Am I the only one who thinks Trader Joe’s is overrated?

i fucked in a whole foods once

Both are VASTLY overrated, but yes, Whole Foods is the lesser of the three evils (including Sprouts).

I agree with r2. Whole Foods at least has good produce. Sprouts is overpriced, has a poor selection an takes forever to get in and out of.

Only shop at our local co-op. Minneapolis has a good collection of them. We've compared bills to chains and Whole Foods over time and the money evens out. Even if we're paying a little more at least it's staying in our community.

Since Amazon/Bezos took over Whole Foods or Whole Paycheck, it has devolved.

No longer go.

Not worth the value.

And the pompous attitude of the staff.

Find TJ’s and Sprouts to be more helpful and better value as well as quality.

It's somewhat overrated, but there are some items that I like to buy there that are better quality than similarly priced items elsewhere, like puff pastry and the giant dark chocolate bars. I would never do all my regular shopping there, just a few times a year is enough for me.

LOVE Trader Joe's - there this morning and typically once a week. Walking distance in WeHo.

Whole foods is a shit hole compared to Trader Joe’s. Oh so woke...

Whole Foods just has way more variety and choices, which is good for someone for me searching for healthy options.

[quote] Since Amazon/Bezos took over Whole Foods or Whole Paycheck, it has devolved.

Yes, speak to some of the workers at Whole Foods: regarding their medical care.

This as Bezos smashes records in his profits AND billions.

TJ’s has the best value and variety of fresh cut flowers.

Whole Foods has better produce, seafood & meats - the primary reason I go there.

i lpve Trader Joes but i dont shop there regularly. i go about once or twice a month

This is not a parallel comparison. This is like comparing Walgreens to Safeway. It’s different categories.

They have some good things -- like their tangerine juice.

Tj's is overrated because it's a fucking dump owned by Aldi's.

Trader Joe’s relies so much on packaging, but what is inside is frankly underwhelming. Its like Aldi food with fancy, bright colored packaging for city and suburban folks.

[quote] Whole Foods is better

If you’re comparing it to the pre-2005 Whole Foods, I agree.

Maybe but if he can’t be faithful to the great land of America I don’t want to buy his burrito bowls.

Living in KCMO, I read/heard about The Amazing Trader Joe's for years before it opened here. Apparently so did enough of my city-mates that the place was overwhelmed with business when they did open here. When I finally made it in, I was underwhelmed. I mean, I thought it sucked. But I also laughed at myself for expecting a grocery store that's heralded by people who store sweaters in their ovens to be a great grocery store for people who liked to cook. I understand they have many quality shortcuts, frozen prep type items.

Whole Foods is dumb. They don't have a more diverse or higher quality produce selection than the local grocers. They lied to me about stocking Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt. I bought their 365 nonsense instead and worked through it resentfully. Serious Princess and the Pea business.

I know that both stores stock products that make their customers happy, so I wouldn't say they sucked like the tragic Apple Market that largely existed as a pretense to sell booze and charge fees to assist customers in paying utility bills. (They were run out of business by a Dollar General. Imagine how shitty a grocery story has to be to lose customers to DG!) But, fuck, man... Target stocks King Arthur Flour. We've got small health food stores, Chinese markets, Vietnamese markets, Italian delis, multiple local butchers and my local grocer stocks to make middle class Mexican families happy.

The Midwest is always late to the party, R20.

I like Trader Joe’s but as someone mentioned on another thread, their quality seems to have gone down. There are still some great things, like the fresh flowers, mentioned above. I love their Kalamata olives!

I buy coffee filters and teabags at TJ's. That's it. The filters are cheaper than anywhere else, so I usually buy a shopping bag filled with them. But they're mostly for people who don't like to cook, so I shop elsewhere 99% of the time.

