Trader Joe's (bbq, cake, Carrot cake, hawaiian)

[stellar9]

I really like TJs. Since I'm on a tight budget and have a large family to feed, I stick to the items that are good deals for us. A new TJs just opened at the north end of the county, so all of us here are very excited about that. For example:

*Breakfast Cereal
Barbara's Cereals are half of what they are at the whole foods store or regular grocery store. Trader Joe's also has some very good cereals of its own.

*Almond Milk
Cheaper than any other store here

*Butter
Beats even Food 4 Less and has no rBST

*Frozen Fruit
Very good price and good fruit

*Chocolate Chips
Cheaper and tastier than major or other store brands

*Nuts
Great selection and good prices

*Pasta
Again, great selection and good prices

*Mochi
My kids rave about this dessert. An ice cream ball wrapped in a rice flour pastry.

*Coffee
Although I prefer to buy organic, free trade coffee, the store that sells it is 30 miles away for my gas guzzler, so I settle for TJs more often. They have a great selection.

*Breads
Right now we're into Milton's brand breads and TJs has the cheapest price for them.

We usually try something new when we go. I try to go only once a month and stock up.

[sweetana3]

I love TJs. Their pizza cheese is the best. Their fresh chicken has so much more flavor and fewer additives.

We get their frozen rice dishes for a very quick meal, 5 minutes max.

Their Indian sauce mixes make a wonderful stew or soup.

[Cattknap]

Sweetana - have you tried Trader Joe's Kosher chicken? It is amazing - very clean and white skin - it has such a great flavor.

[ellemaew]

Not all TJ's are the same - each one is "tailored" to the local community. My daughter worked for one in California - if there is something you'd like them to carry ask them - they may be able to stock it if they know it will sell.

You can also go on their site and suggest a location for a new store. My daughter and I are in the process of putting a proposal togther for one now - we'll see how that goes!

[Dennis P]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

...Whole Foods...aka Whole Paycheck...has some nice things...but I can't figger out half of them...

Here in Colorado, Whole Foods just out Wild Oats...have been to both...can't tell them apart, looked like twins to start with...

We liked TJ's back in NoVA...lots of interesting frozen items you don't see in the regular supermarkets-which are full of schlock from the usual corporate mega-billion-dollar purveyors of fat-&-carb-laden junk...

More: Liquor laws, Trader Joes & Colorado

I've said it before on these boards many times that I can't believe with all the Californians moving to Colorado, how there isn't even ONE TJ's store in the entire state. That's just WRONG!!! If I ever thought of relocating to Colorado, I'd want to make darn sure that there's a Trader Joe's store there first!

[lammius]

Whole Foods has some nice stuff. There are two within 2 miles of my apartment. One is HUGE and has everything you could imagine. The other is tiny (about the size of an avg TJs) and doesn't even have a salad bar. The TJs near my workplace is kinda small but I love it anyway. Everything is reasonably priced and when I get crazy ideas for making some new Indian or SE Asian dish, they have a lot of the supplies I need. I love the salad and hot food bars at Whole Foods (even the Indian section is awesome) but at $7.99/lb it's too pricey for my taste.

I'm a disaster in the kitchen, though! My roommate is a much better cook.


Hey, does anyone have trouble with the organic dish detergent sold at TJs? We've used it and have tons of residue left on our dishes afterward. We use much smaller amounts now which helps but still.... Anyone else have this experience?

[tasmtairy]

Whole foods here where I live is about 40 minutes away, although I am visiting my Dau in Sac in Sept and will surely visit TJ's. She told me about it and I can't wait. I may need another suitcase just for food. I guess that would be a problem for the airlines huh?

[jco]

WELL... the absolute best orange chicken in their frozen foods section. I've actually made this when I brought meals to new moms or sick people. Everyone raves about it. Yum!

I also like their frozen fruits. Inexpensive and tasty... especially their raspberries.

Finally, I like their frozen organic brown rice packs. They come in a box with a package of three and they cook in about three minutes without water!

[espritbonne]

Ellemaew, I hope it goes well for you requesting a new TJ's. We've been trying for YEARS here in the Harrisonburg, VA area. I'm a Washington DC native and shopped every TJ in that area over the many years I lived there. Now our whole family is totally addicted to Trader Joe's (oldest daughter first discovered them in CA and called home to tell us we must shop there - for years before that we would drive past them all the time assuming they were just some weird little expensive specialty store! Heard their radio commercials but those sounded so dry and non-fun, still thought it was probably a weird store : ) So after discovering how amazing it is, then moving here to the Shenandoah Valley of western VA a few years ago, we now need to make TJ runs back to the city 90 minutes away with coolers all the time. They tell us until they can build a distribution center further south than their current one they won't build any more stores south of Centreville as the goods would not be guaranteed fresh. Makes sense, but why can't they just build a distribution center here in Harrisonburg? It's on I-81, a college town, and filled with very health-minded, NPR-ish type folks who would make a store here probably a # 1 seller! Many folks from DC have retired here and bellyache about the drive back to shop Trader Joe's and many have written and called begging for a store here, but something seems to be preventing expansion to this area. I wish you much better success with your quest for a TJs! As I type this my husband is in Centreville with the coolers, buying for us and many of our neighbors...

Espritbonne

[Jason_Els]

How do you request a store?? I've got an upscale town of 35,000 aging hippies, a collective, and a craft village serviced by one overpriced and lousy Shop Rite just DYING for something like this.