Trader Joe's, 16 Area Locations

[Sundae in the Park]

Yup, we also get the paneer naan. It, along with the green package garlic naan, are excellent.

Oh good, I'm glad you have them as well! We also get waaaaay more cookies than necessary whenever we pop in. The butter almond thins and Speculoos cookies never last long at our house!

[MsDiPesto]

Trader Joe's bag of julienned root vegetables looks very attractive on the outside of the bag. Slim, elegant sticks of parsnip, beet, carrot, and sweet potato. Alas, all pretenses of elegance disappear when you open the bag and find those graceful forms are absent, and it turns out to be short, stumpy, crudely hacked up versions of those four vegetables. 

[Pat]

I made my first TJ's run in a while earlier this week.  I bought two packages of cheese and green salsa tamales, some of which we had last night.  I think they're pretty good.  The packaging says they're from Mexico.  I'm not sure how I feel about imported tamales traveling that distance from a food safety standpoint, so I'm careful always to cook them to the temperature on the package or beyond.  This is the second time I've bought them, and they're going onto my standing list.  I don't usually buy many of their prepared foods.

[ktmoomau]

TJs to the rescue for a social committee event in my building I got: kale and spinach balls (big hit), chicken pot pie bites (big hit), turkey meatballs and bbq sauce, wine, cheeses, crackers and a few dips (white bean hummus and artichoke dip.  Plus some dog treats since it was a yappy hour.  It was a nice spread and super easy one stop shopping.

[TheMatt]

TJs to the rescue for a social committee event in my building I got: kale and spinach balls (big hit), chicken pot pie bites (big hit), turkey meatballs and bbq sauce, wine, cheeses, crackers and a few dips (white bean hummus and artichoke dip.  Plus some dog treats since it was a yappy hour.  It was a nice spread and super easy one stop shopping.

You know, those kale and spinach balls are darn good. I've heard good things about their new stuffing-flavored chips too...gonna have to get some.

[ktmoomau]

You know, those kale and spinach balls are darn good. I've heard good things about their new stuffing-flavored chips too...gonna have to get some.

I love the spinach and kale balls too, they are so good, and you are eating veggies, there were only 4 left (made a couple boxes) and I used them to make a psuedo meatball sub for lunch and that way good too. The turkey meatballs are also an especially good warm up in the crock pot with some sort of sauce party food that will get eaten.    Plus if I don't use them all, Hubby will eat them as leftovers.

[dracisk]

Holy cow -- stuffing flavored chips?? Those look amazing. I love stuffing, even the crappy Stove Top kind.

[TheMatt]

Holy cow -- stuffing flavored chips?? Those look amazing. I love stuffing, even the crappy Stove Top kind.

Can't go wrong with Stove Top and I figure if these just have that sage-spice blend I'm used to, I'm good!

[DaveO]

A reason to love Trader Joe's.  Ever since I saw this dinner recap by Pat, back in October I've added cutlets to my meal repertoire.  Cutlets; I grew up "eating wise" and then "cooking wise" with cutlets, but for some reason I stopped making them altogether.   Until Pat's reference.

Since then turkey cutlets with bread crumbs and Italian type seasonings has gone back on the agenda.  Its a tasty dish.  Easy to make, very fast, and the cleanup committee never complains.  Its so fast you prepare everything else first.

I've been picking up turkey cutlets at TJ's, typically in 1-1.5 lb preparations; the cutlets are already cut thin though not completely uniform  (so be prepared to pound a little).   I think they run either $4.99 or $5.49/lb and here is a several month old reference from the TJ newsletter

While at TJ's the other day there was one package of this "stuff".  I picked it up.  Price was missing I guess.  It wasn't stamped.  Only one package at the time.   When paying for it they couldn't identify price.  A staffer was sent back to find price.  He couldn't find it.   It went to the MOD (manager on Duty).(I threw out what I thought the price was).  But TJ's resolution.  NO COST/NO CHARGE!!!

gotta love TJ's.

