Trader Joe’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

First, we are not affiliated with Trader Joe’s. We are just loyal customers that generally like everything we buy there. We are a full service organization here at Club Trader Joe’s and to ease you on your way, we thought we’d put up a short list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Trader Joe’s. You can find their website at www.traderjoes.com

Here is a good book of Trader Joe’s Recipes

Where can I find a Trader Joe’s Store?

Trader Joe’s started in California and spread around that state and in the late 1990’s started a major push around the country. They are rapidly expanding around the USA and it won’t be long before there is one in your neighborhood. If you want to find out where a Trader Joe’s store is located, the best place is to look on the website to find one near you http://www.traderjoes.com/stores/

What are Trader Joe’s Hours?

It varies from store to store, but generally Trader Joe’s is open from 9am to 9pm seven days a week, 364 days a year (Closed on Christmas). Check your local store to make sure! http://www.traderjoes.com/stores/

Trader Joe’s Stores are small 
Their stores are average are about 12,000 square feet. Compare that with an average grocery store of about 50,000 square feet. Small shopping carts and small parking lots. It makes it easier to get in and out quickly. In the past, stores have been generally located in less than ideal shopping centers. Some newer stores are over 15,000 sqft and are located in newer shopping centers.

Trader Joe’s has fewer items
Trader Joe’s stores have only have an average of about 4000 items per store compared to 40,000 or more SKUs per normal grocery store.  Again, this means lower prices all around and frankly it just makes it easier to navigate the store with fewer choices. When your store is ¼ the size of a normal grocery store, it means lower overhead and lower prices.

Most items are sold under Trader Joe’s brand. 
About 90% of the items sold at Trader Joe’s are under the Trader Joe brand name. There are very few other brand names, mostly in the beer and wine sections and outside of those areas you will hardly ever find a nationally recognized brand. Buying directly from the manufacturer means lower prices again. It also ensures that the items they buy made to their specifications and it keeps costs down by cutting out the middleman.

Crew Members
Most of the people you see working at Trader Joe’s are “crew members” these are the non-management employees. You can recognize them because they usually were Trader Joe’s  t-shirts. Management must wear some type of Hawaiian shirt mostly button down type, short sleeve shirts. Most employees in the store can pretty much answering any question about any product, stock shelves and ring up sales. They are always around and almost always helpful. If you want to sample a product, usually they will open something up and let you have a taste!

Trader Joe’s Return policy
If you are unsatisfied with anything you buy there for whatever reason, they will give you a refund at the cash register no question asked. Period. If any employee even gives a moment’s pause about returning something, go straight to the manager. You need your product or a receipt to get money or exchange, but even half eaten food will be fully refunded. In all my years shopping there, I’ve seen a lot of crazy stuff.

Trader Joe’s loves Vegans, Vegetarians, Gluten Free and Kosher
They have made it a mission at Trader Joe’s to carry a wide range of Vegan, Gluten Free and Kosher foods. They mark them with special symbols to easy identification and they carry a list of all the products that are in that category on their website. The list is a little misleading because many items apples and potato chips are listed as “vegan” when it’s obvious they are already. But check out the frozen and the fridge sections for “meatless” items. You can find the list here:  http://traderjoes.com/products.asp

No High Fructose Corn Syrup and Genetically modified foods
None of the Trader Joe’s branded items contain High Fructose Corn Syrup and contain no genetically modified ingredients. There have been instances of non Trader Joe’s branded items containing  HFCS, but they are rare anymore.

You can save money!
On staples you can save a ton of money! Milk, Eggs, Bread, Beer, Oil, Ketchup or whatever you buy all the time, you will simply save money of similar quality items at other nationally branded stores. I think the key to understanding that is that Organic Milk will be cheaper than say Safeway or Whole Foods. The products at Trader Joe’s are usually high quality and Trader Joe’s are known for keeping the ingredients to ones you can recognized.

Be choosy with the produce and meat
Trader Joe’s does not work with local produce distributors and works directly with growers mainly in California (for west coast) and Florida for the east coast stores. What many people have found over the years is that the produce can be sub par to some grocery stores. Bananas are a good example, time and time again they seem to turn brown faster than the chain grocery store. Vegetables that travel well like carrots, potatoes, apples and onions are a great deal and are of good quality. Trader’s also has great pre-packaged salad mixes that are good. Your mileage may vary.

Same with the meat. No butcher on location. Much of the meat comes from California or overseas. Sometimes hard to find the cuts of meat that you want or they are not necessarily cheaper. Many times you need to go to a regular grocery store for what  you want. But if you want ground beef and chicken, there are a lot of choices. Not so many for pork. Lots of bacon, cold cuts and sausages. Not so much fish. Good selection of frozen fish though.

Staples are very good!
Milk, Eggs, Bread, Butter, Olive Oil, Rice, Peanut Butter, Jelly, you name it the stuff you buy in week in and week out are usually of good quality and usually a lower price. Sometimes much lower.

There are no sales
All items are priced to sell. There are no discounts generally. The price you see is the price you pay. They do honor coupons of some items, but Trader Joe’s does not offer coupons. I have seen items discounted like old Christmas stuff. They will take coupons on some brands that aren’t theirs, but this is pretty rare to find coupons that work at Trader Joe’s.

One Stop shopping is hard
You simply can’t buy everything you need at Trader Joe’s. If you live in a state that doesn’t allow wine or beer to be sold, then you’ll need to go to another place. They don’t carry many paper products. A better bet for that stuff is Target or Walmart. Also, no plastic products like Saran Wrap or Ziploc bags. Many times the vegetables I need for a dish simply aren’t at Trader Joe’s or they are of poor quality.

Sample Kitchen
I think all Trader Joe’s now have a small sample/demonstration kitchen where they cook up a product or two a day for samples. Very popular, especially with the kids. They always have a pot of sample coffee there for a free shot of caffeine!

The Bells!

• 1 Bell – Open more cash registers it’s getting busy in here. Frequently crew members are stocking shelves and when things get busy, the drop what they are doing an open more cash registers.
• 2 Bells – Price check, or assistance finding something on the shelf
• 3 Bells – Manager needed at cash register.