Sunday, October 20, 2013

Trader Joes Awakening


While I lived in Omaha, NE I fell in love with Whole Foods. I wouldn’t do all my grocery shopping from there because I don’t think I could get use to organic toilet paper. However, there were several specialty items that I loved to grab there, and I probably went there 2-3 times a month. There are two Whole Foods within walking distance (about 1.5 miles) of my Seattle apartment, but I hardly shop there now; in the 18 months that I have lived in Seattle, I have been to Whole Foods only twice during that duration. My favorite “specialty” grocery store is Ballard Market. Both Whole Foods and Ballard Market can be pricy, and I had friends in Omaha and now friends in Seattle that rave(d) about Trader Joes. I have not ever been in a Trader Joes store….but that all changed this month.

As many people know, pumpkin's stock skyrockets in the month of October and Trader Joes capitalized on the many Americans devotion to The Pumpkin, including this American! You won’t see me sipping a pumpkin latte in Starbucks, because coffee should be not flavored and served black in my opinion, but foodwise-I love all things pumpkin. Trader Joes sends out a monthly flyer and this flyer consisted of 90% pumpkin items for sale in their stores.

The Trader Joes in Queen Anne (neighborhood in Seattle by the Space Needle), is a tiny, old building, and has about 10 parking spots. Doesn’t sound very impressive, but as the saying goes “it’s what inside that counts.” First off, they have special little signs that indicate a “flyer item”, one has to love an item that screams for attention with a “look-at-me” signage.  Also, they have copies of their monthly flyer in the store if you forgot yours at home (which I did). As I do with all new stores, I went down every aisle to figure out what I have foods I have missed out of in my life. I got a good haul of groceries for about $50, including some of the pumpkin featured items. After an amazing first experience at Trader Joes, I can see at the minimum a monthly trip to “browse” the aisles and new items; I mean there is no harm in just looking. All hail the pumpkin!

The pumpkin items I bought:
Pumpkin Bread & Muffin Mix
Nonfat Greek Pumpkin Yogurt
Pumpkin Pancake & Waffle Mix
Honey Roasted Pumpkin Ravioli
Pumpkin Ice Cream
Pumpkin Butter
Pumpkin Cereal Bars

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