Trader Joes - Page 2

[dharmamama]

I go there every week. I do the bulk of my grocery shopping there.

I used to go to five different stores so that I could get the best price on everything. I went to Kroger or Meijer (two grocery chains in our area), a bread outlet, a bulk foods store that had mondo blocks of cheese, and the farmer's mkt for bulk flour/baking needs and veggies.

Now I just go to Trader Joe's and Kroger. Occasionally I go to the farmer's mkt (we get our veggies in the summer through a CSA now) when I need to stock up on baking stuff. I make bread at home now, and I buy TJ's non-GMO cheese.

Our grocery bill did not go up at all, even though we are now buying more organics and we added a fifth person to our family (a pre-teen, not a baby).

I love Trader Joe's!!!

Here are the things I love about them, in no particular order:

-good prices
-friendly staff (they always treat my kids well, ask about them when I go in alone, and when an article about our adoptions appeared in the local paper, they cut it out and displayed it and told me they were proud to have us as regulars)
-interesting foods to choose from
-good prices
-quality food; even their non-organics are GMO-free (if you buy the TJ house brand) and their food doesn't generally have all sorts of gross fillers and additives)
-able to get specialty vegetarian/vegan foods
-good prices
-convenience of one-stop shopping
-pleasant atmosphere
-good prices

dm

[StrawberryFields]

I do all of our grocery shopping at Trader Joe's, I go there once a week. The only things I can't buy there are aluminum foil, American cheese and Grape Nuts. Their prices are so much better than Whole Foods or the co-op that it has really helped cut our grocery bill to a more manageable number. I love their prices on crackers, granola bars, fruit leathers and frozen fruits and veggies. I LOVE the fact that I can buy convenience foods like garlic mashed potatoes, boxed Au Gratin potatoes, and fish sticks and not have to worry about hydrogenated oils and HFCS. I've never tried any of their frozen meals or pizzas but now that I am pregnant and sick I think that I will be indulging in a lot of their more high priced items like frozen ready-to-heat rice with orange chicken or something like that. Frozen meals are the only thing that got me through my last pregnancy!

I love that I feel so safe at Trader Joe's, I can grab a box of graham crackers for my son and not get out a microscope and analyze the label. I can do that at my co-op too, but that same box of graham crackers would likely cost $5.99 instead of $2 or $3.

[Scribe]

There isn't a TJ's here, and boy do I ever miss it. So much so that when I'm home in Oregon (like I was last week) I buy a stock-up box and bring it back with me. But then I can only get non-breakable and shelf-stable stuff, which really cuts it down.

My fave thing to buy there in Oregon? Beer. But I am also a big fan of their dried fruits and nuts, prepackaged stuff, chocolate covered espresso beans, cheeses...

[Belleweather]

Originally Posted by zinemama

FWIW, I would never go to Whole Foods. They don't call it "Whole Paycheck" for nothing.

We used to go to Whole Foods for the occasional carry-out dinner or 'treat', like good chocolate or nice cheese. We've switched entirely to going to TJ's for those things and the difference in our budget is HUGE.