Trader Joe’s has the potential to be a healthy food shopper’s paradise or to throw a wrench into the most well intentioned healthy shopping trip. To help you make the best choices possible, today I’m sharing 20 Healthy Do’s and Don’ts of Shopping at Trader Joe’s.
THE RULES
1 | Do buy real food
If you keep one thing in mind when shopping at Trader Joe’s it’s buy real food. I like to use Michael Pollan’s definition from In Defense of Food when it comes to real food: don’t eat anything that you can’t imagine growing or existing in nature, and don’t buy anything that contains an ingredient list longer than 5. Using the 5-item ingredient list automatically rules out quite a few Trader Joe’s items, but it also leaves many available for your healthy shopping.
Because Trader Joe’s offers a wide selection of healthy items it’s easy to assume that it’s a health food store. It’s not. They do a great job of offering a wide variety of food, from healthy, minimally processed choices to super-processed junk food. It’s up to you to look and fill your cart with the healthy, real food options.
3 |Do read labels
Along with #1 and #2, this is all you need to do to identify the healthy items. It may take a little longer, but always flip the package over and read the ingredients before adding it to your cart. Always. If the ingredient list is longer than 5;if it contains preservatives, chemicals, and ingredients you can’t pronounce or wouldn’t add to your own cooking;or it contains lots of added sugar, don’t buy it.
FRUITS & VEGGIES
4 | Do grab pre-washed and pre-chopped veggies
Trader Joe’s does an amazing job of providing a ton of pre-washed and pre-chopped veggies, making cooking with produce on a busy weeknight a lot easier. If you hate chopping or feel like you don’t have time be sure fill your cart with veggies that have been pre-prepped for you.
The fruit selection is awesome at Trader Joe’s and it’s easy to fill your cart with a rainbow of goodness. Look for bagged apples, oranges and the like so you have enough to snack on all week long.
6 | Don’t pass up the greens
Trader Joe’s has a huge section devoted to pre-washed, bagged greens and it’s a great place to stock up and fill your fridge with green leafy goodness. Look for baby spinach, kale, arugula, and whatever other greens you love. Use them in salads, smoothies, stir-fries, and soups all week long.
7 | Do look for organic “dirty dozen”
When making a decision whether to buy organic or conventional produce, keep in mind the Dirty Dozen, or the 12 fruits and veggies most likely to be sprayed or grown with harmful chemicals. If your budget allows, chose organic for Dirty Dozen fruits and veggies whenever possible.
FROZEN FOODS
8 | Do look for frozen grass-fed and humanely raised meat
If you’re a meat-eater, check the freezer case for grass-fed and humanely raised meat. Grab a few packages so you will always have quality meat options at your fingertips.
9 | Don’t grab super-processed frozen dinners
The frozen aisle may be one of the biggest pitfalls when it comes to healthy eating. Most of the frozen entrees are super-processed and contain less than optimal ingredients. Skip them in favor of real, whole options.
If you’re looking for weeknight shortcuts but are avoiding processed frozen food, cooked grains are a great option. Cooked brown rice, jasmine rice, and quinoa are great choices. Go for organic when possible as they contain fewer, less processed ingredients.
11 | Do stock your freezer with vegetables, fruits, and berries
Frozen veggies, fruits, and berries are also great to have on hand for smoothies, soups, and stews. My favorites are strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, peas, spinach,and artichoke hearts.
12 | Don’t become tempted by the frozen desserts
Unless it’s your splurge, just walk right by the frozen desserts. If you are tempted be sure to read the ingredients before deciding what makes it into the cart.
13 | Do grab frozen fish and shrimp
Having frozen fish and shrimp in your freezer makes weeknight cooking fast and easy. Look for raw, peeled shrimp for stir-frys and simple pasta dishes. Cod, mahi-mahi, and wild salmon are great baked, broiled, or made into fish tacos.
PANTRY ITEMS
14 | Do look for dried lentils, quinoa, brown rice and brown rice pasta
Grab a few bags of legumes and whole grains and you can whip up easy sides and salads in just a few minutes. If you’re picking up pasta look for 100% whole wheat or the gluten-free, quinoa or brown rice option.