Whole Foods has become a disaster thanks to Bezos and the pandemic. I now shop at my local chain supermarket, where I'm not being treated like shit by the professional shoppers. I asked one once where I'd find horseradish at WFM and the cunt just said to me "I work for Amazon! I don't tell people where to find things!" Well, that was my last time at Whole Foods. Fuck those miserable cunts. Fuck them right in the ass with whole pineapples, fronds first.

TL:DR: they both suck.

Trader Joe's is better than Whole Foods in regards to products. Trader Joe's has better frozen meals, better chips and desserts, etc etc. But Whole Foods has better produce.

I prefer Trader Joe's because of price though. Trader Joe's and Whole Foods are basically the same store but because Whole Foods is owned by money hungry Bezos, all their shit is extremely expensive. So why go to Whole Foods when you could go to Trader Joe's and get the same things at a lower price?

[quote]The Midwest is always late to the party

Thank you for reading my first sentence.

I feel like trader joe’s used to be more about selling great ingredient s to make meals, and now focuses on pre-made shortcut meals/snacks. I only go a couple of times a year now.

I am no fan of Trader Joe. It's good for cheese. It has some good olive oil.

But mostly, the place is ridiculous.

Trader Joe's and Whole Foods target two different kinds of white people, middle class and upper middle class. The reason Trader Joe's makes so many frozen meals and has moved more towards that is because the people buying from them are the kind who want to be healthy and eat interesting food but don't have the money or the time for it. Whole Foods doesn't operate in that direction because the people who shop at Whole Foods are privileged enough that they have the time and the money to cook every meal for themselves and still manage to eat healthily and interestingly.

Actually, TJ's is good value, but I try to be careful what I buy there. I get some of my produce there, and I love their Peanut butter. Some of the frozen food selections. I will only buy fresh fish at Whole Foods. I always check out the cheeses at WF. I look for odd things there, certain kinds of flour, or tea, or specialty seasonings and condiments. I also find good value on seasonings and condiments cooking spices, etc at TJ's. I stop at Sprouts once in a while because you get very good value there too. So I sort of mix it up.

Trader Joe is for people who don't do much cooking. It's for people willing to pay a premium to buy it pre-made and frozen so all the lazy ass has to do is nuke it and eat it.

Trader Joe’s is too crowded, can’t park and akin to some Communist grocery. My Local produce patch has real food, decent prices, independently owned and lacks the zany cuisine couplings.

It’s not really a grocery store. More like a specialty deli or something. A few random weird items - 10% of which I’m interested in. Not sure how they survive. Such a weird store.

Whole Foods is just as overrated as Trader Joe's.

Where I live (northern Chicago 'burbs) our major supermarkets and ethnic grocers have gotten so much better over the years that Whole Foods and TJ's just don't seem special anymore. Plus, COVID-19 has made shopping at TJ's something of an ordeal--often a line to get in and narrow aisles that make it harder to distance from others.

I wonder what would have happened if Ina Garten was able to franchise Barefoot Contessa.

RIP Fresh’n’Easy

WF USED to have better produce than the larger chains but not since Amazon took over. The vegetables are tasteless and I’ve had to speak sharply to them about the underripe pineapple. And the packaged food is all bland Amazon brand crap too At least it’s still more fun to shop at TJs.

I am at the WeHo Trader Joes weekly. They have the best parking and it's never that crowded. Whole Foods is much more expensive. TJ's is great if you are single. Aside from price, since COVID, there is always a long line just to get into WF which makes it even less appealing. The food is higher at WF. It's apples and oranges.

Ah, Whole Foods

Has anyone been to Ehrwon or maybe it's just an LA thing. It makes Whole Foods look cheap and everyone who shops there is hot.

^Yes.

Definitely better quality than WF. But very expensive.

I went to the one in Venice pre-pandemic: surprisingly cramped, small, crowded and filled with several celebrities.

Would not want to go to one now. Not worth the risk, or frankly, the effort to push through the shockingly narrow aisles.

Trader Joe's, like others have said, is too crowded and parking is a nightmare at all the locations around here (San Diego). The way they over-package a lot of produce is annoying and it's just not very good.

