{"id":19964,"date":"2014-02-17T07:18:56","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T12:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/?p=19964"},"modified":"2021-02-13T12:11:07","modified_gmt":"2021-02-13T17:11:07","slug":"can-i-save-money-shopping-at-trader-joes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/can-i-save-money-shopping-at-trader-joes\/","title":{"rendered":"Can I Save Money Shopping at Trader Joe’s?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The end.<\/p>\n

\"shopping<\/a><\/p>\n

OK, I\u2019ll elaborate ;)\u2026<\/em> Whenever I share my grocery list and prices, it is met with a chorus of comments saying I should really check out Trader Joe\u2019s. While I have been there before, it\u2019s probably been a year or two. Back then, I wasn\u2019t so impressed. Maybe it had to do with the terrible parking situation at the particular location or the fact my bread went moldy the day after I bought it, but I wasn\u2019t itching to go back.<\/p>\n

However, the main reason I haven\u2019t returned is that there isn\u2019t a Trader Joe\u2019s near where I live. The closest one is a solid 35 minute drive.<\/p>\n

Your words stuck to me though so yesterday while Hailey and David were happily playing in the playroom, I decided to go for it.<\/p>\n

\"trader<\/a><\/p>\n

My list was rather long and I took my time weaving through the aisles. I immediately noticed two things:<\/p>\n

1. It was challenging to make myself stick to a list. They have a plethora of special sauces, snack mixes, spices, frozen items and other goodies that were incredibly tempting to throw in the cart.<\/p>\n

2. The prices were lower. A lot lower<\/em>. I didn\u2019t even need to look them up to compare; I knew at first glance how they compared to Harris Teeter\u2019s usual costs. For example\u2026<\/p>\n

\"trader<\/a><\/p>\n

Kalamata Olives<\/span>
\nTrader Joes: $2.99 for 6.5 ounces drained
\nHarris Teeter: $3.99 for 6 ounces drained
\n*Harris Teeter pricing was found at time of post via their online prices for my local store<\/em><\/p>\n

\"trader<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Organic Chicken & Organic Vegetable Broth<\/span>
\nTrader Joe\u2019s: Chicken: $1.99
\nHarris Teeter Chicken: $2.49
\nTrader Joe\u2019s: Vegetable: $2.29
\nHarris Teeter: Vegetable: $2.49<\/p>\n

\"trader<\/a><\/p>\n

Goat Cheese (4 oz log)<\/span>
\nTrader Joes: $2.49
\nHarris Teeter: $5.99<\/p>\n

\"trader<\/a><\/p>\n

Applegate Farms Deli Meat
\n<\/span>Trader Joe\u2019s: $3.99
\nHarris Teeter: $7.49<\/p>\n

Over and over again, I saw lower prices and was surprised at the extensive selection of organic options. I forced myself to stick to my list, but still held my breath at checkout where I ended up buying a LOT of food.<\/p>\n

\"trader<\/a>\"trader<\/a>\"trader<\/a>\"trader<\/a><\/p>\n

My total ended up being $131.76<\/strong>. It\u2019s not comparing apples to apples, but being that I easily spent over $175 two weeks ago<\/a>, I feel there is a significant difference. Now, I did not buy as much meat, but I did end up buying more organic foods.<\/p>\n

Although I am very impressed with the prices, there are a few cons.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

– They didn\u2019t have everything on my list. I couldn\u2019t find pickled jalapenos, ground lamb or quinoa pasta (I saw they had a quinoa\/rice pasta blend, but were out). They also didn\u2019t have any dried beans, so I had to buy canned.<\/p>\n

– I’m curious to see how long the bread items and produce last. Upon getting home, I saw the tortillas I bought expire in 3 days. I\u2019m keeping everything in the fridge and hoping for the best.<\/p>\n

– I need to test the quality of the produce. The organic pear yesterday was pretty flavorless and the avocados weren\u2019t quite ripe, despite my efforts to pick the best available. Oh, and it\u2019s not produce, but the Mediterranean dip I picked up was pretty terrible. That one is obviously my fault for picking it, but still, what a waste.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure if I can justify over an hour round trip for grocery shopping each week, but I AM<\/em> impressed with Trader Joe\u2019s selection and pricing. I could see myself making a monthly trip there to stock up on some essentials. For those that have one down the road, I\u2019m jealous! What a great, well-priced option to have at your disposal!<\/p>\n

Where do you do most of your grocery shopping?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking forward to the return of my local farmers market in a few months, but until then, I\u2019ll keep bouncing between grocery stores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes. The end. OK, I\u2019ll elaborate ;)\u2026 Whenever I share my grocery list and prices, it is met with a chorus of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2243,2244],"tags":[1445,259,137,803],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19964"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19964\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}