[xusafpilot]

Originally Posted by NLVgal

I guess someone forgot to tell the Sprouts on Flamingo and Rainbow ( across the street from a bail bonds place and a Mexican market ) that they were only allowed to be in Summerlin or Green Valley

Flamingo and Rainbow? I've lived here for just over a decade and while I am sure I've driven through that intersection, that is not a part of town that I travel. Anything east of Rainbow, I consider "East Las Vegas". We'll narrow it down to just whole foods in this case regarding my previous statement and their reasoning for store locations, income and education level as to where they locate stores.

[NLVgal]

Originally Posted by xusafpilot

Flamingo and Rainbow? I've lived here for just over a decade and while I am sure I've driven through that intersection, that is not a part of town that I travel. Anything east of Rainbow, I consider "East Las Vegas". We'll narrow it down to just whole foods in this case regarding my previous statement and their reasoning for store locations, income and education level as to where they locate stores.

East Las Vegas is anything east of I -15. Flamingo and Rainbow are ( I believe ) in Spring Valley's borders.
Whole foods has a location on Lake Mead between Buffalo and Rainbow. If you think that's a ritzy area compared to Cent. Hils. Your snob monitor might be off.

Oh, I made a mistake in my first post . It's not a bail bonds place. It's a giant pink ticket busters location.
And your decade here? Well, I might have been here a little longer than that.

Don't toss out insults to people that live in Cent Hills or Aliante too soon , Junior.

[jet757f]

The Fresh and Easy down the street from us on Desert Inn is now open 24 hours. I only use it as a convenience store. I don't get why people like Trader Joes so much.

[LuisSuarez]

Originally Posted by jet757f

The Fresh and Easy down the street from us on Desert Inn is now open 24 hours. I only use it as a convenience store. I don't get why people like Trader Joes so much.

Because they sell a greater variety of foods than most stores that all sell the same old boring stuff.

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by jet757f

The Fresh and Easy down the street from us on Desert Inn is now open 24 hours. I only use it as a convenience store. I don't get why people like Trader Joes so much.

Most of Trader Joe's products are insanely-overpriced processed junk. That stuff is wrapped up in a pretty package and has "Joe's" on it somewhere. Yuppies go just nuts for these Joe's products. That's what keeps Trader Joe's in business. Joe's pretzel snacks, Joe's cookies, Joe's crackers, Joe's yogurt, Joe's white chocolate-covered fried grasshoppers and so on. For some reason, this stuff has social cache.

They also have produce that can be found at Latin and Asian markets for one-tenth the price. Basically the same business model as Albertsons. And, they also have the lowest prices in town on select wines and beers. (Including the famously-cheap Charles Shaw aka Two-Buck Chuck.) Wine snobs universally derided Two-Buck Chuck until their chardonnay won a gold medal at the California State Fair wine competition. Then they fell over themselves saying they knew it all the time, but were keeping that secret to themselves. Besides the two-buck stuff, they have many bottles in the $10 range that compare favorably to wines that cost five times as much.

Go for the wine, and leave the rest for the yuppies.

I'm convinced that one of the reasons Trader Joe's and Whole Foods does so well is that they're priced out of the reach of riff-raff. So yuppies go there to avoid rubbing shoulders with the great unwashed. Google "People of WalMart" for examples of what the yuppies are paying to avoid.

[NLVgal]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

Most of Trader Joe's products are insanely-overpriced processed junk. That stuff is wrapped up in a pretty package and has "Joe's" on it somewhere. Yuppies go just nuts for these Joe's products. That's what keeps Trader Joe's in business. Joe's pretzel snacks, Joe's cookies, Joe's crackers, Joe's yogurt, Joe's white chocolate-covered fried grasshoppers and so on. For some reason, this stuff has social cache.

They also have produce that can be found at Latin and Asian markets for one-tenth the price. Basically the same business model as Albertsons. And, they also have the lowest prices in town on select wines and beers. (Including the famously-cheap Charles Shaw aka Two-Buck Chuck.) Wine snobs universally derided Two-Buck Chuck until their chardonnay won a gold medal at the California State Fair wine competition. Then they fell over themselves saying they knew it all the time, but were keeping that secret to themselves. Besides the two-buck stuff, they have many bottles in the $10 range that compare favorably to wines that cost five times as much.

Go for the wine, and leave the rest for the yuppies.

I'm convinced that one of the reasons Trader Joe's and Whole Foods does so well is that they're priced out of the reach of riff-raff. So yuppies go there to avoid rubbing shoulders with the great unwashed. Google "People of WalMart" for examples of what the yuppies are paying to avoid.

They have good Kalamata olives, if you like those. The house brand. Good olives are hard to find outside of a Mediterranean restaurant.

By the way, I wandered into La Bonita yesterday. They have a sale on t-bones for five something a pound, and they left the whole filet on them when they cut them! Sale ends today.

[Merrily Gather]

There is a common misconception that Trader Joe's is overpriced and I suspect this is due to being associated with the Whole Foods aka "Whole Paycheck" brands because of their organic and alternative name brand products.

However, when I would go comparison shopping here between things like milk, eggs, cheese, ect TJs was on the level with Albertson's, Vons, Smiths and even less than them sometimes like with fresh flowers, wines, and pasta. In fact, I was just in Napa Valley and Sonoma and the winery's told us not to knock the Trader Joe's cheaper wines due to their price, because those often come for their leftover bottom of the barrels.

All these stores offer their own generic brand of things including Whole Foods. Trader Joe's is only like Whole Foods in that it offers the alternative and organic products you don't typically find at grocery store. Their frozen foods section and deli section also specializes in a wide range of ready made meals that you can't find elsewhere. A bag of TJs orange chicken for $5.99? Yes please! Orange chicken at the grocery store is about the same in weight but you don't know what their chicken is made of. Only Whole Foods and more recently Fresh and Easy have similar TJ deli sections with ready made meals for an individual or the family. Though more grocery stores including Walmart are attempting to wade into the organic alternative products niche'.

Even Whole Foods announced they're going to create a new smaller grocery store that is more like Trader Joe's so that it priced less and geared towards this generation of shoppers. It's called 365 Whole Foods Market.

[jjameson922]

T.J's is not over priced on everything. Here's an interesting one we just discovered. They price their bananas (non-organic I believe) at .19 cents each. Sounds high until you really compare them with Smith's at 59 cents a pound. Using a scale, turns out if you buy your bananas at Smith's, you are really paying 22 cents a piece.

It also really depnds on the quality of food you are accustomed to. If you are content with choice or select quality meat, Albertson's will do. So will F & E. But you can count on Whole Foods to have prime beef and cuts like filet mignon and whole tenderloins that can't be found in the other stores.

[Kalbo]

Could be filing for bankruptcy again.

Fresh & Easy on brink of Chapter 11, again? - The Orange County Register

[LasVegasPlayer]

I think the new version of F&E is worse than Tesco's one. I haven't been to one in many months.