[mr food]

Speaking of cutlets, TJ's eggplant cutlets are a staple for us.

[squidsdc]

Ultimate Vanila Wafers are quite that..."A butter cookie with flecks of Madagascar vanilla beans" Notice the container is nearly empty.  Like no other vanilla wafer I've ever had!

[Mark Slater]

Trader Joe's Foggy Bottom has fine wine, all of a sudden. Today I saw:

Chateau Talbot 2010 for $57  and Chateau Calon Segur 2005 for $115, both great prices.

 

=

[sandynva]

if you like cauliflower, you should try the roasted cauliflower and cheese ravioli in the refrigerated section. the filling is quite tasty, i wish they sold it alone as a side dish. 

[silentbob]

Sounds like a new store is opening in Gaithersburg/Rockville (Travilah Square) either late this year or early next year, thus leading to the recent closure of Michael's Noodles and most likely other places soon too.  And apparently the TJ's near Lakeforest Mall is closing on the same day that this new one opens, so basically a move across town of sorts.  Selfishly, this is a great development because what was a 15-minute trip is now only 4 for us.

[MsDiPesto]

On 10/17/2016 at 9:03 PM, squidsdc said:

Ultimate Vanila Wafers are quite that..."A butter cookie with flecks of Madagascar vanilla beans" Notice the container is nearly empty.  Like no other vanilla wafer I've ever had!

Based on your recommendation, I bought a tub the other night. Delicious!

[yeah]

"Thomcord" grapes--imagine Concord grapes with edible skin and less chewy center. $2.99 for a clamshell, I think it's a lb.  Excellent. 

[Mark Slater]

Cornbread chips. Trust me. 

[Al Dente]

On 9/6/2017 at 8:34 AM, yeah said:

"Thomcord" grapes--imagine Concord grapes with edible skin and less chewy center. $2.99 for a clamshell, I think it's a lb.  Excellent. 

I tried these. There's not enough Concord in it!

I love Concord grapes.  

[Pat]

The HIne (Capitol Hill) location of Trader Joe's is scheduled to open Friday, September 29, per Capitol Hill Corner.

[Tujague]

As happy as I am to have a Trader Joe's on Capitol Hill, I'm sorry to say that I've been rather disappointed in the store we got. First of all, it's small—I suspect one of the smallest in the DC area. When it's crowded, it feels super-cramped, which is exacerbated by the lack of small carts (did the city disallow them here for some reason?) or parents on phones obliviously pushing heavy-duty double-wide baby strollers through aisles barely able to accommodate the larger carts. Second, the shelf management there has so far been pretty poor--seemingly dozens of shelf tags are missing or misplaced, or the wrong products are located under them. Store staff seem to be unconcerned with tidying up items that have been mis-reshelved or correcting their own errors; I've gone back on consecutive days and found the same stuff just left in the same random place. And it seems like this store has more than its share of visitors who simply dump their unwanted products wherever. Third, the placement of products seems far from intuitive, particularly in the freezer cases; the smaller space demands that more items be placed above the freezer cases, and I find myself going back through aisles several times. Things I expect to be near one another are sometimes far apart. And some of the other logistics are weird: to exit to the street, you have to go out the door to the parking garage, then turn left and go back into the store to access the escalators. On a positive note, it seems like they have a fairly efficient check-out system, though it's hard to see the registers nearest to the exits. I expressed some of my concerns on the store web site, but thus far have no response. They may not be able to change the limits of a small space, but it seems like many of this issues should be rectifiable. And if the city is barring them from small carts, I hope they petition for a change of policy (the Clarendon store also lacks them, but it's a much larger space, so it feels like less of a problem).

