Americans: Just how good is Trader Joes?

[PincushionTime]

I have serious TJ envy as we don't have them here in the U.K but the Trader Joe hauls on YT always look so good.

Lived in the US for while. Trader Joe's is good. They have nice products and not badly priced at all.
Whole Foods is better thoughthink we have a whole foods stores in the UKsame organic, healthy food + toiletries concept as TJ but larger scale.

PS I am going back 10+ years.

I love Trader Joes . The snacks and the frozen/prepared foods sections are amazing. The fresh produce can be a bit rubbish though - I bought blackberries there this weekend and they went off in no time.

What is it you're jealous of not having? Their regular food is so so. Their cookies are amazing tho. I think generally quality of food is better in UK.

Not American but lived there for years and I do not get Trader Joes. It’s mostly ready prepared stuff, most of it not even that nice. Whole Foods on the other hand is fantastic, the U.K. ones don’t sadly come close because they’re tiny in comparison.

We had one in our town - and although it wasn’t allowed to sell alcohol due to our township ordinance - I went there all the time and still miss it.

There was a Wholefoods nearby too but it was incredibly expensive (although for an American food fix I’ve even been to the Wholefoods in Kensington High St in London).

You can see examples of what TJ’s sells here:

www.traderjoes.com

Prices are very reasonable, quality is good and you can buy products not normally found in most US supermarkets. They had a great range of imported (including British) cheeses, bread - even “British” crumpets, English Breakfast Tea - the Irish tea was stronger and my favourite. A great range of ready made frozen meals and refrigerated ready meals (but healthy too).

Incidentally TJ’s is owned by Aldi and most stores are around the same size as an Aldi or Lidl. A couple of towns over from us in New Jersey an Aldi store opened but it was dire - almost all products were American and full of high fructose corn syrup - (and again didn’t sell alcohol).

They're nice by US food store standards, but not as nice as Waitrose.

I agree that Whole Foods is amazing though. Far and away better than Trader Joes. The one near me has a microgreens farm!

Trader Joes is full of ready meals, that are not a patch on what you could get in Waitrose or M&S (or even Tesco or Aldi) quality is really lacking in food in the US. Even Whole Foods has gone downhill since Amazon, (it was never a patch on Waitrose- even in its heyday)
Trader Joes do have interesting snacks and quirky packaging, it is also very reasonably priced (for NY)

It’s brilliant, I have family in US and go out there regularly, love trader jo, target even better!

What is it you're jealous of not having

I think it's mainly the snacks. They look good and more interesting than many that we have here.

I used to go about once a month. My list used to include
Cat cookies for people.
Lemon verbena soap
Nice bread
Jars of peaches
I used to get frozen foods there too.

British living in Texas I love Trader's they sell a english style crumpets, Naan's, nice bread, flowers are pretty cheap and they also do some very nice european chocolate/biscuits