Trader Joe's vs. Whole Foods

Looking for some opinions:

I'm the type of foodie who grocery shops for different items that I can't find in Canada, just the States (like Chai Tea Luna Bars!). I live in Calgary so we don't have any WF or TJs at all. I recently went to Vegas and fell in love with the WF store there. The food selection was amazing.

I'm going to Chicago in less than a week and I already have a map to Trader Joe's printed off! My question is: Which store to you prefer and why? Are there any TJs products that are MUST HAVES (not including frozen items or things I would have to cook... I'm staying a hotel)? Do they even have their own store-brand? Am I getting too excited for TJs or is it just like WF stores? Oh, also, do they have a eat-in section like WF does (I was planning on going for breakfast at least once). Must know...

I prefer Whole Foods, mostly because of the fruit and vegetable selection.  Yes, it's pricey and all, but Trader Joe's veggies are mostly pre-bagged or pre-cut and presented on the little white trays and wrapped in plastic.  It's convenient, certainly.  I suspect that this is something that isn't going to matter one whit to you on your trip however.

TJ's has a great selection of nuts and other store brand stuff and it is cheaper than Whole Foods.  Also, a great wine selection with good prices. 

I have not seen an eat-in section like Whole Foods at any of the Trader Joe's I've been to.  Nevertheless, it's worth a trip there.

hmm, this is a tuffie.  They are actually pretty different.  Trader Joe's does have a private label, actually ALMOST all of their stuff is private label.  Also, most of it is pre-made or frozen stuff.  Their produce is not anything exceptional.  But I do love it there, here are my favs:

-their private label yogurts. OMG. their nonfat vanilla greek is my favorite yogurt of all time.  it has specks of vanilla bean in it. nuff said.  also the pomegranite greek is good too and not overly sweet like most yogurts.  the coffeehouse line of yogurts are fab too.

-the berry berry granola on top of the vanilla greek yogurt is perfection.

-their soups that come in the box, esp the low sodium roasted tomato red pepper are great!

-the fat free chocolate meringue cookies are good, and 13 = 120 cals. not bad! I usually eat 1/2 serving.

-great hummus! the edamame hummus is great too!

-snackie things.  they make a version of popchips, of bagel chips, and mostly any kind of healthy chips that are all really great!

-the pulled bbq chicken in the fridge section is awesome for salads.

Truthfully I mostly buy their frozen stuff which would be no good for you. but its a great store!

trader joe's all the way. whole foods always has an atomosphere of snootiness and their prices are ridiculous. idk how orangic your stuff is im not using half my paycheck to eat. trader joe's is great, i love how they have their own label- make me feel like they keep a close watch over their product in a good way. their frozen food section is godly, the only place where the pic on the box doesnt do the food justice. great little random finds all over the store. to top it all off they have good prices just about anyone could afford. and it seems a lot of cute guys always work there...

I'm gonna have to go with Whole Foods because of the MUCH broader selection. Also, Whole Foods really takes us vegetarians into consideration. Their salad bar has this barbecue seitan that is AMAZING, as well as other fresh-made veg*n entrees. And they have packaged meat substitutes that I can't find at any other supermaket.

However, I'll give Trader Joes their props because a lot of their stuff is their own label and it isn't half bad. Their almond butter for example, is really good and it costs 4.99 for 16 oz. The almond butter at whole foods is 9.99 for 8 oz?!?! That's pretty ridiculous.

But overall, I still vote Whole Foods.

Thanks guys! I will probably still go to TJ's since the WF store is further away. I was so jealous of the frozen section at WF. I wanted to try everything but couldn't :(

I shop in both, but I prefer TJ. It is cheaper plus I don't constantly hear "Is this organic?" or "Low fat, low cal, bla bla bla".

UD

My mom shops at Whole Foods.  I like Trader Joe's.  They have really good, inexpensive low calorie snacks that I am able to munch on all day if I want and still stay within my calorie limit very easily.  Whole Foods has some really great stuff, especially since I'm a vegetarian and it's hard to find a lot of really good, healthy options for me since I'm not a big fan of a lot of vegetables unless they're just really high quality or in a soup or something like that.  But Trader Joe's fits in my budget, while if Whole Foods knew the amount of money that I have to my name, they would have a security guard lift me and throw me out of the building.

If you go to TJ 's get the Morning Star Pizza Veggie burgers, and California burgers (Dr. Praegars) even my meat loving friends love them. They also have great butternut squash soup, low cal high protein. Some of their veggies are cheap, but you can't beat WF for great fresh produce! I'd hit them both if I were you and stock up!

Original Post by jckrssllterrier:

If you go to TJ 's get the Morning Star Pizza Veggie burgers, and California burgers (Dr. Praegars) even my meat loving friends love them. They also have great butternut squash soup, low cal high protein. Some of their veggies are cheap, but you can't beat WF for great fresh produce! I'd hit them both if I were you and stock up!

 

I live in Canada and I'm flying to Chicago so all fruits & veggies would be confiscated at the border! And I won't have access to a stove so burgers are out.

they both sell the same type of snack bars (luna, cliff, green, z bars,...). Can you fly with dried fruit? I love the prunes fro TJ. There are so many in a bag. TJ also has lots of cookies and sweets. Your choices are pretty limited. Sorry i cant be more help. btw i love chicago, youre so lucky youre going!

Trader Joe's definitely. The only Whole Foods items that I've been crazy about (price does factor in) is the 1/2 gallon of almond milk in the refrigerator section and the food bars, both of these I've only found in New Jersey.  Trader Joe's isn't as big and doesn't have as many non food items, but their selection is pretty good and is generally reasonably priced.

