The Trader Joe's Product Discussion Thread (S/D)

it's really hard to find broccolini at places that aren't trader joes ime

Ooh is the coconut milk ice cream good and does it not taste overwhelmingly like coconut?? Would try.

the chocolate tastes just like chocolate ice cream imo (more so than soy, almond, rice based ones)

It's really hard to read "broccolini" without hearing Martha Wash singing "tall! dark! broccolini!"

ROUGH AND TOUGH AND STRONG AND GREEN-Y

Oh smoked almonds, how did I ever live without you.

I'm heading on a trip that may not have coffee, so ... I bought a bottle of the new TJs cold-brewed coffee concentrate. Just add water and/or milk! I'll let you know how it goes, but I've heard good things.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, August 7, 2013 2:35 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh man, it would be awesome if this turned out to be good. I have my doubts because TJ's coffee generally is not good, and I wouldn't really want to cold brew their mediocre beans. But it could be that they have a licensing agreement with some decent company that makes the extract and is not their normal coffee roaster.

kati pouches wd be excellent w/ some raita and a non-spicy chutney.

i am down with their cheese puffs

I am really enjoying the cold-brewed coffee concentrate. As I've said before, I'm a coffee savage who adds milk and sweetener, but it has a really strong taste without funky burnt/acrid notes.

I had a frustrating visit to TJ yesterday. It was packed and the shortest line was in the 12 items or less lane. Turns out it was short b/c of the two women + toddler in line with a heaping full cart. Other customers in our line rolled their eyes and muttered and scowled in IA solidarity.

When their turn came, the cashier - a guy w/ wearing his thin grey beard in a foot-long braid - this cashier cooed at the toddler and chatted with the women while doing no cashiering with his hands. After a while he scanned a couple of items, then paused to baby talk w/ the kid, scanned a couple more, then started hunting around for a sticker, which he teased the kid with and finally stuck to his shirt. The woman in front of me huffed loudly and the cashier gave her a beaming grin. No self-awareness. The women w/ the kid heard it too, and looked away.

More scan-scan-babble-chat and finally I was ready to go off, but instead I walked past other people in line, set my 3 items on his scanner, and left without his noticing. I looked back inside from the window and the stuff was still sitting on his scanner and he was laughing and leaning forward to talk to the kid.

Besides the fact that he was neglecting his fucking main job function, what pissed me off was that when he saw the women with their outsized order and sense of entitlement and politely, he should have used some of his charm to tell them they were in the express lane and he wouldn't want to keep other folks with small orders waiting.

tl;dr synposis: hippy cashier prioritized entertaining a toddler absurdly far above cashiering

i had that happen but with a young hipster cashier and a beautiful foreign woman he was flirting with.

I like to think that the cashier inadvertently included your three items with the woman's order.

TJ cashiers can be infuriating. I like speed and precision in my cashiering.

I just got back from TJs and the cashier was a supreme doofus. Lots of dumb jokes and loud laughs. It was very strained and painful.

my experiences vary wildly from nice efficient no-chatting cashiers to just-woke-up/still-wearing-pyjamas/annoying conversations/1 scan every 2 minutes types who make me want to burn the whole place down

mostly it's the latter

yes I understand that 'small town friendly' experience is a draw but YOU ARE IN A CITY AND I HAVE SHIT TO DO, I'M NOT HERE BECAUSE I LIKE YOU I'M HERE BECAUSE YOU ARE SELLING THINGS THAT I WISH TO BUY

Aw. I love my friendly chats with goofy TJ's cashiers. There is a balance to be struck between friendliness and efficiency, to be sure.

A lot of TJ's cashier's seem to work there forever, so I find that if you can learn which ones are cool, you can often just pick the right line and escape doofusness.

my eyes turn to death lasers when the conversation continues and the working slows to a halt

ever since I worked in fast food my golden rule is: if you can't work and talk then you need to not be talking

xp - aj otm

i have 2-3 employees i will choose to interact with because they are civilized and if none of them are there i go for the person who looks the least familiar to me

there are two who i actively avoid -- 1 because she always asks for my ID "for the alcohol" and i can feel her judging me and 1 for assuming that i was flirting with him (which i was not) and embarrassing me in the process

A grocery store cashier in the Chicagoland area who judges people for buying booze is going to be exhausted from all the judging after just one shift.

