What’s Offered
At Trader Joe’s, you won’t find many mainstream brand choices, but you will find brands, labels and unconventional selections that you’ve probably never heard of before. Organic frozen foods, organic deli meats, and a few organic bread options are always available. Their organic produce choices are limited and unfortunately, a lot of their organic produce is grown outside of the US. They carry several clean types of meat including organic chicken and organic beef, as well as wild-caught seafood. Trader Joe’s has a strong label themselves offering everything from basic staples to out of the ordinary foods and products. Additionally, Foods with their private Trader Joe’s label are void of MSG, HFCS, GMO’s, artificial trans fats, as well as artificial preservatives, colors, and flavors. Given the smaller size of their stores, they offer a sizable selection of beer and wine as well. Also, vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options are plentiful.
The Takeaway
Trader Joe’s can be described as a specialty grocery store without the steep prices. Value, value, and more value is what you’ll find at Trader Joe’s, as well as off brands and unique clean choices not found in most chain stores. The atmosphere is laid back and fun. Although Trader Joe’s doesn’t have an abundance of organic selections, what they do have is competitively priced. Sadly, they do not offer many locally sourced foods and I’m not a big fan of organic produce grown outside of the US. As with most items that are purchased at “value” prices, quality can be a concern. Shop wisely, however, there are plenty of quality clean food choices to choose from at Trader Joe’s.
