1 hour ago, Ddanno said:I did warn you in my intro post about stoopid questions.
What is Trader Joe's exactly? Searching online just pegs it to any other supermarket, but you folk seem to be pretty enthusiastic about it - hence this entire thread - so there must be something I am (once again) missing.
What's different about it from err.. I dunno, Safeway?( that's still a US supermarket right?)
My 2 cents is that TJ's is more of a niche market rather than a supermarket. They don’t carry everything one might want in their weekly shopping, though they keep getting closer. They never carried any fresh produce at all (maybe bananas and apples?) until a big grocery union strike here in SoCal (Oct 2003) shut down the chain supermarkets and TJ's picked up the slack. Costco, Target and other retailers also jumped into the fray but TJ's was the most nimble and it was a big turning point for them. Still no name brands. Lots of their own private label stuff. There are similarities to Aldi, though I find them quite different. Most of Aldi's private label stuff is packaged to be almost indistinguishable from the big name brands while TJ's tends to go for more trendy items than copycats though both sell at lower price points than their competitors.