I like going to Sprouts for produce, but not much else.

Whole foods used to be good for salads and hot food, pre covid. I would go there for healthier meals when I traveled for work and was on an expense account.

But the boys at TJ's wear such fun shirts!

The only way I can tell that it isn't my Trader Joe's is because I don't recognize that guy.

The line for any Trader Joe’s usually winds around the block here in Manhattan.

Once every few months I’ll go there for a few items. I’ve been disappointed by many of their products, but there are a few stars. I’ve noticed their clones at Aldi.

I shop at the Whole Foods that’s three blocks away. I don’t consider it “upscale”. It’s another supermarket IMO. I buy their generic brand often and it’s fine. I only buy my chicken there because of the impressive turnover. They’re always putting out fresh product.

R6

Pastries? Chocolate? You are literally destroying your body. Look at these alarming health facts.

R6

Pt 2

The many here who've pointed out that TJ's is largely frozen and prepared foods at this point are surely right, but that's one of the reasons I shop there. I don't cook as often as I should--call it busy, lazy, whatever you want--and much of what TJ offers is fairly good to me. I'm pretty much addicted to a number of their salads, for instance. Also, the TJ's I shop at (admittedly at off hours) doesn't have the horrific lines and crowds others here experience.

I loathe Whole Foods, have for a long time, for the very reason I like TJ's. Their prepared foods are awful, IMHO--stringy, dried out grilled chicken with tons of tendons; flavorless meatloaf; and once, a spanakopita that was epic in its awful taste and texture.

And yeah, the people who work there are shits.

The store I'm sad to see gone is Fairway. That place was my perfect fit.

R17 beat me to it. Lots of Trader Joe’s stuff seems more packaging than product. But it, like other specialty stores and I really include Whole Food there, does have some very good items not found elsewhere. TJ is good for wine, nuts, cheese, prepared salads and, yes, good flowers. I still rely on a god full service store, like Publix, where I can also get regular stuff like paper products, cleaning supplies and such, along with good food. Not so many stops.

The only things I would go to Trader Joes for are mainly pantry and frozen stuff. They do have an interesting selection of frozen food options that I wouldn't find at other grocery stores. They, like Aldi, are good at ringing you up right away.

Trader Joe’s stopped stocking every single food item I used to buy there. My local supermarket doesn’t play those games, so I shop there now instead of TJ.

Trader Joe’s has a lot of interesting things but it’s hard to make it your only grocery story.

Trader Joe's has sweet potatoes for sale, Whole Foods only has yams.

r53 It's almost impossible to find actual yams in the US. Everything labeled as "yams" is actually a sweet potato.

[quote]Whole Foods is the lesser of the three evils (including Sprouts).

Oh, dear.

I did laugh to see bags of marshmallows placed with the yams at Whole Foods, great presentation.

The New Yorker did a review of TJ's a couple of years ago and described its offerings as food for lonely people. That seems on the mark to me, with so many single-serving items in their refrigerated and frozen food sections. If you just take a close look around a TJ store, you will be surprised (at least I was) at how much shelf space is given over to junk foods - chips, cookies, snack items, etc.

I like their variety of dried fruits and nuts, salsas, some of the canned goods, olive oil. Excellent and well-priced cheese selection. A few of the frozen items are good to have on hand at home. Produce is not especially interesting, I was really pissed off when they discontinues their soy milk a couple of months ago, as that was one of the main things I went there for.

As another UWS resident noted above, the two local TJs in this neighborhood are just a few blocks from other stores that complement their offerings, so you can easily to to Whole Foods or Key Food for grocery items, or Fairway or Citarella for specialty foods. However, in the COVID era, we are all trying to minimize our shopping excursions.

Trader Joe's quit making some of the things I was buying there, so, I quit going. The only thing I go to TJ now is if I need a pie crust, because they do still have the best pre-made pie crust. Otherwise, I don't see much there I want to buy.