My recommendations (can you ship yourself a care package?):

• Luna Bars - I love chocolate peppermint stick
• Nuts about Cranberries trail mix (don't know if this would be confiscated)
• Tomato Pepper soup - it's not quite called this
• almond milk
• toasted sesame oil
• Molasses cookies
• There's some cool fiber kitchen towels
• Oatmeal facial wipes
• Tea tree facial wipes
• Lavendar oil
• Vitamin E oil

Trader Joe's for sure. I rather like smwhipple's idea about the care package. My favorites (that fit your no-cooking-or-produce-or-frozen-foods requirements) are the freeze-dried fruits, the bars (Z bars, Fiber bars, and Luna bars are my definite favorites), all the granola and cereals (I'm a carbohydrate fiend, lol), CHOCOLATE, the green tea mints (only if you're a fan of unsweetened green tea), all the low-cal, healthy, snacky foods, etc. The list just goes on and on...

If they have it (probably do, I get it at my Trader Joe's all the time), you should definitely try the Garden Veggie Wheat Thins. They are officially my new favorite snack food. :)

As for your breakfasts, Trader Joe's has an unfortunate lack of eat-in sections. However, their mini muffins and CRANBERRY ORANGE SCONES (I cannot stress this one enough) are absolutely divine!! And if you find the right type of muffins, they're actually really healthy, too. For example: low calorie, 0 trans fat, very low saturated fat, high fiber, extremely tasty, low sodium, high other vitamins, etc. = heavenly serving(s) of whole grains. :)

OMG I need to go grocery shopping now. Never mind the fact that I just went to The Fresh Market yesterday... (BTW, that's another fabulous grocery store that you should try out. Absolutely wonderful dried fruit. And other stuff, too, obviously.  ;p )

Thanks for the recommendations!

Dried fruit, nuts and bars are ok to take over the border. Whenever I go to the States, I always stock up on bars & cereals! I definitely plan to buy some Clif Nectar bars and Z bars, White Chocolate Macademia Nut Luna Bars and the new PBJ Larabars (we get all the flavours in Canada but these are not available here yet).

I'm intrigued by all these products mentioned.. my bf is going to kill me! Last time I went to Whole Foods, I was wandering around for an hour and half! 

I live in Chicago and live by both a TJs and Whole Foods. When it boils down to it... you'll find me at TJs more often than WF just because I can't afford WF all the time. Whole Foods is like my treat to myself every season. But TJs is a bike ride away...

I love...

Cinnamon Sugar Almonds

Dried Mango

Mini Chocolate Merangue Cookies

Raw Unsalted Creamy Almond Butter

Shrimp Stir Fry (its frozen but maybe next time you visit!)

Cliff Z-Bars

Trader Joe's Fresh Salsa

Vegetable Sushi

Almond Milk

Roasted Garlic Hummus

Mini Whole Wheat Pitas...

Delicious! Enjoy!

I forgot, TJ's has these Thai chili lime cashews that are so addictive!  Also peanut butter filled pretzels...scooby snacks.

Almost forgot try their cranberry or aple/mango fiber muffins (4 per box), or cranberry mini muffins (8 small ones per box). They are so delicious! Not sure if you can bring them back or not, but they sell these pound 72% dark and bitter sweet chocolate bars. Great chocolate.

UD

trader joe's, its cheaper

Trader Joe's

Cinnamon Crumpets

Peach Salsa

The Blue Tortilla Chips

I 2nd the Edamame Hummus

Mediterranean Hummus

Dark Chocolate Covered Edamame

They have a great selection of Cheese

I always want to get their 7 layer dip but I refuse because it's probably not good for me, yet it looks super delicious

I have only been to WF a few times, I'm not really familiar with there stuff.

For organic stuff I go to Wild by Nature but they can be pricey.

Original Post by wordsunheard:

Trader Joe's

Dark Chocolate Covered Edamame

 

Wait a minute! This combo intrigues me.

I've worked at TJ's, so I thought I'd throw in some potentially insider information:

Although this is publicized, a lot of people don't get the system:

all of the TJ private label products are just relabeled - TJ has nothing to do with any of the food, besides its box/label. So, you know that TJ Chocolate that says Made In Germany? It's actually a very high quality German brand. They save money doing this because you aren't paying for a name, and the original manufacturer doesn't lose face.

The drawback? You have no idea of the quality of that organic milk, or any organic product. There's no way for an independent reviewer to test its standards, besides the FDA. What this means is that, for instance, you don't know if you're getting cow-loving Stonyfield milk/yoghurt, or something drawn from 50 different farms.

Some others:

TJ's is almost in every case cheaper than any store I know of. When it's not cheaper, you're usually paying for the quality - like organic jam without garbage in it.

You can return anything, anytime, no receipt. You just need the packaging.

You can ask any employee to open some food up for you to try. You don't need to buy it.

Grocery tip: nearly everything is fresh, especially milk, eggs, and yoghurt. There is never a reason to reach back or find a good date. Cheese might be closer to its date - but the further it is back, the more chance it has of being frozen/degraded. The only caution is that bacon/fish often has a ripped vacuum seal, which rots it. Not TJ's fault.

Vegetable/Fruit tip: if you find loose onions, or anything loose - it's yours. We have no way of selling food that gets separated from its package, so it just gets thrown out.

I hope some of this is usual to people.