Trader Joe's coundown

Excitement is building in the New York foodie blogosphere: In just a few weeks, New York's first Trader Joe's will open in Union Square. Trader Joe's is a chain of discount gourmet grocery stores that started in Los Angeles and spread across the U.S. The Joe M.O. is to hire buyers to scout out raw materials and then produce products under the store's house brand. They also pride themselves on fair labor practices and sustainable harvesting.

Whole Paycheck is on notice.

Comments

[Curto]

I was introduced to TJ's a couple of years ago when they came to Indianapolis...gotta go every couple of weeks to stock up on coffee, raw nuts, and other staples.

The Ultra Dark French Roast trumps the Volcano Ultra Dark, but not by much.

[Mnemosyne]

The one thing to know about TJ's is that their fresh produce is, for the most part, crap. Don't buy their apples or pears unless you're desperate. Vegetables are usually okay.

But overall they sell quality products at good prices. That includes some of the same stuff you pay more for at Whole Foods.

And their private-label wines are surprisingly good!

[j swift]

TJ's has some very good and novel food items. I also go every couple of weeks to stock up on things I like and I usually try to pick out something completely new to me to try out.

I think their organic cream of tomato soup must have crack in it or something. I am hooked on it and eat it three or four times a week.

[Roxanne]

The frozen food section is the highlight. The cheap wines carried in states without Draconian liquor laws aren't bad, either.

[Mike Nilsen]

TJ's is great for certain things, but they don't have the breadth and depth of product variety to replace a full supermarket. And their produce is mediocre. Whole Foods and the Union Square farmer's market can relax a bit.

[Heather Ordover]

Trader Joe's in So Cal and Arizona are staples. You can't live without them. Their wines are cheap and good, their vitamins etc are spectacular, their frozen foods and salads are life-sustaning when in grad school. I can't wait...too bad about the wine section in NY...where to go...where to go...

[janet]

Mazel tov!

The great danger of TJ's is the sweets -- lots of good chocolate, cookies, ice creams, etc . If you have a sweet tooth, make sure not to shop on an empty stomach.

[D. J.]

Doesn't it bother anyone here that Trader Joe's is owned by the 20th richest person in the world (and a former soldier in the Nazi army), Theo Albrecht?

[ahem]

and a former soldier in the Nazi army

Um, there were quite a few of those. They were -- what's the word? -- 'Germans'.

[cheflovesbeer]

I love T.J's. They have the cleanest bathrooms of any market I've ever been in. The bathrooms look nice, not industrial. They tend to have a friendly staff, that does costomer service well. I loved the two buck chuck(two dollar bottle of wine) when I kived in CA. It was not bad, but what do I know I'm a beer drinker:)

[Njorl]

I went to a Trader Joe's once. They seem to think that a lack of selection and an attractive but inefficient display scheme were reasons for charging nearly double what other supermarkets charge. Make no mistake, at Trader Joe's you are buying the priveledge of paying more.

[John Bagley]

I've shopped for a decade in four different states at Trader Joe's and they've always been cheaper on most items than other supermarkets in the area. I'll second the recommendation on their frozen foods, especially the tamales and Thai shrimp gyoza.

[Nathan Williams]

Expect the under-$10 wine section at Whole Paycheck to disappear once TJs moves in.

[John Emerson]

My experience was high quality, limited selection, low price, and a surprisingly large proportion of snack food. I never bought produce or meat there so I couldn't say about that.

[MattT]

"My experience was high quality, limited selection, low price, and a surprisingly large proportion of snack food."

The limited selection and low price are related. Their business model is to find suppliers who can get them things cheaper than other markets. If they can't do that, they often won't bother stocking it, or if the supply runs out, restocking it.

The wines are very hit or miss. One rumor I heard was that a lot of the ones that look like better deals come from shipments that may have been exposed to too much heat. Sometimes they are undamaged and you get a great deal, sometimes you get crap. I have no way of confirming this.