15 | Do stock up on nuts and seeds
Having nuts and seeds on hand makes healthy snacking and baking easy. Look for nuts and seeds that are unsalted or lightly salted and skip any with added sugar.
16 | Don’t pick up the pre-made sauces
Unfortunately many of Trader Joe’s pre-made sauces and dressings contain preservatives, processed ingredients, and added sugar. When in doubt, read the ingredient list and decide for yourself.
17 | Do stock up on canned whole foods
Canned beans, pumpkin, wild salmon, coconut oil, coconut milk, tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, olives, and capers are just a few of the healthy canned or jarred items at Trader Joe’s. And because they are shelf-stable you can stock up and have ingredients on hand to put together a quick, healthy dinner any time.
SNACKS, DIPS, SPREADS & TREATS
18 | Do check ingredients on snacks, dips, spreads & treats
Oh, the snacks. And the spreads. And the dips. And the treats. This is where Trader Joe’s really gets you. Trust me, I’m tempted, too (hello Pumpkin Spice Cookie Dough Butter!), but usually all I have to do is flip the package over and read the ingredients and I’m okay with putting it back on the shelf. I generally prefer to save my splurges for the real food.
19 | Do look for minimally processed salsa
Though many of Tj’s dips and snacks are on the processed side, they do offer quite a few jarred and refrigerated salsas that pass the 5-ingredient test. I like to keep a few jars in my pantry to spice up tacos, burrito bowls, and to add to slow cooker recipes.
20 | Do grab the dark chocolate
If you’ve resisted all the treats but still want a little treat, grab a few bars of the Trader Joe’s Organic 72% Cacao Belgian Dark Chocolate Bars. Yes, they contain some refined sugar but they are one of the few dark chocolate bars out there free of dairy and soy, they’re fair trade, and they are so good just a square or two will quell your chocolate craving.
What are your healthy Trader Joe’s do’s and don’ts? Share them with me in the comments!
Trader Joe's is THE mecca for healthy, affordable food products, which is why dietitians (like me) love it. However, finding them while navigating the narrow aisles and sifting through millions of food products can be a bit overwhelming.
Trader Joe's is THE mecca for healthy, affordable food products, which is why dietitians (like me) love it. However, finding them while navigating the narrow aisles and sifting through millions of food products can be a bit overwhelming.
3. Bring your own bag. Even if you normally opt for paper, bringing your own bag at Trader Joe's can pay off, big time. Shoppers who use their own bag and spend at least $25 are entered into a weekly raffle where winners receive a variety of rewards, including $25 gift cards to the store.
As a national chain of neighborhood grocery stores, we are proud to donate 100% of products that go unsold but remain fit to be enjoyed to local food recovery organizations, in addition to a wide-range of community-based non-profit partners, seven days a week.
By selling foods outside of what the shopper typically sees, Trader Joe's customers keep coming back to see what's new. Over the years, the grocery chain has cultivated a loyal customer base. These customers appreciate the unusual products and competitive prices in the store.
Because Trader Joe's offers a wide selection of healthy items it's easy to assume that it's a health food store. It's not. They do a great job of offering a wide variety of food, from healthy, minimally processed choices to super-processed junk food.
That is: Trader Joe's more or less only sells products under its own brand name, with few exceptions. Trader Joe's is definitely cheaper than the average grocery store, but you might have to wait in a longer checkout line to take advantage of them.
Trader Joe's has a generous return policy — you can bring almost any item back to the store for a full refund, with or without a receipt. This includes food items you've opened and even eaten as well as non-edible products that didn't meet your expectations.
Trader Joe's also offers a line of “mystery bags” around the holiday season — purchase a sealed cardboard envelope containing three bags and see what states you get!
You can also speed up the drying process by using a clean towel. However, it requires a minimum 10-cent charge for bags made of recycled paper, which Trader Joe's is now providing for free.