R57, they can say what they want, I'm not lonely, but I really appreciate finding single serve anything at the market. I hate to waste and it's often hard to find the right amount for me. I have decided. Once I clear out all the foods in my freezer, or most of them, I intend to start subscribing to a meal service. If I oder meals for two 3 times a week, I'll have six days worth of food and I can wing it on the 7th day. I'm tired of the shopping and planning and mess.

Best catch, r55.

TJ. By far.

Both have deteriorated in recent years. At least TJ's service remains good and there's plenty of parking at the one near me. Their prices used to be a lot better. Dunno why I remember this, but I used to get some bacon that was $1.99 for 8 ounces; in some haste it went to $2.49 for 6 oz. I also used to get some Altoids knock-offs for 99 cents; Shazam! they went to $1.79.

R57 "The New Yorker did a review of TJ's a couple of years ago and described its offerings as food for lonely people."

Another translation of this could be, a store void of obnoxious moms who drag all their screaming brats along with them to shop.

I haven't shopped at Whole Foods in about ten years. The place has outrageous prices, a douche-y vibe and so-so products. Why bother. Trader Joe's is OK, but stay away from any of their frozen fish or their challah. BARF.

They aren't really comparable at all. Trader Joe's is wayyyy cheaper and it's owned by the same people who own Aldis. Whole Foods is good for some things but it is really overpriced.

I was never impressed with whole foods. I lived in Dallas for 2 years and loved Central Market. It was WAY better than whole foods. More approachable, better variety, good cooking classes, amazing wine and floral shops within a shop, etc.

One only goes to Trader Joe's for select sundries. Their produce is embarrassing and I wouldn't give anything from their bakery section to a homeless person.

R58

Pie crust? You are literally destroying your body! Just look at the fat in these things. Not good at all!

Trader Joe's is good for:

Coffee (and filters)

Cheese

Spices

Nuts and dried fruit

Cold Cuts/Lunch meat

Cooking oils

Most everything else is prepared food for, as somebody said, lonely people. The produce is terrible and their fresh meats are of low quality. The few staples they sell are overpriced (butter, bread, dairy). It's worth a trip once a month, at most.

Trader Joes cerreal and desserts are great too, I think better than Whole Foods stuff.

R69

Yeah, the unhealthy shit you shouldn’t be putting in your body.

I'm not a fan of Whole Foods nor Trader Joe's. In my experience, products with a philosophy tend to be overly expensive without adding any value.

Sprouts isn't as bad, but employees managing bulk bins can't tell when the oil in nuts have gone rancid. Especially raw macadamia nuts. If the heady smell of linseed oil hits your nose when you open the lid, the nuts are rancid/oxidized. Consuming oxidized oil is not healthy. Not gonna spend $18.99/lb for rancid macadamias.

Natural Grocers keeps their raw macadamia nuts refrigerated and are $16/lb. Never had a rancid nut from them.

Trader Joe’s isn’t owned by the same Aldi as the one in the US. There are two unrelated Aldi companies in Europe: Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud. Trader Joe’s in the US is owned by Aldi North, and the Aldi in the US is owned by Aldi South. Speaking of Aldi there is a lot of snobbery towards it but they do have some decent products and good prices. Their cheese selection is very good.

I go to TJ’s for certain things that are better quality and better value than elsewhere. I like their soy sauce better than any other for example. And jars of capers that are actually in a usable jar, not the ridiculous tall skinny ones from the supermarket you can’t even put a spoon in.

Whole Foods has always been a bad shopping experience for me and they’ve really dumbed down the grocery selection since Amazon took over. The one that opened recently near me was about half salad and hot bars. The shop assistants in the departments are either arrogant or surly or both.

Enough with the virtue signaling about unhealthy foods. We’re not talking McDonald’s and fried pork rinds here and we don’t all share your raw foods vegan macrobiotic diet.

[quote] Yeah, the unhealthy shit you shouldn’t be putting in your body.

Who cares?