[Pat]

19 hours ago, Tujague said:

As happy as I am to have a Trader Joe's on Capitol Hill, I'm sorry to say that I've been rather disappointed in the store we got. First of all, it's small—I suspect one of the smallest in the DC area. When it's crowded, it feels super-cramped, which is exacerbated by the lack of small carts (did the city disallow them here for some reason?) or parents on phones obliviously pushing heavy-duty double-wide baby strollers through aisles barely able to accommodate the larger carts. Second, the shelf management there has so far been pretty poor--seemingly dozens of shelf tags are missing or misplaced, or the wrong products are located under them. Store staff seem to be unconcerned with tidying up items that have been mis-reshelved or correcting their own errors; I've gone back on consecutive days and found the same stuff just left in the same random place. And it seems like this store has more than its share of visitors who simply dump their unwanted products wherever. Third, the placement of products seems far from intuitive, particularly in the freezer cases; the smaller space demands that more items be placed above the freezer cases, and I find myself going back through aisles several times. Things I expect to be near one another are sometimes far apart. And some of the other logistics are weird: to exit to the street, you have to go out the door to the parking garage, then turn left and go back into the store to access the escalators. On a positive note, it seems like they have a fairly efficient check-out system, though it's hard to see the registers nearest to the exits. I expressed some of my concerns on the store web site, but thus far have no response. They may not be able to change the limits of a small space, but it seems like many of this issues should be rectifiable. And if the city is barring them from small carts, I hope they petition for a change of policy (the Clarendon store also lacks them, but it's a much larger space, so it feels like less of a problem).

I have to start with LOL, because my biggest complaint is the checkout system. They have customers butt-to-butt, with some big carts making it even more cramped. I'm not that fond of the customers on the inside, registers on the outside model, unless there there is a wide aisle. This store does not have a wide aisle.  I've only walked so I don't know about the parking, but the going out and back in sounds weird.

It would be odd if they couldn't have the medium carts since they have them at the H Street Whole Foods. But I have noticed that it is either hand baskets (which is what I have used) or full-sized carts. (Can't recall what they have at the Jenkins Row Harris Teeter.)

I've found the pre-packed produce not to be of such great quality.  I haven't noticed the misplaced tags, but that wouldn't surprise me. I find the employees friendly and a bit too overly helpful, but I imagine that's how they've been trained. The way they stack stuff over the freezer cases drives me nuts, but that's a chain-wide issue, not specific to this store.

The space is pretty small, thought I don't find the aisles any smaller than the TJ's I'm used to going to. and I'm still not sure why it had to be two levels below grade..

[DonRocks]

13 hours ago, Pat said:

I have to start with LOL, because my biggest complaint is the checkout system. They have customers butt-to-butt, with some big carts making it even more cramped. I'm not that fond of the customers on the inside, registers on the outside model, unless there there is a wide aisle. This store does not have a wide aisle.  I've only walked so I don't know about the parking, but the going out and back in sounds weird.

It would be odd if they couldn't have the medium carts since they have them at the H Street Whole Foods. But I have noticed that it is either hand baskets (which is what I have used) or full-sized carts. (Can't recall what they have at the Jenkins Row Harris Teeter.)

I've found the pre-packed produce not to be of such great quality.  I haven't noticed the misplaced tags, but that wouldn't surprise me. I find the employees friendly and a bit too overly helpful, but I imagine that's how they've been trained. The way they stack stuff over the freezer cases drives me nuts, but that's a chain-wide issue, not specific to this store.

The space is pretty small, thought I don't find the aisles any smaller than the TJ's I'm used to going to. and I'm still not sure why it had to be two levels below grade..

Although I'm not much of a grocery shopper, I want to say that I've never "gotten" Trader Joe's. To me, it seems like a store where I would never go if I actually needed anything (unless I knew in advance that I wanted something they had) - it comes across as this mish-mash of weird things, almost randomly scattered throughout the aisles. Other stores that come to mind are "The Wiz,"  "Circuit City," "Waldenbooks," "Egghead Software," and "Sam Goody" - these stores weren't all-encompassing (such as Walmart or Amazon), nor were they mom-n-pops that you wanted to support; you always had to "go somewhere else" as well.

