05th Nov 2007
I’ll miss the coffee
I have a love-hate thing going with Trader Joe’s. I love some of the food (coffee, tea, wine, blood orange soda, soy milk), and hate some (”organics” from China, and everything else imported, which is the exact opposite of shopping locally and sustainably). And I wasn’t really impressed in my interactions with customer service either when I asked about labeling and Chinese products (”Trust us” as a customer service saying doesn’t really inspire trust).
However, in the end, it was not the food or customer service that drove me out of the store; it was the crazy crowds. Our local Trader Joe’s is so crowded that it’s hard to find a parking place and hard to move your cart once you’re inside. Not only that, people push and shove once in the store all the while screaming on their cell phones about inane things. Grocery shopping became the low point of my week, and involved considerable strategizing with Jim in order to find a time to shop that wouldn’t drive us over the edge. We settled on mid-week at 8:30 p.m., just before closing.
I thought it was me, but then I came across this comment on a Yelp review about our store:
-People shopping here act like every F’n product is a gold nugget or 10ct diamond and will fight you for the last [insert frozen product here]. Guess what, it’s just food!!! The poser people here also annoy the crap out of me and their whole fake hippy atitude. Then I see them climb into their hybrid SUV (see the problem here) out in the parking lot which is always FULL!!!
-The only way I can make this place bearable to shop at is to go sometime during the middle of the week, approximately 30-minutes before they close.
So apparently it’s not me. And it’s not just that Trader Joe’s. The one on La Brea in LA is gawdawful as is the one in La Canada and the one in Goleta. So, so long Trader Joe’s. I’m sure I’ll be back occasionally, but I just can’t take the crowds.
In Santa Rosa, CA there are now two Trader Joe’s stores. The original store is just like the one you describe. People tend to be slightly rude and the store is perpetually crowded. For whatever reason, the new store, which is next to the new Target and Costco is much better. Originally I thought it was just because people had not found out about the new store, but it has been a couple years now and I think there is still a significant difference between the two.
I miss TJ’s ever so much (the closest one is like an hour away.) But you’re right, the shoppers… my biggest annoyance is the ones who stop dead in the middle of the aisle and stare with glazed eyes at the abundant wonders before them. And they don’t move even if you are right there in their face.
At our anniversary “massage” the woman who was working on me was a California transplant and was making fun of the grocery selections we have here in Northwest Indiana. “What I’d give for a Trader Joes!” she said. I went to one with my mom when I was in CA last summer and, well, I think you nailed the description even if this was an “inland” store. I remember exactly the moment I decided I had to move out of Los Angeles: I had to circle the parking lot at Ralph’s (this may date me, it’s been two decades since I left) several times before I could park. I was on my way home from work, I didn’t need much, and this just sent me over the edge. Two months later I was back “inland,” two years after that, in Phoenix, and 8 years after that, I moved to Indiana, where there’s always a place to park at the grocery store!
What y’all need is a Wegmans.
CC
I think you may be on to something, James, with the new store in a two Joe town.
And I’m beginning to think Trader Joe’s must have underestimated store flow to city planners in order to get a store with a parking lot that small. Your story, uuMomma reminds me greatly of my own experience that pushed me over the edge at Trader Joe’s town.
And Ghostie, I hope you get a chance to visit one soon.
CC, dude, I don’t even know what that is.