R70 sounds like one of those people who will break out in a speech about the evils of carbs or the virtues of "clean eating" whenever "healthy eating" is brought up.

I haven't been to TJ's since the pandemic started. I'm doing delivery only and for whatever reason, TJ's hasn't coordinated with a delivery service.

I don't especially think of them as overrated. It's interesting to find stuff not available elsewhere there. I do get irritated with the perpetual tendency to discontinue any and everything I like.

[quote] Whole Foods has always been a bad shopping experience for me and they’ve really dumbed down the grocery selection since Amazon took over. The one that opened recently near me was about half salad and hot bars. The shop assistants in the departments are either arrogant or surly or both.

This has been my experience also with Whole Foods.

Sad that a decent grocer has deteriorated to such a level.

And their employees seem surly....resentful....angry....unhelpful.

They are in direct contrast to the TJs’ employees at our store. These folks are some of the nicest, most helpful assistants I’ve ever encountered in grocers. And this includes the during the pandemic.

Makes such a huge difference;especially during trying times.

R77, agreed. TJ employees always seem way more happy and they rarely come across as snobs. And I thinkk Whole Foods coffee is gross. Give me McDonalds coffee over that any day.

R77 same.

They opened a new WFM a few years ago and it was terrible. I remember one day being in line with like 20 other people. Three WF employees were chatting to each other instead of ringing up orders. Then there were FIVE other employees working as Instacart workers, and THEY were all chatting with each other, too.

The same smarmy crew was there another day and this tall bearded queen rolled his eyes at me, and I told him, in my best Patsy/Edina delivery, that he was just a shopgirl and had no room to be rolling his eyes or anything else at me.

[quote]I haven't been to TJ's since the pandemic started. I'm doing delivery only and for whatever reason, TJ's hasn't coordinated with a delivery service.

Me too. TJ's won't even allow Instacart shoppers inside. I wish they at least had curbside pickup.

no, op. I called it the fetish. where i live housecows and their houseoafs have turned it into one. they pray at the doors of it.

I think it's perfect for single people. They have great salads that I can just stock up on for lunch during the week and their prepared meals are good for a few times a week mixed with a meal service I use. I'm single, work a full day, go to the gym, and the last thing the I want to go when I get home is cook. My staple faves at TJ's in my weekly shop:

Lasagne - this is one of their best offerings and I love it!

Cajun Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo - same as above

Kale Salad w/ the cranberries and spicy dressing

Mexican Salad

Mint Chocolate Star Cookies

There are tons of hot guys at the TJ's b/c it's across from the infamous 24 Hour Fitness

It’s all unhealthy!

You are all fat pigs who are killing yourselves with your unhealthy, fat laden food choices!

You unhealthy food eaters make my medical insurance go up!

Stop eating unhealthy foods!

Got hooked on Envy apples from Trader Joe's.

So crunchy and juicy!

Speak for yourself R83. I'm sure you cook nutritious meals from scratch each night for you and your "husbear" complete with caftan and 5pm cocktail.

Trader Joes exists for one reason. For people to talk about that one specific item that is terrific that you can't get anywhere else and only at Trader Joe's. It's Aldi's (which owns it btw) marked up. Enjoy!

Aldi's marked up is still way cheaper than Whole Paycheck. Better go to Marianos (if you have one) instead of Whole Paycheck.

Trader Joe's is one of the stores I usually shop at. I arrive right before they open, have a shopping list and know where all the items I want are found and move quickly to get my items and frequently am the first one the cashier rings up.

Any in store shopping I do at any store, I try to arrive as close to opening time as possible. In and out fast. Work from a shopping list.

Marianos and Target both give the aisle number of items for the store you have selected. Makes shopping much faster.

I hope that getting to the store right as it opens means less of the Covid Cooties floating around.

R87 since Marianos was bought the quality has gone to shit. Its still better but its really bad in my opinion.

Where is Mariano’s located? What part of the USA?

