8 ms·

Opposite here: I dislike Trader Joe's. I call it "bougie safeway". Trader Joe's is great if you like boxed, prepared food, but it isn't much better for anything

by sbf501 4y ago

Opposite here: I dislike Trader Joe's. I call it "bougie safeway". Trader Joe's is great if you like boxed, prepared food, but it isn't much better for anything else. Their produce is meh and overly wrapped with packaging.

spicybright 4y ago
Agreed. But to be fair, I've yet to see somewhere with a better cheese selection.
- sbf501 4y ago
  Well, I live in Berkeley, so I'm pretty damn spoiled when it comes to cheese shops. But I can see that being helpful if there are no cheese stores, import stores, or specialty foods stores in your town.
  - Avicebron 4y ago
    Man I miss the Berkeley Bowl, I spent years within walking distance..
  - watersb 4y ago
    Is Cheese Board still in business?
- bluedino 4y ago
  Our Kroger has a pretty nice cheese selection. Not quite Whole Foods but it's way, way cheaper
lapetitejort 4y ago
I concur. I can't find anything other than all purpose and wheat flour. No bread flour, or anything more obscure like rye, spelt, etc. Similarly, they sell a single sea salt, alongside tons of trendy mixed salts. Want iodized salt? Go find a big grocery store. I do find tons of snacks and TV dinners, which I enjoy. But if I'm stocking up on essentials, I'd rather go to a big store. And yes, I do find obscure flours at big stores, most recently 00 and rye.
- koala_man 4y ago
  Someone said that his favorite part of shopping at Trader Joe's is afterwards when you go to a supermarket to buy all the stuff you need. Safeway has everything I'd want from Trader Joe's at this point, and I don't have to do two trips.
  - justinlloyd 4y ago
    TJ's for us is "we need these specific store brand items" or "I need to restock my Blackthorn cider." And unfortunately TJ's has removed three store brand products in the past two years, so the number of reasons to go there is rapidly diminishing for our household.
- zeroonetwothree 4y ago
  But that's exactly why TJs is cheaper. You gain price and sacrifice variety.
- robonerd 4y ago
  It's not just food either, trader joes is lacking many of the non-food goods that other grocery stores almost universally have. Need aluminum foil or parchment paper? You can't buy those at trader joes.
  - dragonwriter 4y ago
    > trader joes is lacking many of the non-food goods that other grocery stores almost universally have. It's almost like their business model is “don’t devote lots of floor space to stuff you can get anywhere so price competition drives margins to zero”. .
    - robonerd 4y ago
      I'm aware.
- CameronNemo 4y ago
  This is indeed why Trader Joe's could never be my entire grocery shopping experience. Even staples like dry black beans are unavailable. God forbid you want to bake something... They have a couple interesting products that I can't get elsewhere, and they don't have lots of products that I can get at literally any other grocery store.
colpabar 4y ago
I agree that there's way too much plastic on the produce, but some of the boxed prepared food is really, really great.
reducesuffering 4y ago
TJ's is significantly better value and less margin than Safeway. The opposite of "bougie."
- floren 4y ago
  I'm not convinced that the value is better. Most of the stuff at TJ's is reasonable quality, but the prices are often lower only because there's less product in the package. I'd have to sit down and compare unit prices before I could be assured you were getting a better value for your money.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  TJ’s may be lower margin on what they carry than Safeway would be on comparable items; they achieve that by avoiding carrying lots of the low-margin items every other grocery store spends lots of money devoting floor space to. (But those are things people tend to also need a lot, so TJ’s ends up being an extra shopping trip, instead of a replacement.)
tomjakubowski 4y ago
TJ's processed/frozen stuff is often better, and always way cheaper, than either the name brands or supermarket generic brands. So I get those things at TJ's (sometimes along with stuff like milk and eggs), and buy grains, produce, meat and everything else from Ralphs.
stevenwoo 4y ago
The local paper did comparison shopping and found Safeway to be about the same price for a weekly trip as Whole Foods. Trader Joes was significantly cheaper in the San Francisco Bay Area.
lr4444lr 4y ago
It's hit or miss, but usually just because the stuff I don't like their is not my taste, not that it is poor quality. Some of their products I think are really great, both in quality and bargain. Plus, they work on a space efficiency model: products that don't sell popularly won't be kept in stock. Sometimes that's what I'm optimizing for when I want to try new products: what are other people voting for with their dollars?
jordanmorgan10 4y ago
I think a lot of it is because it's novel to me. I'm in the Midwest, and I just don't have any close to the greater Springfield, MO area. I'm told it's just beyond their supply chain. You have to get around St.Louis before they show up. We have HyVee though, and I quite enjoy it there.