[jonnybutter]

TJ's, as mentioned above, is not trying to be a full service 'supermarket'. They have what they have. The prices on what they do have are good and the quality is mostly very good (although I don't usually buy produce there). The fresh and frozen meats are excellent and most of the house-brand items are very good too. A highlight is the BREAD. If you like real baguettes, you will love it - cheap and good. I have to go to my TJs here in Chicago every few days just for good bread.

A new discovery: they have a frozen leg of lamb which is already seasoned with rosemary, etc. Normally, I wouldn't buy anything which has been pre-seasoned, but a friend bought one and slow cooked it on the grill the other day, and it was delicious!

Congratulations on getting a TJs! Screw Whole Foods, BTW.....

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

The frozen shrimp at Trader Joe's are an incredible deal and really high quality. The frozen seafood is generally very good. I also like their pantry staples: olives, soy sauce, chutney, pimentos, etc. The cheese selection isn't as exotic as Whole Foods or as fancy as Fresh Direct--but it's always really good quality.

[suzib]

I am a huge fan of their fat free black bean dip and their dolmades in virgin olive oil and lemon juice.

[The Great Beast]

I'm your man in a discussion of TJ's and wine.

The interesting thing about Trader Joe's wine section is that all of the private label wines, and 90% of the seemingly differentiated California labels on their shelves are produced by a single winery--the same one that owns the Charles Shaw Vineyards ($2 Chuck) label. Contrary to rumour, they don't buy damaged wine, they just buy very low-end wine and sell it under a variety of labels.

It's an interesting channel of distribution for the winery, and makes a fascinating case study for changes in consumer behaviour when a market is confronted with the commoditisation of a previously specialised product. Lindsay was asking me if it was true that TJ's has changed wine buying patterns by introducing a palatable product at a very low price point, and the answer is an unqualified 'yes'.

TJ's is very sharp about their consumer research. When they took on the $2 Chuck product they didn't want to devote a permanent SKU to a possibly transitory product. Instead they arranged the wine in cases, on skids in a prominent location in the store, and then trained cameras on it.

The cameras showed consumers were very interested in the product: they didn't purchase a bottle or two of wine to take home and try: the got a case of red and a case of white to take away--after all, for $24/case you could at least make Sangria or something. The impact of this change in consumer behaviour (previously something like 90% of all wines were consumed within 40 minutes of purchase, tough to do with a whole case) has resonated throughout the whole wine industry, and done nothing but good for everyone.

[Chris Clarke]

The one thing to know about TJ's is that their fresh produce is, for the most part, crap.

That's pretty much our experience, though the Nantes carrots are usually pretty good.

[Noam Sane]

When I lived in Cali, I was devotee. For several months I was within walking distance of their Daly City store and I made the best of it. They don't have everything, and not everything they have is great, but I guarantee you'll fall in love with at least a few things they carry. And yeah, they give good cookie. No hatin' on Joe!

[Njorl]

One thing I've noticed, after more than 3000 trips to the supermarket, there is huge variation within a chain. I don't know what causes it. As far as I know, chains employ buyers who buy for all of their stores in an area, but where I live, some Safeways have better produce than others on a consistent basis.

[Left_Wing_Fox]

I used to shop a fair bit at TJ's when I was living in Palm Desert. I found the local one had a cheaper and higher quality dairy section that the local supermarkets. Two-buck-Chuck also made awesome cooking wine. :)

Produce selection was pretty bad, although the mini sweet bell pepper packs were great for stir-fry dishes. Otherwise, I bought the majority of my produce on the weekend farmers markets.

[TomK]

What about shopping at your local food co-op? I buy 80% of my groceries from the local co-op and get great food at reasonable prices. All organic and natural and tasty. Then I go down the block to safeway for ice cream and orange juice and other things that are way overpriced.

[John Emerson]

I believe that there've been studies showing that poorer neighborhoods have less selection, higher prices, and lower quality.