I know that people have their Trader Joe's favorites (e.g., chocolate-covered toffee), but I've just never understood how this chain has not only survived, but thrived.

[Tujague]

17 hours ago, Pat said:

I have to start with LOL, because my biggest complaint is the checkout system. They have customers butt-to-butt, with some big carts making it even more cramped. I'm not that fond of the customers on the inside, registers on the outside model, unless there there is a wide aisle. This store does not have a wide aisle.  I've only walked so I don't know about the parking, but the going out and back in sounds weird.

It would be odd if they couldn't have the medium carts since they have them at the H Street Whole Foods. But I have noticed that it is either hand baskets (which is what I have used) or full-sized carts. (Can't recall what they have at the Jenkins Row Harris Teeter.)

I've found the pre-packed produce not to be of such great quality.  I haven't noticed the misplaced tags, but that wouldn't surprise me. I find the employees friendly and a bit too overly helpful, but I imagine that's how they've been trained. The way they stack stuff over the freezer cases drives me nuts, but that's a chain-wide issue, not specific to this store.

The space is pretty small, thought I don't find the aisles any smaller than the TJ's I'm used to going to. and I'm still not sure why it had to be two levels below grade..

I agree that the checkout space is cramped, but thus far I've found the checkers pretty efficient in getting people through quickly.

Harris Teeter/Jenkins Row does have the smaller carts; but it has other management issues and a terrible self-checkout section. I'm increasingly using the Navy Yard location.

TJ's has never been known for great prepackaged produce, but they nevertheless sometimes carry items you don't regularly find at Safeway/Giant/Harris Teeter. And I think the smaller size makes the over-the-freezer case items more of an obvious issue here. Maybe this will improve when they're carrying fewer seasonal items; TJ's goes way overboard with pumpkin spice crap.

[dracisk]

What's the issue with the small carts? Why would the city bar them? Just curious.

[Tujague]

51 minutes ago, dracisk said:

What's the issue with the small carts? Why would the city bar them? Just curious.

I don't know. When I inquired about them at the Clarendon location, I was told they were not allowed to have them, so I wonder if there is a similar thing going on here. It does seem like those carts disappear fairly quickly from Safeway, HT, etc., so I wonder if they are concerned that they would become a street nuisance. Whatever the case, it's odd.

[Pat]

I now understand what Tujague means about the parking garage thing. The first few times I was in there, I walked straight to the escalators after I left the cashier.  Now I've had a few situations where I have to walk outside the store to the entrance of the parking garage and then back to the left to get to the escalators. This is really weird.

The last two times I was there I looked at the exit routes. I realized that there are carts blocking the access I originally had (which is why I had no idea about the weird loop-de-loop). The first of those times, I just pulled back a cart from the corral/racks and walked through. The last time I asked someone at the customer service desk. When I questioned why I could no longer go through, he got a little TMI and said that the person who was supposed to collect the carts wasn't and is no longer employed there (i.e., the carts are now where they were supposed to be all along). Then he pulled a cart back so I could go out that route.  He also corrected me and said it wasn't the parking garage I had to walk through, it was the vestibule. He said it very politely.

My conclusion after thinking about this is that they are trying to make people walk out past the customer service desk to minimize shoplifting.  Understandable but very annoying to have to walk the extra loop when you just want to get to the escalators.

[Tujague]

Good news: the Capitol Hill store now has a small supply of the smaller carts. Bad news: the shelf price tagging remains a work in progress, to be polite.

[thistle]

I’m going to the Springfield location tomorrow, to browse for T’giving cooking, but realize I will probably will come home w/ triple ginger cookies, lots of salsa, & maybe pumpkin spice body butter if they still have that.

[astrid]

TJ's has amarena cherries for $3.99 a jar!  They are as good as the stuff I occasionally order off of Amazon for 4-5 times as much.  Our checkout clerk said that they are a seasonal item, so I will probably run back to buy more.