I know! I just don't need some righteous asshole asking for my ID in that manner when it is totally unnecessary.

yes I understand that 'small town friendly' experience is a draw but YOU ARE IN A CITY AND I HAVE SHIT TO DO, I'M NOT HERE BECAUSE I LIKE YOU I'M HERE BECAUSE YOU ARE SELLING THINGS THAT I WISH TO BUY

Whatever, in high school I worked at grocery stores in a tiny Appalachian town and at one of them the cashier's training materials said to move with "a sense of urgency," b/c rednecks are a busy people with shit to do, and we didn't fart around flapping our gums, whistling Dixie, "messin' and gaummin'" or otherwise wasting customers' time. And those who did were dealt with.

I'm pretty irked that he didn't kick those women out of his line. And to the imaginary person I'm arguing with in my mind who is saying, "Good customer service means making exceptions to rules to keep the customer happy," I say that it's terrible customer service to indulge two self-serving fucks while inconveniencing 5 or 6 other paying customers.

totally

I thought about calling or writing a firm but polite email but I don't want to get a guy written up (though he really does need to learn that he's not helping) and I know one of the workers at the store, but not well enough that I want him seeing me complaining.

i'm having the cold brew over ice with a starbucks double shot can poured in and it's a good combo.

Trader Joe's is opening several stores in Austin, TX soon. I think they've stayed away so long because it is Whole Foods' home turf, but I'm looking forward to some healthy competition. I'm curious to see how much TJ's becomes part of our regular shopping routine vs. a place to get occasional snacks.

i do most of my food shopping at tj's.

so there are these dark chocolate coconut mango bites that are like mounds bars w/ a light mango flavor

they are like how you wished really yummy smelling shampoo would taste if you ate it, like some fairy fruity wonder that is so good and magical that you cannot imagine how it is even real

so taste, very snack
wow

ate the pesto tortellini bowl for lunch and it was just too saucy, and not v filling. Avoid.

Second. It is another one of those TJ's frozen entrees that manages to actually need salt despite its sodium content. Also mushy. Blech.

Yeah! it WAS mushy wasn't it? It's too sweet which is why it feels like it needs more salt.

ok the pot pie is kind of annoying to cook bcs it takes forever and doesn't really brown all that great but it may be our work microwave that sucks...but the filling is p delicious!

vegan quinoa mushroom sushi is as inert and you might expect.

why did they deep-six the chicken verde burritos

WHY WHY WHY

it irritates me how almost every single one of their prepackaged salads has chicken in it

get thee to a kale edamame bistro salad- will ride with these for life, so good

yeah that's the one i get, but i wish i could try some of the others too

why did they deep-six the chicken verde burritos

Oh snap, they are gone for good? Dammit. First it was the verde enchiladas and now the burritos. WTF, Trader Joe's, WTF.

they were awful.

also, why would you microwave a pot pie?

because I don't bake at work?

all microwaved pot pies are just mushy and don't brown, it is not specific to Trader Joe's product

no way marie callender pot pies come out v crispy

they are mushy unless you bake them.

LADIES, LADIES, PLEASE

Lots of frozen stuff comes packaged in a special sort of foil tray that helps pastry etc crisp up in the microwave

Beurre Meuniere Popcorn - no. This tastes like a weird toilet bowl cleaner. In fact, with the exception of the better-than-Smartfood white cheddar, I have found all of their popcrons p disappointing

Lobster Ravioli - oh hell yes. It's a tad sweet so make sure you salt the water but all you need for sauce is lemon juice + butter and ohhhhhh damn. It's a little on the pricey side ($4 = 9 oz = 9 big ravioli) but my GOD

it irritates me how almost every single one of their prepackaged salads has chicken in it

YES. And pretty low quality chicken at that.

Another thumbs up to the cold-pressed coffee. It worked out really well for us, to the extent that we're taking it camping this weekend. Just add water/milk and heat. No bitterness, but not too weak.