At Trader Joe's, you won't find a lot of branded items. Instead, you'll discover a store full of unique and interesting products, along with everyday basics, in the Trader Joe's label. Our buyers travel the world searching for products we think are exceptional and will find a following among our customers.
Trader Joe's also aims for affordability, but its driving force is a unique brand. It focuses on of mostly prepackaged products in unusual flavor combinations that you won't find anywhere else.
Weaknesses. Limited store presence: While Trader Joe's operates over 500 stores in the United States, its store count is relatively low compared to other major grocery chains. This limited presence can restrict the company's reach and make it difficult for some customers to access its stores.
Trader Joe's's alternatives and competitors. See how Trader Joe's compares to similar products. Trader Joe's's top competitors include Tres Lecheria, Thrive Market, and Whole Foods Market.
The answer? While cashiers aren't trained to flirt with customers, they are encouraged to be amicable. “They do remind you that part of Trader Joe's appeal is its famously friendly atmosphere and ask that you do what you can to maintain that,” Philip, a former Trader Joe's employee, told Glamour.
The worst processed foods for your diet are typically ready-to-eat and low in nutrients. They include cookies, sugary drinks, deli meats, and frozen pizza, salty snacks like chips, and most breakfast cereals.
So what is the reason Trader Joe's employees are so nice? The answer seems to be that the company treats its employees well, and so employees want to return the favor to the customers. Lucky us. NBC News reports that customers are likely to save as much as 20 percent on groceries.
Trader Joe's and Aldi were fairly aligned with respect to most pantry and meat products, and the winner of the lowest price seesawed from item to item. The big exception is that Trader Joe's seems untouchable when it comes to discount prices on coffee, oils and nuts.
For produce, Trader Joe's prices were 18 percent lower than the average prices at all surveyed stores. For meat, Trader Joe's prices were about 16 percent lower than average.
Fun fact about Trader Joe's: They don't have security guards (minimum wage job!) or cameras in any of the stores because “Integrity is our #1 Core Value.” The workers have to be their own protection. Management has repeatedly taken the position of “We're not the mask police.”
The number of rings holds a message for store employees. One bell signals that it's busy and it's time to open another register.Two bells mean there are questions at the checkout.
It's easy to tell that Trader Joe's employees love their jobs, and a large reason for that is because the company invests in employee experience. Trader Joe's pays its employees competitive wages and offers health care benefits to even part-time employees.
The distinctions between the shirts represent rank in the Trader Joe's hierarchy. The employees sporting the button-down Hawaiian print shirts are the store leaders. Unless you have a customer service concern, there's no real reason to seek these guys out specifically.
They are intended to be reused repeatedly to replace the use of hundreds of High-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic bags. Most green bags are made of 100% Non-woven Polypropylene (NWPP) which is recyclable but not biodegradable.
Various Trader Joe's locations throughout California are now charging customers for grocery bags in the hopes of minimizing environmental waste. T.J.'s is no stranger to promoting higher standards of consumption.
You can sample almost any Trader Joe's product before buying. Store employees are encouraged to let you try ready-to-eat or drink items, like salads, chips, pepper-coated salami, or brewed ginger beer, to find out if they're actually worth the purchase.
Trader Joe's's competitors and similar companies include Weis Markets, Whole Foods Market, Giant Eagle, WinCo Foods and Raley's. Trader Joe's is a company operating a specialty grocery store chain.
Trader Joe's is named after its founder, Joe Coulombe. The company began in 1958 as a Greater Los Angeles area chain known as Pronto Market convenience stores.
For the name of his new store, Coulombe landed on Trader Joe's to evoke exotic images of the South Seas. The name was inspired by Trader Vic's, a popular Tiki Bar restaurant started in California. Joe Coulombe the, founder of Trader Joe's, in 1986.
However, Trader Joe's sells a higher quality of produce all-round over Aldi, which is partially why it tends to be more expensive. Their non-perishable and packaged products are generally more expensive than Aldi's, though as above, the difference in prices is negligible.
Trader Joe's is widely seen as a neighborhood store and has cultivated a fun-loving vibe that focuses on discounted natural foods. Whole Foods is the grocery industry's flagship organic foods store with a reputation for expensive, niche brands.
