# trader joes



## Star Baby (Jan 24, 2002)

hello!
i haven't posted here in quite a while. anyway, i wanted to share that i've gone organic, whole food and health concious as far as eating is concerned. my dh and i decided and i shopped my little heart out yesterday. fun, fun. as far as good stores, i'd heard that trader joes is in fact not always what they say as far as organic. has anyone else heard that? i love the store and the prices for what you get. whole foods and wild oats just are sooo expensive.
so i guess i'm wondering, where do you shop? also, i'd love good kid ideas. as far as lunches and snacks. my little ones are 3 and 1. and i could use lots of positive reinforcement for my recent good choice









~sb


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## Neldavi (Jun 28, 2005)

That's great that you've decided to eat organic! You're body and your kids will thank you for it ... as for Trader Joe's, I don't like it and I'm not positive about all the reasons why. One reason I don't is because they advertise themselves as an organic, natural store, but if you really look at a lot of the food they sell, it's just not.

I used to live in Northern California where it was SO easy to get good, organic food just anywhere so Trader Joe's was way at the bottom of my list of shopping places. Now I live in West Virginia where I have to drive an hour and a half to get to a health food store so I'm less picky. There isn't a Trader Joe's here but I'm sure I'd shop there if there was one. Really, you just have to look at the ingredients on everything - they do sell some good stuff, you just have to heavily filter (same as shopping anywhere really). Beyond that I'm always suspicious of chain stores with cheap food because I'm sure someone is getting jipped down the line, yk? Really, quality food should cost more than it does for farmers to be getting a fair price. That said, of course I buy cheap food because we're poor..







.

This time of year, we grow a lot of our own food or buy it at the farmers market. I'm also a member of a bulk order cooperative. And then I get food just at our regular grocery store or walmart







:

Wow, sorry for the book







. I have a 17 month old and he pretty much eats what we do. I do buy these organic Lundberg rice cakes as car snacks. He really likes nori, too ... good luck!


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## gottaknit (Apr 30, 2004)

I think Trader Joe's is great for staples, but I don't buy fresh produce there. Maybe each store is different, but our store has lots of organic products.







At any rate, everything is clearly labelled, so it's not as if the store is trying to mislead you.

The reason their products are cheaper is because they buy direct from the growers, like buying in bulk, then package the products and put their own label on them (not all of the products are TJ's brand, though).

I buy produce at farmers' markets from spring through fall, and then at Nature's or New Seasons or from a local co-op in the winter. We try to grow a lot of our own food, too, and only eat what is in-season. We can or freeze extra produce in the summer for use in the winter, too.

You don't need to spend an arm and a leg to eat organic if you shop smartly and in season. Another thing to consider is that often it is better to buy a locally-grown non-organic product in season, rather than an organic product from another country that has been sitting in storage for months (which is why I don't buy produce at TJ's







). If you shop at Farmers' Markets you can ask the growers about their practices. Often, they aren't certified organic, but are still using sustainable and safe practices.


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## just6fish (Feb 28, 2005)

I did read that they don't use any GMOs in their private lable


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## Star Baby (Jan 24, 2002)

sarah,

you made me laugh. thanks for that. it's odd that the whole food change feels like such a serious one. i appreciate your honesty. and what's nori?

~sb


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## Neldavi (Jun 28, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Star Baby*
sarah,

you made me laugh. thanks for that. it's odd that the whole food change feels like such a serious one. i appreciate your honesty. and what's nori?

~sb

Nori is seaweed, it's the sheets of seaweed they use for sushi. It has a really nice, slightly salty mild flavor. I'll make a grain and veggies and then wrap little bite size pieces in a little piece of nori and he loves it.


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## mzfern (Nov 16, 2004)

Hi Starbaby, I see you’re in Ferndale, MI. My favorite health food store is Natural Patch on 9 mile, west of Woodward. To be honest, though, I’m not sure about their produce. I’ve only bought other products there (being from out of town), but my mother in law lives down the street, and I believe she does lots of her shopping there. Hope that helps!


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## *green*faery* (Feb 6, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *sarahverlinda*
One reason I don't is because they advertise themselves as an organic, natural store, but if you really look at a lot of the food they sell, it's just not.

Actually they don't advertise themselves as a natural store, they advertise themselves as "a unique grocery store" and more of a specialty/ gourmet food store.









As far as the organic produce, if it's grown in the US, then it's by organic guidelines, however a lot of there produce is imported from Mexico or other countries, so it's sprayed with stuff upon entering our country!!! There packaging on produce sucks, but I buy some (US grown) organics there because it tend to be cheaper then other places.


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## tboroson (Nov 19, 2002)

I've had friends from California, where TJs are really common, also tell me that TJs advertises themselves as a "natural" or "health" food store. Here in PA, where there are only a couple of stores, I've gotten the impression that they sell themselves as a gourmet, specialty food store. The natural foods just come along for the ride. Thus, while I see a lot of foods there that I would never buy, I'm not offended by their presence.

That said, yes, you heard right. There are a lot of products there that are definately not health foods. You have to watch out for hydrogenated oils, hfcs and artificial colors. There are a lot of great organics at TJs, and a lot of non-organic but healthful foods. The former are easy enough to find, they're labelled "Organic". As for the latter, you have to know how to read labels. Their own breads, especially, have hfcs in them - a lot of people never think to look for ingredients like that in bread.

My biggest gripe with TJs is that their fresh foods are often not very fresh. I had cheese go moldy on me within days of purchase several times, so I stopped buying cheese there entirely. Strawberries, too, have gone bad on me in like 24 hours. It drives me crazy that so much of their produce is under plastic - I can't take a close look at it, smell it, see if it has any bad spots.

I teeter on the fence with TJs. Some of their foods are great - we live for their organic hummus, and their organic avocados are so much less expensive than even conventional ones elsewhere. As a PP said, however, it makes you wonder how they're getting some of this stuff so cheap. I've been making great strides toward buying locally lately, and TJs just doesn't fit that bill. Obviously living in PA, I'll never be able to buy local avocados, but at least I could be buying them from a locally owned store. TJs, however, is a fairly small portion of my grocery bill, and at that it's 99% of my non-local shopping (other than that, maybe once a month I find myself in a regular grocery store looking for something unusual like a mophead, and sometimes might pick up some grocery product that I know we need rather than make another trip for it.)

My final comment on this is that I consider TJs to be like IKEA for food. They are gourmet food for the masses. Their $8 bottle of black truffle oil is nowhere near the quality you'd find for several times the price at Zabars... but, what are the chances most of us would ever find it worthwhile to spend that much on truffle oil in a real gourmet shop? I'm not ashamed to shop there, even though it's not "real" gourmet, but it does bother me that some people put them on a pedestal. Seriously, the way some people talk about Trader Joes, you'd think it was in a class with Neiman Marcus. Then again, my aunt talks about IKEA that way, too...

Sheesh... after reading this, you'd never guess that I am planning on stopping at Trader Joe's tonight, huh? :LOL I need my hummus fix. I am a very accomplished cook, and yet I've never mastered hummus to suit my daughter's taste. She'll eat an entire tub of TJ's organic hummus at a sitting, but won't touch mine.


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