R90, Chicago area. Maybe the Midwest in general?

R89, it was bought!? I didn't know that. Who bought it? Wait, was it Kroger?

Thanks R91.

A lot of people on here are saying Trader Joe's no longer carries the products they liked. What were some of those things? Just curious about what I missed out on.

Trader Joes and Whole Foods are all about staging and marketing. They're kind of like old-fashioned health food store only with an upscale foodie vibe. It just seems ersatz to me.

R73

It is ignorance like this that is the problem. To insinuate that only certain things are an issue and others aren’t is dangerous. You need to judge everything by the labels and ingredients, and the labels reveal that so much of this shit is awful for you.

R74

That’s why you’re obese, alone, probably have high cholesterol and are close to being pre-diabetic. While I am skinny and have the men obsessed with me. Not caring what you put in your body is the issue.

R95, I'm not obese at all. This may be a shocker to you but you can eat a small portion of "bad" foods and still eat mostly healthy.

[quote]time and the money to cook every meal for themselves

Maybe the time, but cooking every meal for yourself is far cheaper than relying on a bunch of frozen crap.

[quote]you can eat a small portion of "bad" foods and still eat mostly healthy.

I prefer not to eat a small portion of anything, so I mostly avoid "bad" foods (ice cream, chips, etc.)

The “eating bad” poster reminds me of religious zealots:

“Oh, Oh, this is TERRIBLE....eating substances from Trader Joe’s.”

Lighten up buddy.

And to link YOUR medical coverage to others eating at TJs is such a nonsensical reach, it is a farcical joke.

And I say this as someone who has seen the insides of many a body.

PS: Your mental FEAR of gasp! God Forbid! eating something from a grocery store may negatively impact your health more THAN actually eating something from an American Grocery store.

Get over your dietary OCD.

Try living in remote China, Australia or Peru. You’d likely have a heart attack from mental anguish of the diets in those areas.

I’m stalking r95 as I type.

Bob Mariano sold Marianos to Kroger about 7-8 years ago. Word on the street is he coming back with a new store in Lincoln Park early next year. Which I say hooray.

Whole paycheck is the worst overpriced mis labeled GMO garbage.

I love the huge East Village TJ's. It has saved our lives. Going early and finding everything, no crowd, great service.. It is so much better than WF.

[quote] Whole paycheck is the worst overpriced mis labeled GMO garbage.

Indeed. Reflective of it’s current leader: Jeff Bezos.

I buy flowers at TJ, their frozen chocolate croissants and their grapefruit juice and that’s all. I don’t buy packaged foods and their meat and poultry is overpriced. My local farmers market provides my vegetables and I buy fruit from our local co-op.

It's awful. Their parking lots suck.

The TJ in my town is too far for me to walk, especially since I have at least 5 grocery stores within a few blocks of me, including a huge Asian store (which sells Ovaltine, of all things). I rarely go to WF, I go to Sprouts for loose vegetables since I can buy as little as I want without unwanted plastic packaging. Their shelf items tend to be expensive so I limit myself to vegetables there, with some occasional goat cheese or bread.

R57 Lonely People or Single People? They aren’t always the same.

[quote] It's Aldi's (which owns it btw) marked up. Enjoy!

The prices for the same stuff are pretty much equal.

[quote] And to link YOUR medical coverage to others eating at TJs is such a nonsensical reach, it is a farcical joke.

It’s a parody post, hon.

It’s supposed to be a farcical joke.

R76- TJ will not partner with a delivery service, ever. They don't even allow brand sales/ marketing reps into their stores to check on stock and display protocol.

Whole Paycheck Foods is a bit overrated as well. For some, it's like a religious thing to procure EVERYTHING from there. I had a mini quiche Lorrain from WF today, and it was awful. I should really eat only my own, or my mum's. This imposter had a bad crust, and I don't believe they even used proper Gruyère cheese. I detected Emmethaler. No flavour, and even the bacon had that odd uncured taste. It's been repeating on me since 2:00. They probably left out nutmeg, not enough onion, only bits of chive.