Experienced customers will share that the days to shop at TJ's are Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. All fresh fruits and vegetables arrive every morning and are restocked every day. The most popular items, which often include some non-refrigerated foods, are often gone by mid-afternoon.
City governments normally designate parking spaces based on the size of the business, and most Trader Joe's are small compared to other grocery stores. The company says they don't want to make their stores bigger because that would change who they are.
The answer? “We want our stores to be small and intimate, [to] feel like a neighborhood store,” Basalone said. “Maybe you bump into somebody or a crew member and can talk about what you're buying or products or what's going on in your lives, that sort of thing.”
Is busier necessarily better at Trader Joe's? While the Trader Joe's located at 72nd & Broadway in New York City is the chain's busiest store in the world, this designation doesn't come without its complications.
Crew cap is $27.25 with the ability to earn $30 if you're capped and worked at least 750 hours in the store during the previous review cycle. Currently in interview process and have a store manager job in standard retail at the moment i am going for mate but was asked if I'd be interested in crew if mate get filled.
Crew. As a member of the Crew, you do a little of everything—and handle a lot. So does everyone along with you. From running the register, to stocking shelves, to creating a beautiful display; all while making sure that every customer has a fun, friendly and informative shopping experience.
Shift hours at Trader Joe's are typically 7.5 hours, with a 30-minute break for full-time workers. Full-time shifts start around 4 or 5 am and end around noon. Afternoon shifts begin around 3 or 4 pm and end at about 10 or 11 pm. The part-time and middle shifts usually begin around 11 am and run until about 5 pm.
Trader Joe's Products are sourced from Non-GMO ingredients. Our efforts began in 2001, when we determined that, given a choice, our customers would prefer to eat foods and beverages made without the use of genetically engineered ingredients.
Trader Joe's is known for its unique food products, including seasonal offerings, as well as for its low prices. But Trader Joe's actually was not the most popular grocery store in America in 2022. In fact, a YouGov survey showed another grocery store was just a little bit more beloved among U.S. adults.
At Trader Joe's, you won't find a lot of branded items. Instead, you'll discover a store full of unique and interesting products, along with everyday basics, in the Trader Joe's label. Our buyers travel the world searching for products we think are exceptional and will find a following among our customers.
Trader Joe's is widely seen as a neighborhood store and has cultivated a fun-loving vibe that focuses on discounted natural foods. Whole Foods is the grocery industry's flagship organic foods store with a reputation for expensive, niche brands.
Donkeys, whales, monkeys, and lobsters are just some of the stuffed animals placed throughout stores as a way to keep children and parents entertained while shopping, confirms Today.
Trader Joe's's alternatives and competitors. See how Trader Joe's compares to similar products. Trader Joe's's top competitors include Tres Lecheria, Thrive Market, and Whole Foods Market.
Trader Joe's is meant to be more than a trip to the grocery store, but an experience. Customers can play with products, trying any item in the store by simply asking an employee. You can sip free coffee and eat samples while you shop—always very unique flavor combinations of their products.
Trader Joe's barely beats Whole Foods as the grocery store serving the wealthiest customers. Counties with any grocery store average median incomes of $54,000, but stores like Piggly Wiggly concentrate in counties with median incomes around $40,000–the bottom 44% of Americans.
Trader Joe's is named after its founder, Joe Coulombe. The company began in 1958 as a Greater Los Angeles area chain known as Pronto Market convenience stores.
For those who are stunned to learn Trader Joe's isn't just an Aldi subsidiary but that there are two Aldis, let's take a step back. CNBC explains Aldi was originally founded as a suburban German corner store which brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht inherited after World War II.
Is Trader Joe's Meat Quality Good? Trader Joe's meat has adequate quality compared to other meats in different grocery stores. The meat quality standards here require no artificial ingredients, preservatives, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), MSG, antibiotics, or artificial growth hormones.
Introduction: My name is Jeremiah Abshire, I am a outstanding, kind, clever, hilarious, curious, hilarious, outstanding person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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