Trader Joe's products you have tried

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Don't hold that location against TJ's and miss out on great deals. When Himself moved to MA, he would pass one on the way to and from work. It was in a more upscale suburb. He didn't look for months because he figured it had high price-points on all the items. To his surprise, it was the affordable version of a Whole Paycheck - but with better quality.

We're about 20 miles from the nearest TJ's, and it is in the direction opposite of most of our errands. However, we make a point to make a pilgrimage at least every 3 months.

Not going to TJs because they are in a "hoity toity suburb" would be like cutting off your nose to spite your face. Suck it up, don't breathe in the rich air, and enjoy the store.

+1 Well said.
 
Trader Joe products you have tried

I'd take it back to TJs the next time. They'll give you store credit for the value of the swill. No receipt needed since everything is Private Label.


Heh. Our two nearest TJ's are either 31/2 or 6 hours away, and the chances of getting to either are in about 6 months. I'll just feed the swill to DH. He'll eat anything if I deprive him of food long enough. :devilish:
 
Last edited:
None. One is going to open next year but I'll never darken the door. It's going to be in a hoity toity suburb that I just don't go to on principle.

I know what you mean. When I was visiting a friend in Georgia, we went to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. I wasn't that impressed with either one. Both stores were rather small and very crowded. You could barely get your small carriage through their erratic laid out aisles.

Articles that I can buy in my own supermarket, are the very same in these two stores. Only the price was different. I can get those items for a lot less here at home.

My girlfriend who lives there cannot find imported Parm cheese. And heaven knows she has hunted in every cheese store she can find. I send her at least $20 worth every month. Her guests are very impressed when she pulls out the small grater and a hunk of Parm with the name stamped right on the rind. She makes it a point to serve some kind of pasta dish whenever she has company. :angel:
 
Apparently the Thai Satay noodles that I picked up are swill. DH will get them for lunch at some point.

Agreed Dawg! Take the unused portion of your "swill" (frozen of course since they are so far away) back to TJ's, I've done that 3 times now and each time they've been apologetic and refunded my money in full!
 
Last edited:
None. One is going to open next year but I'll never darken the door. It's going to be in a hoity toity suburb that I just don't go to on principle.


Ya know SL, I thought the same way when we first moved to the "Mainland" or the Continental Untied States from Hawaii (there's NO TJ's there) and my sister was raving about them, up one side and down the other.
It was located in a higher end neighborhood from where we were living (about 15 miles away) and to me, I looked at it as another Whole Foods, not for this country girl.
WELL!
My sister gave me a gift card our first Christmas here and so I felt compelled to finally go there and use the card, ya know i can't waste things...
WOW! Was I WRONG about the place!
LOVE IT!
And I agree, just don't breath in that hoity toity air and go inside, it's lovely!
Really nice folks, very friendly, helpful and the produces are a gas! I find something new every time I go! REALLY!!
I was like you and REFUSED to go there, but MAN! MAN!!
 
...Articles that I can buy in my own supermarket, are the very same in these two stores. Only the price was different. I can get those items for a lot less here at home...
They are not exactly the same in Trader Joe's and Market Basket. TJs is all private label/major manufacturing. Before, they used to carry Annie's Naturals salad dressing. When they went all private label, it was the same bottle, same everything...except the name and picture on the front label.

And, generally speaking, prices at Trader Joe's are lower than Market Basket, too. They are one of the three stores I shopped regularly when Market Basket was in the midst of their non-strike strike. I knew I could get good prices at TJs because I had been shopping them regularly, if infrequently, for years before the strike. If you think TJs costs more, you just must not have really been paying attention when you were in that TJs.
 
I know what you mean. When I was visiting a friend in Georgia, we went to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. I wasn't that impressed with either one. Both stores were rather small and very crowded. You could barely get your small carriage through their erratic laid out aisles.

Articles that I can buy in my own supermarket, are the very same in these two stores. Only the price was different. I can get those items for a lot less here at home.

My girlfriend who lives there cannot find imported Parm cheese. And heaven knows she has hunted in every cheese store she can find. I send her at least $20 worth every month. Her guests are very impressed when she pulls out the small grater and a hunk of Parm with the name stamped right on the rind. She makes it a point to serve some kind of pasta dish whenever she has company. :angel:

Would you give it up already about the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese? It's available at Whole Foods in Atlanta, and even in Publix. If your friend can't find it, she's not looking.
 
They are not exactly the same in Trader Joe's and Market Basket. TJs is all private label/major manufacturing. Before, they used to carry Annie's Naturals salad dressing. When they went all private label, it was the same bottle, same everything...except the name and picture on the front label.

