I shop at Trader Joe's for certain things (milk, eggs, cheese, niman ranch bacon, canned tomatoes, olive oil, tom's of maine toothpaste). I prefer to shop here because the prices are pretty competitive and it's easy to get in and out. I come at least once a week. Since it has a limited space, tj's discontinues and adds new items quite frequently. They have a lot of tj's brand items copied off of other selling items that sold well. I have to say that the only tj's brand item that I have tried and liked and continue to buy is the tj's white cheddar popcorn. Some of the frozen fruit is ok too. I have to say I have tried many of their items and not liked the taste.
Tj's chicken shu mai in the frozen section are absolutely awful and so is the included sauce. I just purchased 3 packages which I'll probably end up throwing away. I can't believe they're trying to sell that off as food. Gross.
Tj's chicken dumplings are slightly better tasting, but are still pretty awful. No wonder they discontinue a lot of items. Do they expect that these awful tasting foods to sell well? Customers probably try it once or twice and never buy it again.
Some of their different types of breads are questionable too.
Also, what happened to the La Brea Bakery Baguette bread ($1.89)? The last couple of times I went, I did not see the La Brea Bakery baguette. Finally, I saw a sign in front of the bread section saying that tj's had only changed the packaging for La Brea Bakery and Il Fornaio breads. So I purchased a bread that claimed to have been a La Brea Bakery baguette (there was no La Brea Bakery bread label on the packaging, just Trader Joe's). The item even showed "La Brea Bakery" bread on the receipt and was the same price. Could it be? No, it was not. It did not have the same texture or consistency, was more dense and did not taste as good. Was I missing something? I've been now buying it from Costco (2 La Brea bakery breads) for $3.29. Unfortunately, the nearest Costco location is not as convenient for me as Tj's.
