I Love Trader Joe's
I rejoiced on the day when Trader Joe's opened their Templeton store. It meant we no longer had to drive all the way to San Luis Obispo to get favorite products no other store has. Trader Joe's is my favorite grocery store. (And they aren't paying me anything to say that.)
What I Buy at Trader Joe's
Trader Joe's is the only handy place to buy goat's milk at a reasonable price, for example, and I love their white teas. I combine these teas for my every morning beverage of choice, and I can't get them anywhere but Trader Joe's. It's also the best place in the area to buy Ezekiel bread, which we need for the diet plan we use.
Trader Joe's has many delicious treats that I no longer buy because they are not on my diet plan anymore, but instead I buy the many fruits and vegetables they offer. I also regularly buy their toasted slivered almonds to throw on my salads and into my stir fry dishes. We are addicted to their frozen sweet potato fries, but sometimes we also buy their sweet potato chips. Those are really hard to find anywhere else.
I have started buying some products I had never tried because Trader Joe's is always providing samples of something when I go in. I almost always try it, and sometimes that makes me buy what I tried. I also appreciate the snack, because I often shop when I'm hungry and that snack gets me through the shopping trip.
Trader Joe's is Child-Friendly
Have you ever taken children into a store only to have the employees follow them around as though they were little criminals? These kinds of stores often have signs on their shelves like “You break it, you bought it.” Granted, there may be good reasons for this. As a store manager I was taught that women who came in with children who scattered throughout the store or hid in the clothes racks, or created havoc in other ways often brought them in to distract clerks from the mother's shoplifting . It's also true that children like to touch, and they sometimes break valuables. That's why many kinds of stores try to make shopping a very supervised experience for women who enter with children who seem unruly.
But there is one store I know that actually welcomes children. Look at the photo below. If you only saw the photo, where would you guess it was taken? A kindergarten? A preschool? It would be a typical scene in either place.
But no. It's a corner near the front of the Trader Joe's store in Santa Maria, California, where we often stop on the way to destinations in Southern California. How many small children do you think would rather run around the store than play here? Or see their work on displayed in the window? (These activity centers may have changed since I took the photos, but they always have something for children.
Closer to home, at the Trader Joe's in Templeton, California, we see this area near the front of the store. It's another magnet for preschoolers. Again, the activities change from time to time.
I love what Trader Joe's provides for children – except for what you see below. I didn't see this in Santa Maria, but it's a shopping hazard at the Templeton store. Children do not have to pass a driving test to get one of these carts for “shoppers in training.” I have seen some frail senior citizens nearly run over, and I've also seen cart races between siblings. It's one thing to welcome children. It's another to give them weapons of destruction. Of course, alert and caring parents will teach their children to drive responsibly. I just wish clerks would act as traffic officers when parents don't supervise.
Do You Shop at Trader Joe's?
If you live in California, there is likely to be a Trader Joe's near you. Do you shop there? I guess it's obvious that I do. That's my cart not quite full yet on one of my shopping trips.
If you enjoyed this post, please share it. The sharing buttons are just above the comment box at the end of this post. The photo below is especially designed for pinning. The top part of the collage is a photo taken in autumn of one of the Trader Joe's pumpkin displays.
