Atlanta joins the Trader Joe's communities!

[Voodoo]

Dang, why does the one Trader Joe's inside the perimeter have the latest opening date? Trader Joe's is going to save me a whole bunch of time when it finally opens. I will still do fortnightly grocery shopping at Dekalb Farmer's Market, but I often need little things between trips and I either end up going without or buying lower quality stuff at Publix because DFM is a bit of a trek.

[menon1971]

That is good news for Atlanta. We have a new Whole Foods going up as we speak, and have had a Fresh Market deep in the burbs for a few years now. I wonder if TJ will ever smile on Birmingham. We have now slighly over a million people metro, but have a bit of an image problem I am afraid.

[chemprof]

And I think you owe me a plane ticket!!

Congratulations!  Today Atlanta, tomorrow.... Charlotte? It's the most I can hope for, I know that Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Winston-Salem, Asheville and probably even Chapel Hill will get TJ's before Greensboro does!

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Interesting! Why is Greensboro (or even Winston) last? We've got colleges...we've got fancy restaurants...we've got...well, I don't know...folks who can cook? I had a discussion with a checker at Whole Foods in Winston the other night, and he said that Charlotte was due to get two WF before they even came to Greensboro.

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Not to rub it in, but Charlotte has had two Trader Joe's announced with a third still rumored. And yeah, still two Whole Foods on the way.

Sorry.

But, hey, Greensboro still has Tobacco USA, right?

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I wish! Tobacco USA moved last year and the new location, well, to put it bluntly, sucks. It's much smaller and now just a botique food and wine store w/ limited selection. The coffee's still good though.

I heard a rumor that a Trader Joes might go into the Fresh Market space across from Guilford College, but it's totally a rumor with no substantiation. It would a a good space for them (Fresh Market is building a new, bigger store off of New Garden Road).

Oh, well, even if that rumor pans out, Charlotte is still closer to Greensboro than DC! Maybe I'll run into you there, Kathleen. I'll be the one with the full cart and the cooler in the car!

Anne

[andiesenji]

That is good news for Atlanta. We have a new Whole Foods going up as we speak, and have had a Fresh Market deep in the burbs for a few years now. I wonder if TJ will ever smile on Birmingham. We have now slighly over a million people metro, but have a bit of an image problem I am afraid.

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Maybe it is that statue of Vulcan.

When I visited the park in 1957 (I was stationed at Ft. McClelland outside Anniston) I was shown the cascades and the statue, then driven around through Homewood to see the famous "Moons".....

(I took a lot of photos.)

[menon1971]

That is good news for Atlanta. We have a new Whole Foods going up as we speak, and have had a Fresh Market deep in the burbs for a few years now. I wonder if TJ will ever smile on Birmingham. We have now slighly over a million people metro, but have a bit of an image problem I am afraid.

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Maybe it is that statue of Vulcan.

When I visited the park in 1957 (I was stationed at Ft. McClelland outside Anniston) I was shown the cascades and the statue, then driven around through Homewood to see the famous "Moons".....

(I took a lot of photos.)

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Got to love a giant naked cast iron blacksmith, but seriously, who forges iron without pants? Seems rather like frying bacon shirtless.

Birmingham has gotten progressively more cosmopolitan the three years I have lived here, but it still has a ways to go.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Two more days .. and counting!

• What: Sandy Springs Plaza grand reopening with complimentary refreshments and prizes

• When: Saturday-Sunday. Ribbon-cutting ceremony at noon Saturday

• Where: Intersection of Roswell and Johnson Ferry roads

[JAZ]

I noticed that the plywood is off the windows and the lights were on at the location in Midtown (on Monroe near Virginia), so I'm hoping it will open soon. Has anyone heard an opening date?

[qrkid]

I noticed that the plywood is off the windows and the lights were on at the location in Midtown (on Monroe near Virginia), so I'm hoping it will open soon. Has anyone heard an opening date?

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I have heard it is around March 23rd

[Voodoo]

March 23rd! OTP'ers have had Trader Joe's for months now. This is all backwards.

[therese]

Well, Trader Joe's in Midtown has been open for several weeks now, and I headed over today to check it out, in part because I'm a bit under the weather and didn't feel like doing real marketing, just picking up dinner and a few random things that looked interesting. Note that I do most of my routine marketing at Dekalb Farmers Market, a high standard to meet.

My thirteen year old daughter went with me, and we agreed that we'd be unlikely to return given the other options availabe to us. She summed it up by describing it as "somewhere between Publix and a place that wants to sell natural foods." "Like Whole Foods?" "Yeah, like Whole Foods."

Things I liked:

Cheap wine: I got three bottles of vinho verde (mildly sparkling Portuguese white wine) for $4.49 a piece, great for summer.

Interesting dried fruit, including freeze dried rambutans and orange slices.

If I used frozen food I would probably have liked the selection, and pizza dough in bags seemed like it might work (I didn't buy any of either, so can't say).

Things I didn't like:

Pre-packaged (albeit pretty), expensive produce.

Limited cheeses (seriously, our Publix is better, or at least as good, but I'll admit that we've got a pretty upmarket Publix).

Things I was neutral about...

Bread okay for grocery store, condiments looked okay.

So, all in all fine for intown Atlanta groceries, nowhere near the standard of the large, often ethnically-oriented markets in town.

[JAZ]

I've been a long-time customer of Trader Joe's, from way back in the early 80's when it was a regional company in Southern California. I've thought that they diluted a little too much when they expanded into produce, which never seemed to be what they could do well. I buy lemons and limes because they tend to be cheaper than Publix (it's not easy for me to get to DFM, although I love it). But I hate buying pre-packaged produce, so that's about the only produce I buy.

However, I've long been a fan of some of TJ's products -- I always buy nuts and chocolate there for my Christmas baking because the quality is great and it saves me a lot of money. The frozen foods do tend to be good -- I don't buy the prepared products, but the IQF products that I've bought have always been good.

And their pizza dough is very good.