[sandynva]

those cherries are delicious, thanks for the tip! 

the 14th street store also had jars of caperberries for $2. i don't recall the size exactly, maybe 8 oz? but in any case it seemed a good deal. they said they were only a holiday item. 

sadly they were out of the peppermint bark which i think i actually prefer to the williams-sonoma version. 

 

[Mark Slater]

Sliced brioche loaf made the best French toast (pain perdu) ive ever made.

[arlingtonkabob]

I love TJ's. The one thing to be careful about is their frozen foods, although they are tasty they are loaded with sodium! Some I've seen reaching well up unto the 1,000mg. On a more positive note they have everything you can possibly look for. I made a mean quinoa paella using their smoked andouille chicken sausage and veggie stock. Along with a bunch of fresh veggies, shrimp, roasted red peppers..just talking about it i'll have to make some for dinner again tonight

[TedE]

Yuzu Hot Sauce.  Just discovered it last week.  I'm always on the lookout for interesting hot sauces with actual flavor (I have no interest in macho, super hot sauces).  It's vinegary with lots of citrus, about Tabasco-level of heat, maybe a touch more.  It was probably an influence of the greenish-yellow coloring, but at first taste was like a South Carolina mustard BBQ sauce with a bunch of citrus peel thrown in.  Awesome over eggs, and probably great with pork.

[MsDiPesto]

I was bummed to not see the Cultured Salted Butter on the refrigerated shelves on my last visit. 

[ALB]

On 1/29/2018 at 11:28 AM, TedE said:

Yuzu Hot Sauce.  Just discovered it last week.  I'm always on the lookout for interesting hot sauces with actual flavor (I have no interest in macho, super hot sauces).  It's vinegary with lots of citrus, about Tabasco-level of heat, maybe a touch more.  It was probably an influence of the greenish-yellow coloring, but at first taste was like a South Carolina mustard BBQ sauce with a bunch of citrus peel thrown in.  Awesome over eggs, and probably great with pork.

Thanks for the suggestion! This is great!!

[ktmoomau]

My Mom got me a beautiful bouquet of hyacinth and ranunculus from Trader Joes in Nap.  It smelled fantastic, might have to stop in Alexandria this week to see if they have them there too.  

[silentbob]

On 4/14/2017 at 2:29 PM, silentbob said:

Sounds like a new store is opening in Gaithersburg/Rockville (Travilah Square) either late this year or early next year, thus leading to the recent closure of Michael's Noodles and most likely other places soon too.  And apparently the TJ's near Lakeforest Mall is closing on the same day that this new one opens, so basically a move across town of sorts.  Selfishly, this is a great development because what was a 15-minute trip is now only 4 for us.

Based on posts that I saw on Nextdoor recently, there have been delays and the Travilah location likely won't open until later this year at the earliest.  Which sounds right, because even driving past the site a few weeks ago, the construction looked quite far from being close to done.

[TedE]

The new store over by Union Market (4th and Florida NE) opened a couple of weekends ago.  Feels more spacious than the 14th St location, but that may just be the extra high ceilings.  Curiously, the parking lot suffers from the same cramped, awkward column layout; pulling in and backing out is a pain.  I wonder if it's a corporate design feature .  It's closer to us than the 14th location by about 1/4 mile (I would have told you 1/2+, but GMap says otherwise!  It feels a lot closer).  Nice to have one in easy(er) walking distance.

[Sundae in the Park]

This is interesting: What Brands Are Actually Behind Trader Joe’s Snacks? Apparently Eater does investigative food journalism??!! It's from last year but I didn't see it linked here. Some speculation but they make a strong case for their thesis, with FOIA data and everything 😉 I saw a bunch of other articles on the same topic later that week, but they were all citing the Eater article.

We've been eating a lot of their pizza dough lately (we always get all three kinds - white, wheat, and herb). High in sodium but otherwise so easy and delicious when you don't feel like prepping dough a day+ in advance.

