First off, let me say Happy New Year! I think 2013 will be a really fun and interesting year for Trader Joe’s followers and I hope to help you along your way and have some fun too!
The last couple of weeks have been a little slow around here due to the holidays and some long needed R&R visiting family in Virginia and Maryland. My brother in law lives in Arlington, VA so we just had to go visit the new Trader Joe’s in Clarendon just down the road from his house. Clearly this is a high volume store! I think at my Trader Joe’s in Kirkland, WA we have maybe 10 cash registers and rarely are they all open. Sometimes it gets real busy and you might get 2-3 people waiting in line. At the Clarendon store, all customers have to wait in a common line and then spread out to about 20 cash registers. They actually have someone directing customers to cash registers! It was right before New Years and the shelves in the store were half empty. I had never seen anything like it before. I just hope it’s not like that all the time there! If anyone regularly uses the Clarendon store, comment on your experience!
The real meat of this post is about the most popular products at Trader Joe’s over the past year. I should preface that with, “the most popular by visits” to www.clubtraderjoes.com. I think you will be kind of surprised by the results!
So here are the top ten posts by visits over the past 12 months:
10. Trader Joe’s Organic Stone Ground Mexican Style Dark Chocolate
Not really sure why this is on the top 10 most visited sites, but it might have to do with the fact I have it a 10 score!
9. Trader Joe’s and the Astounding Multi-Flavor Joe Joe’s
This one is easy to figure out, so many delicious cookies! And it’s a review I did in December!
8. Trader Joe’s Vegan Turkey-Less Stuffed Roast
All things Vegan get high page views at my blog and this one is no exception.
7. Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Bread and Muffin Mix
Not quite sure why this was so popular last year, but it sure is fun to make and eat!
6. Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie Butter
This is a no brainer! One of the most popular things from Trader Joe’s and looks like it’s going to be around for a long time!
5. Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Spice Rooibos Herbal Tea
I thing all things Rooibos must be trending now, can’t figure out why a tea would be viewed so much!
4. Trader Joe’s Gingerbread House Kit
This one is obvious. Trader Joe’s sells a ton of these at the holidays!
3. Trader Joe’s (Ming’s) Mandarin Orange Chicken
Another no-brainer, by Trader Joe’s own admission this is their most popular seller.
2. Trader Joe’s Pizza Dough
Pizza is the most popular food in the world and Trader Joe’s makes some great pizza dough!
1. Trader Joe’s Chia Seeds
Chia Seeds? Really? I must’ve walked into some trending fad (and so did Trader Joe’s). This one has by far the most page views and I can’t quite figure it out. Nevertheless, this is the view page on my blog for the past year!
All in all it’s been an interesting year and I hope Trader Joe’s keeps up the good work!
i’m a regular at the clarendon trader joe’s. the scene you described sounds like your average sunday afternoon or monday evening.
the crowds always seem more manageable at TJ’s than at the whole foods just a few blocks down, though.