People gush about Trader Joe’s. You know, because of their deals and awesome staff and of course, their fresh and quality produce. Did I mention their customer service is TOP-NOTCH?
Thrillist was able to snag some insider info about what to get at Trader Joe’s. I know I buy as many frozen mangoes as I can, but ideally, I’d love to buy everything in the store.
Bananas
According to Thrillist’s source, the .19 cents per banana is actually a steal.
“Bananas are a good deal,” one employee told me. “Nineteen cents apiece. I’ve actually gone and weighed a pound, and you can get five bananas for under a dollar. Whereas if you go elsewhere, you’re paying for the peel.”
Beer
You can find beer at $1.19 a bottle. What’s there not to like?
Chips
Apparently, people cannot get enough of Trader Joe’s roasted plantain chips. “One mid-sized store employee told me they sell a case of ’em per day,” Lee Brousler wrote for Thrillist. In fact, “in the aisle with all the chips, the White Cheddar Corn Puffs and veggie chips are constantly being restocked.”
Eggs
At $1.99 per carton, it’s a great price. (Egg prices have gone straight through the roof recently!)
Frozen Meals
I used to get Trader Joe’s meatless orange chicken all the time. And it appears that people love the mandarin orange chicken because they’re almost always sold out.
A chatty TJ’s employee working the sampling station told me she loves the baked, pre-made carnitas with salsa verde. Among the frozen wares, top picks included the mac & cheese bites and the quattro formaggio pizza customized with produce and meats from elsewhere in the store. TJ’s mandarin orange chicken is a well-known favorite in the frozen-food aisle, and it’s also the best-selling product on the grocery side of the store, according to the employees I spoke with.
Italian
Their pasta is imported from Italy and costs you .99 cents.
The manager also noted that other Italian staples like olive oil and vinegar are solid values. I can confirm: the 100% Italian organic extra-virgin olive oil is always competitively priced.
That manager wasn’t done helping: she singled out the white Modena vinegar mixed with California Estate olive oil to make a killer homemade salad dressing, or the same vinegar mixed with garlic and lemon to make a chicken marinade.
Organic Sweet Potatoes
There’s a lot of ways to cook sweet potatoes and Trader Joe’s helps you out with that because you can get a 3lb bag for $3.99. And because they’re organic, you can be sure you’re getting the good stuff.
Wine
Two-buck chuck is great, but TJ’s carries some wine that taste even better priced around $4.99 to $5.99. You still don’t break the bank to get drunk on tasty wine. Isn’t that great?
“We have a lot of wines that are between $4.99-5.99, and they’re all really good,” a helpful employee told us. That includes the Chariot red, an Italian Contadino pinot grigio, and a 1967 Toscana. There are also wines priced up to $120 p/bottle, but we’d recommend instead buying 24 bottles of the $5 wine.
One favorite wine of the employees isn’t $2, $4.99, or $120 — it’s the Tribunal red blend for $9.99. The price point is why it’s not “flying off the shelves,” but I think it might be because people don’t want to drink a wine they associate with military court hearings. Push past the name and pick some up.
AND SAMPLES
Trader Joe’s is notorious for samples, samples, samples. Actually, I never knew that you could sample a few bites of the items you were thinking of purchasing.
“You can try whatever you want,” an employee told me. Even when I pointed out that I wanted to sample one of the new frozen foods (a Mexican-tinged quinoa mix) and that it’d take seven minutes to heat up in the microwave, there was no flinching. They were going to microwave the hell out of it for me just so I could try a few spoonfuls. The only limit is that if you ask to try 10 things, the employee said they’ll tell you some version of, “You’re good. Your lunch is over.” Sick burns are also now available at TJ’s.
Well, with that knowledge, now I know I’ll never leave Trader Joe’s. Ever.
Trader Joe’s Employee Secret Stuff
Okay, the header sounds like they’re holding back on some secret items you’d never heard of, but they’re all there. People say that we eat with our eyes and it’s true because ugly-looking items or items that sound gross to our ears don’t get sold. Five Seed Barsapparently taste delicious, but no one buys them because they look…unappetizing. Same thing for Scandinavian Swimmers (which are like Swedish Fish). According to the Thrillist article, they taste less sweet than their counterpart and costs only $2.99 per bag. Who knew? (h/t thrillist)
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