My store seems to have gotten rid of the non-organic petite frozen peas, which were a mainstay buy for years. Who does that??!! Oh, right, TJ's... 😞

[silentbob]

On 4/4/2018 at 12:51 PM, silentbob said:

Based on posts that I saw on Nextdoor recently, there have been delays and the Travilah location likely won't open until later this year at the earliest.  Which sounds right, because even driving past the site a few weeks ago, the construction looked quite far from being close to done.

Finally.  Not official on the TJ website yet but Bethesda Magazine is reporting a September 7 opening.  Hooray!

[NolaCaine]

TJ's has noodle soup in a cup (miso ramen, chicken ramen). It's great, I love noodles in cups generally so that endorsement isn't really impressive. What bothers me is that it is a ...construction project with the flavor packet and something else in little bags that one has to open, pour into cup, and not spill all over. Terrible. 

[Mark Slater]

2 hours ago, NolaCaine said:

TJ's has noodle soup in a cup (miso ramen, chicken ramen). It's great, I love noodles in cups generally so that endorsement isn't really impressive. What bothers me is that it is a ...construction project with the flavor packet and something else in little bags that one has to open, pour into cup, and not spill all over. Terrible. 

They also have frozen wonton soup that I thought was tasty until I saw how much sodium it contained. I think it was more than 1200mg. 

[silentbob]

I don't know when TJ started selling their garlic spread dip, but am mad that we didn't discover it until very recently.  It's seriously one of my favorite condiments of all time.

Some have compared it to the legendary garlic sauce that Zankou (super-popular chain in the Los Angeles area) serves with its roast chicken.

[sandynva]

It is so good!  I love it on fries. I actually think the version sold at the Lebanese taverna market in Arlington is superior but as I’m rarely in Arlington and I’m very happy to have this. 

[DonRocks]

6 hours ago, silentbob said:

I don't know when TJ started selling their garlic spread dip, but am mad that we didn't discover it until very recently.  It's seriously one of my favorite condiments of all time.

Some have compared it to the legendary garlic sauce that Zankou (super-popular chain in the Los Angeles area) serves with its roast chicken.

4 hours ago, sandynva said:

It is so good!  I love it on fries. I actually think the version sold at the Lebanese taverna market in Arlington is superior but as I’m rarely in Arlington and I’m very happy to have this. 

Is it a creamy dip, or an airy whip?

Yes, that was very trite, but the gist was right.

[sandynva]

closer to a whip i think. 

 

[Bob Wells]

I'm stopping at TJ's on the way home for a few packs of those little pumpkin mousse things -- my kids love em. Where can this airy whippy-dippy garlic stuff be found?

[sandynva]

 In the refrigerator section. With the hummus and stuff 

[DaveO]

On 10/30/2018 at 12:11 PM, silentbob said:

I don't know when TJ started selling their garlic spread dip, but am mad that we didn't discover it until very recently.  It's seriously one of my favorite condiments of all time.

Some have compared it to the legendary garlic sauce that Zankou (super-popular chain in the Los Angeles area) serves with its roast chicken.

Thanks for the suggestion.  It works well in many ways

[Torshi]

TJ's is the highlight of my week!  It is super convenient for me and no professional shoppers- Tenley WF is like a battle ground.  I have otherwise been trying to keep my shopping to smaller local people.  

Garlic sauce is great, so is the Zough and the herbed tahini sauce- all in that packed super zone of refrigerated sauces.  

I know it is not tomato season and they are not perfection, but there are these Sunset Teeny Tiny Tomatoes that can really hit the spot.  At least it is a healthy snack.

My naughty snack it the Spicy Chakri Mix.  It actually has curry leaf bits in it.  I also love the gluten free crisp bread (tucked in-between the chips), the big ones not the little ones that they put some off tasting onion powder in.

Happy safe shopping.