Whole Foods or Trader Joes..

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24

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  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    plus, trader joes has tarte d'alace and cheap wine.

    Haha I love that tart.

    I go to both, to be honest. My Whole Foods wins because of an amazing bakery section, and much better produce. TJ because of great packaged stuff. I guess it really depends on what I need. I'm lucky enough that both are within 10 minutes of my house (and 2 minutes of each other).

    Overall I prefer Wegmans though!
  • sistrsprkl
    sistrsprkl Posts: 1,013 Member
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    TJ's but... I don't usually get any of their prepared foods and Whole Foods does have much better produce, meat, cheese. Still love TJ's!!
  • _Thriving_
    _Thriving_ Posts: 29
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    I am a TJ kind of girl... :-)
  • Barbellarella_
    Barbellarella_ Posts: 454 Member
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    My diary is about 90% Trader Joe's entries. So theres my answer.
  • missiontofitness
    missiontofitness Posts: 4,074 Member
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    Trader Joe's has a bottle of wine with a cat on it.
    I've only shopped at Whole Foods once, but I will prefer TJ's for that one reason
  • rivka_m
    rivka_m Posts: 1,007 Member
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    TJ's is cheaper, I tend to like the food better (meatless sausage pizza!) but the biggest reason I prefer TJs is that the WF near me is full of really unpleasant people (customers, not staff).

    My TJs doesn't have good produce but I've heard that's a regional thing. Anyway I usually get about half of my groceries at TJs, half at Meijer.
  • CA_Underdog
    CA_Underdog Posts: 733 Member
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    TJ teriyaki chicken strips
    1610mg of sodium per 450 calories. :(
    TJ spicy chicken and broccol
    1390mg of sodium per 430 calories. :(

    These would be good examples of why I don't shop at Trader Joe's more often. It's not impossible to fit these entrees into the USDA recommended 1500-2300mg of sodium per day, but it would be challenging. On 1200-2000 calories per day, you need to aim for entrees with closer to 1-2mg of sodium per calorie.

    As a one off, of course, both the above beat most medium fast food combos!
  • aeb09
    aeb09 Posts: 424 Member
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    I'm a Whole Foods shopper. Something about TJs has made me dislike it every time I've tried it.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    I don't know about trusting any brand.

    +1

    I shop at both, depending on what I want.
  • krawhitham
    krawhitham Posts: 831 Member
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    Whole foods and Trader joes are completely incomparable. Whole Foods has more products and a better selection in general, Trader Joes is more of a specialty store that is good for specific things. I shop at Trader Joes and another local grocery store. I never go to Whole Foods anymore.
  • smpreston
    smpreston Posts: 262 Member
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    Trade Joe's has Turbinado Sugar and Sea Salt Dark Chocolate Almonds. They are simply the greatest food item ever made.
  • Suzeesmu
    Suzeesmu Posts: 159 Member
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    The whole idea of trader Joe's is to keep cost down by providing their brands, it's really trail and error and also personal preference... btw trader Joe's and aldi both started in Germany and have really interesting info on their sites, but whole foods truly is a magical wonderland and I wish I lived there!



    Trader Joe's started in Pasadena, CA in 1967 (not Germany). My parents used to drag me to the very first store (still standing) as a child. Hated going there, but I LOVE Trader Joe's now! :smile:
  • Barbellarella_
    Barbellarella_ Posts: 454 Member
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    oh I wanted to add something…. Although I'm obsessed with my TJS….. Several years ago, my kids opened up a package of Trader Joes frozen pancakes, and lets just say there was some EXTRA protein in it….


    In the form of a baby tarantula looking spider!!!!

    um yeah, my kids were traumatized and wouldn't eat frozen pancakes for a few years after that :laugh:
  • 47Jacqueline
    47Jacqueline Posts: 6,993 Member
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    Trader Joe's only has one brand - theirs. I shop their packaged goods because they're cheaper. Whole foods is right across the street from my apartment building so they're more convenient.
  • goldmay
    goldmay Posts: 258 Member
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    I used to shop at Whole Foods regularly but stopped because it's so expensive and I don't feel like it's necessary for everything I eat to be organic. Now I shop at Trader Joe's regularly, plus any of the other nearby grocery chains for the things I can't find there.
  • itsbasschick
    itsbasschick Posts: 1,584 Member
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    both stores are on my weekly list. i buy extra firm organic tofu, lactaid NF milk, egg whites in a carton and other stuff at trader joe's, but i don't buy my husband prepared stuff there as the sodium tends to be very high. i buy vanilla unsweetened soy milk, fat free tortilla chips, tempeh, vegan crab cakes, sol burgers and my hair dye at whole foods, plus my husband's amy's dinners are cheapest there.
  • jwooley13
    jwooley13 Posts: 243
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    Whole Foods is wonderful, but I tend to go to Trader Joe's almost exclusively. Their produce is affordable and I dig that their in-house brands don't use ingredients with GMOs. I can get a whole week's worth of groceries at TJ's for around $80, which is pretty special in NYC. At whole foods, I'm lucky to get out with the same for under $200. I'm sure that has to do with the fact that I buy more frivolously there, but it is what it is.
  • wahoostampingirl
    wahoostampingirl Posts: 11 Member
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    Both stores are over an hour away from me. When I do make the trip, I usually pick TJs because I know their products better and I'm stocking up on things. If they were both close by, I'm sure Whole Foods would would be very tempting for me because of the larger selection.
  • jwooley13
    jwooley13 Posts: 243
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    Trader Joe's has a bottle of wine with a cat on it.
    I've only shopped at Whole Foods once, but I will prefer TJ's for that one reason

    Literally the best reason I've heard. You can't beat two buck chuck and the cat on the bottle is like icing on the boozy cake.
  • FauxFoxx
    FauxFoxx Posts: 53 Member
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    I absolutely love Trader Joes. It fits my dietary needs as well as budget! Plus it makes it easy for clean eating.. I'm not in the store for longer than I need (like when at Walmart..) reading all the ingredients trying to decipher it.

    I need to go to Whole Foods though but I need to save up for that trip, LOL.

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