by sbf501 4y ago

spicybright 4y ago

Agreed. But to be fair, I've yet to see somewhere with a better cheese selection.

sbf501 4y ago
Well, I live in Berkeley, so I'm pretty damn spoiled when it comes to cheese shops. But I can see that being helpful if there are no cheese stores, import stores, or specialty foods stores in your town.
- Avicebron 4y ago
  Man I miss the Berkeley Bowl, I spent years within walking distance..
- watersb 4y ago
  Is Cheese Board still in business?
bluedino 4y ago
Our Kroger has a pretty nice cheese selection. Not quite Whole Foods but it's way, way cheaper

lapetitejort 4y ago

I concur. I can't find anything other than all purpose and wheat flour. No bread flour, or anything more obscure like rye, spelt, etc. Similarly, they sell a single sea salt, alongside tons of trendy mixed salts. Want iodized salt? Go find a big grocery store. I do find tons of snacks and TV dinners, which I enjoy. But if I'm stocking up on essentials, I'd rather go to a big store. And yes, I do find obscure flours at big stores, most recently 00 and rye.

koala_man 4y ago
Someone said that his favorite part of shopping at Trader Joe's is afterwards when you go to a supermarket to buy all the stuff you need. Safeway has everything I'd want from Trader Joe's at this point, and I don't have to do two trips.
- justinlloyd 4y ago
  TJ's for us is "we need these specific store brand items" or "I need to restock my Blackthorn cider." And unfortunately TJ's has removed three store brand products in the past two years, so the number of reasons to go there is rapidly diminishing for our household.
zeroonetwothree 4y ago
But that's exactly why TJs is cheaper. You gain price and sacrifice variety.
robonerd 4y ago
It's not just food either, trader joes is lacking many of the non-food goods that other grocery stores almost universally have. Need aluminum foil or parchment paper? You can't buy those at trader joes.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > trader joes is lacking many of the non-food goods that other grocery stores almost universally have. It's almost like their business model is “don’t devote lots of floor space to stuff you can get anywhere so price competition drives margins to zero”. .
  - robonerd 4y ago
    I'm aware.
CameronNemo 4y ago
This is indeed why Trader Joe's could never be my entire grocery shopping experience. Even staples like dry black beans are unavailable. God forbid you want to bake something... They have a couple interesting products that I can't get elsewhere, and they don't have lots of products that I can get at literally any other grocery store.

colpabar 4y ago

I agree that there's way too much plastic on the produce, but some of the boxed prepared food is really, really great.

reducesuffering 4y ago

TJ's is significantly better value and less margin than Safeway. The opposite of "bougie."

floren 4y ago
I'm not convinced that the value is better. Most of the stuff at TJ's is reasonable quality, but the prices are often lower only because there's less product in the package. I'd have to sit down and compare unit prices before I could be assured you were getting a better value for your money.
dragonwriter 4y ago
TJ’s may be lower margin on what they carry than Safeway would be on comparable items; they achieve that by avoiding carrying lots of the low-margin items every other grocery store spends lots of money devoting floor space to. (But those are things people tend to also need a lot, so TJ’s ends up being an extra shopping trip, instead of a replacement.)

tomjakubowski 4y ago

TJ's processed/frozen stuff is often better, and always way cheaper, than either the name brands or supermarket generic brands. So I get those things at TJ's (sometimes along with stuff like milk and eggs), and buy grains, produce, meat and everything else from Ralphs.

stevenwoo 4y ago

The local paper did comparison shopping and found Safeway to be about the same price for a weekly trip as Whole Foods. Trader Joes was significantly cheaper in the San Francisco Bay Area.

lr4444lr 4y ago

It's hit or miss, but usually just because the stuff I don't like their is not my taste, not that it is poor quality. Some of their products I think are really great, both in quality and bargain. Plus, they work on a space efficiency model: products that don't sell popularly won't be kept in stock. Sometimes that's what I'm optimizing for when I want to try new products: what are other people voting for with their dollars?

jordanmorgan10 4y ago

I think a lot of it is because it's novel to me. I'm in the Midwest, and I just don't have any close to the greater Springfield, MO area. I'm told it's just beyond their supply chain. You have to get around St.Louis before they show up. We have HyVee though, and I quite enjoy it there.