader Joe’s and Goose Island brewpub within easy walking distance didn’t play a large part in our decision as to which place to buy.
Come to think of it, I don’t have anything planned for dinner tonight. I think I know where I’ll be going soon.