They do some things extraordinarily well, many things good enough, yet al in all highly overrated.

r108, the writer used the term lonely people, but it was likely tongue in cheek. The same article compared Fairway to Zabar's by explaining that Fairway was reform and Zabar's was orthodox.

I love the asian food from Trader Joe's. Their shumai is delicious.

[quote]TJ will not partner with a delivery service, ever. They don't even allow brand sales/ marketing reps into their stores to check on stock and display protocol.

But they could have an in-house curbside pickup. Maybe it's impractical since their stores are smaller and they don't always have their own parking lots.

I agree, OP. I like Whole Foods much better and their Amazon delivery is spectacular. I'm primarily vegan so I find their selection of fruits and vegetables superior to anything else, even those from local farmer's markets.

Yes you are OP

Trader Joe's staff alone is worth every dollar I spend in there.

They are so on top of things, so helpful and they pack your bags.

Whole Foods clerks range from indifferent to surly.

TJ's LOVES to hide the facts they cater to fat asses or fat asses who are thin {for now.} The % of good healthy food are tiny compared to all the processed fat ass food. Now I'm not saying I don't buy fat ass food because I do but I'm not delusional like most about what TJ's is really doing. And their produce is THE WORST! There's a reason why it is but you'll have to google it to find out. It's a common practice in the food business.

Plus, you can't buy everything at TJ's. I want one stop shop.

The Trader Joe in Albany, NY, has a bunch of hot men on the staff. I commend whoever is doing the hiring there.

[quote] I'm primarily vegan so I find their selection of fruits and vegetables superior to anything else, even those from local farmer's markets.

I am also primarily vegan.

Would be interested to know where the Amazon WF’s produce is better than local farmer’s markets, R117.

That hadn’t been my experience at all in the TriBeCa, Chicago and Rolling Hills, California Whole Foods I’ve lived near.

All the farmer’s markets in these regions were VASTLY superior.

[quote] It’s not really a grocery store. More like a specialty deli or something. A few random weird items

Yeah, the deli at Trader Joe’s sucks. Their hot foods bar isn’t much better and their salad bar sparse. Whole Foods is much better.

[quote] Trader Joes exists for one reason. For people to talk about that one specific item that is terrific that you can't get anywhere else and only at Trader Joe's.

I go to Trader Joe’s for JoJos which you can’t get anywhere else and also for their mochi ice cream you can’t get anywhere else.

" While I am skinny and have the men obsessed with me."

I just bet.

Whole Foods is no longer a good shopping experience. Amazon took over and the prices increased while the quality decreased.

[quote]Yeah, the deli at Trader Joe’s sucks. Their hot foods bar isn’t much better and their salad bar sparse

I assume you were being sarcastic.

I'm just annoyed that Amazon Fresh STILL hasn't come to my area. I looked at some comparisons of the various delivery options (e.g., Instacart, Walmart+, etc.) and Amazon Fresh covers much less of the country than most of the other services. Only 19%.

[Quote] I go to Trader Joe’s for JoJos which you can’t get anywhere else and also for their mochi ice cream you can’t get anywhere else.

Yes you can, frau. Jojos have another name in other store, hon.

Whole Paycheck is ridiculous, with ridiculous pompous employees. I go to Trader Joe's for their brand of coffee, mini black & white cookies and Wheetabix. And their flowers. They have nice flowers.

[quote] Yeah, the deli at Trader Joe’s sucks. Their hot foods bar isn’t much better and their salad bar sparse. Whole Foods is much better.

What Trader Joes has a hot bar? I've been in many, all in urban areas and I have never seen a hot bar. I have seen one at Whole Foods.

Whole Foods rightly closed the hot bar during this health crisis. The prepared food section including the sushi and coffee bar is open for takeout.

I like their bakery. But I'm not paying what they ask for sushi when a real restaurant charges less!

r130, see r126