Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Let's spam Trader Joe's with requests for a store here!
View Single Post
 
Old 10-19-2024, 07:13 AM
SaucyJim SaucyJim is offline
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2024
Posts: 173
Thanks: 155
Thanked 134 Times in 80 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by ThirdOfFive View Post
I've never shopped at a Trader Joe's, though I've heard a lot of good things about them, largely from people who also patronize Aldi. Since both Aldi and Trader Joe's have the same parentage, so to speak, then I'm assuming that they're run similarly. Overall Aldi prices are not because of cheaper ingredients or a plethora of chemicals in their products, but because the stores run FAR more efficiently. Better-trained (and paid) workers, concentrate on the essentials (no bagging, shopping cart "service" that is pretty much self-serve, etc.), quick turnover of products, and a limit on the number of products sold (the average Aldi sells about 1,400 products while the average supermarket sells about 40,000) makes stocking far easier and quicker. I've rarely seen an Aldi with more than four workers on at a time. Publix? Probably 20 or more on average. Publix probably has huge overhead compared to Publix. That extra overhead translates into higher prices.

If Trader Joe's approach is similar, then I'd have no basis to believe that their products are any less healthy than, say, Publix. And I'd probably pay a heck of a lot less.
TJ’s has employees scurrying about like ants. And they bag your groceries. Of course, most of them smell like a very earthy cologne (weed).