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What’s so special about Trader Joe’s

I consider Trader Joe’s to be the Aldi of the healthier food world. Their stores are small grocery stores; however, most of the items are their own label so they don’t have 10 selections of the same product.

What makes them healthier is that “the products contain NO artificial flavors, colors or preservatives; NO MSG; and NO added Trans Fats. In addition, ALL Trader Joe’s private label products are sourced from non-genetically modified ingredients.” They also carry some Organic products and non rBST dairy products.

As well because most of the items are from their own label, they have a lower price! I have done comparison shopping and they can beat some stores in their generic prices, and they can usually beat chain stores in their ingredient listings. Because they don’t have to market their products, the price for advertising isn’t passed on to the customer.

My favorite item is the Belgin “pound plus” Bitter Sweet Chocolate with almonds (It’s healthier because it tastes better without any dairy unlike other brands of dark chocolate.) I also like their humus and salted peanut butter (Ingredients: peanuts and salt.)

Now that I’ve given Trader Joe’s such praise, I must wait until Thanksgiving time before there is one in my area (and it will be 45 minutes away.) When I lived near a Joe’s, I would do a monthly run for my staples from the store (Chocolate, Peanut butter, Roasted red pepper spread, and rice milk). It took me about 20 minutes to get there and saved me more than enough to justify the drive. When the new one opens near my new home, the 45 minute drive will still be worth the extra savings.

I can’t wait until the fall so I can have my monthly drive to Aldis and then to Joe’s for most of my monthly food items.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 3:37 pm and is filed under Deals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “What’s so special about Trader Joe’s”

  1. Cheryl Says:
    May 2nd, 2008 at 8:27 am

    I think of Annabelle everytime we go to TJ’s as Graham has just realized they have a cart “just his size.”…hopefully my ankles will eventually quit bleeding .

    As for Aldi’s I went there ONCE and refused to step foot in it again after the inital trip. Nobody told me that you had to bag your own stuff and I couldn’t figure out why the lady was whipping the stuff down the belt like she was in some kind of contest to see who could finish the fastest. Then she yelled at me because she was ready to start her contest again with the next customer, but couldn’t because all my stuff was just sitting there. AHHHHHHH!!

    I do like the way they do their carts. I wish more stores around here would do that. Do you notice that people are more responsible with their carts in the south?

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