And, generally speaking, prices at Trader Joe's are lower than Market Basket, too. They are one of the three stores I shopped regularly when Market Basket was in the midst of their non-strike strike. I knew I could get good prices at TJs because I had been shopping them regularly, if infrequently, for years before the strike. If you think TJs costs more, you just must not have really been paying attention when you were in that TJs.

I am well aware of the differences between the two. :angel:
 
Agreed CG.
I think the prices in TJ's are right in line with any other market,
at least for what I've seen in AZ, CA, OR, NV, UT, MT, WY, SD,
KS, CO, NM, MD, PA, NC, SC, VA, GA... I think that's it :rolleyes:
OH WAIT!
Not in Hawaii though, because
a) there is no TJ's there, AH but there is a Whole 'PayCheck' ...
and b) it's WAY expensive for food there!!
 
Why would Addie or anyone use "Whole Foods" and "Trader Joe's" in the same sentence? Obviously because they have no first hand experience with either.
They are as different as night and day.
 
Trader Joe products you have tried

I really wish we had a TJ's that was closer, but we don't have any, and probably won't get any. No "big" cities anywhere near us.

It is nice having relatives in a couple different directions who do live in or near big cities that we can visit once or twice a year who have TJ's. Though I am extremely pleased that we now have a Costco 45 minutes away versus 3 1/2 hours (my wallet, not so much).
 
Last edited:
No Trader Joe's in Wyoming, have to go to Colorado. The one in Montana was 3 hours away from Missoula if you wanted to go Interstate, 2.75 miles if you went the back roads.
 
Don't hold that location against TJ's and miss out on great deals. When Himself moved to MA, he would pass one on the way to and from work. It was in a more upscale suburb. He didn't look for months because he figured it had high price-points on all the items. To his surprise, it was the affordable version of a Whole Paycheck - but with better quality.

We're about 20 miles from the nearest TJ's, and it is in the direction opposite of most of our errands. However, we make a point to make a pilgrimage at least every 3 months.

Not going to TJs because they are in a "hoity toity suburb" would be like cutting off your nose to spite your face. Suck it up, don't breathe in the rich air, and enjoy the store.

Excellent advice!!!

I'm pretty frugal and I can find a bargain or at least a good value in most any store, even the ones in a "hoity toity suburb"!

This old quote pretty much sums it up for me.

"Economy is a distributive virtue, and consists not in saving but selection. Parsimony requires no providence, no sagacity, no powers of combination, no comparison, no judgment."
- Edmund Burke

I live about 5 miles from TJ's. I only go 3 or 4 times a year to pick up a few basic items and a treat or two that catches my eye in the Fearless Flyer, so far I've been lucky and not contracted affluenza! :ermm::ohmy::LOL:
 
And 2.75 miles on back roads takes how long?
If it's anything like going to Birmingham from where I live (about 80 miles) by motorway (the M6), it's infinitely quicker to take the country roads via Buxton, Ashbourne and Lichfield (mainly on the A515). 90 mls via M6 - 83 miles via the A515. The M6 has been known to take 4 hours plus due to traffic congestion and the country roads usually take about 2.5 hours. Pleasanter journey, too.

If you take the M6 it's a good idea to take three square meals and a tent!
 
Excellent advice!!!

I'm pretty frugal and I can find a bargain or at least a good value in most any store, even the ones in a "hoity toity suburb"!

This old quote pretty much sums it up for me.

"Economy is a distributive virtue, and consists not in saving but selection. Parsimony requires no providence, no sagacity, no powers of combination, no comparison, no judgment."
- Edmund Burke

I live about 5 miles from TJ's. I only go 3 or 4 times a year to pick up a few basic items and a treat or two that catches my eye in the Fearless Flyer, so far I've been lucky and not contracted affluenza! :ermm::ohmy::LOL:
Reminds me of something my Domestic Science teacher taught us in school - "Buy expensive cuts of meat in the poorer end of town and cheap cuts in the richer end of town if you want to get a good deal".

Mind you, that was in the days when butchers had to buy a whole beast rather than boxes of the bits the store wants to sell.
 
Prices in all TJ stores are universal. The neighborhood has nothing to do with the prices and there are no sales or coupons and that doesn't mean there aren't tremendous bargains to be had. One small example is their whole rainbow peppercorns in an attractive refillable grinder for $2.00.
 
Last edited:
I said I wouldn't shop at Trader Joe's when it opens next year because I refuse to even enter Germantown city limits. The number of people reacting to that convinces me it must indeed be a remarkable store. If they open another in Memphis or even a different suburb I will happily check it out. In the meantime, I'll just try to live without rainbow peppercorns in a decorative refillable grinder. :)
 
Back
Top Bottom