Trader Joe’s

Loved Trader Joe’s in the past, but this one is particularly chaotic. Not enough cashiers to accommodate the crowds, & the aisles are bustling with an abundance of restockers. It’s awkward as a customer to have the impression that you’re in the employee’s way. As they say, it is what it is. I will amend this review if the customer experience changes!

I absolutely love shopping at Trader Joe’s. They have great high-​quality products, pleasant employees, and the free samples are an added bonus. They have inexpensive, fresh produce, and meat is reasonably priced as well. It’s also a great place to buy wine. My beef with TJs has always been that I can’t get all of my shopping done in one stop. Additionally, this particular location is always out of at least three things that I’m specifically there to buy, so then even when I purposefully only include things on my list I know they offer, I still have to go to another store. Some of my favorite products are the frozen falafel, frozen brown rice, spicy hummus, spring greens, and any of their crackers. It’s my go to place to find interesting and affordable cheese as well. Also, you must try the jumbles – so good!

I absolutely adore every single Trader Joe’s store I’ve ever been in, and this one is no exception. That said, it’s a bit on the small side for such a large city, and the selection tends to be a bit picked over (comparing to Williamsburg, NoVa, etc.). I wish they got more stock in to keep up with the demand!

This place is awesome! The selection is fantastic, and the quality of the products is apparent. I was surprised how busy this place was… pretty crowded!

Groceries
I love Trader Joe’s and it is one of the few things missing in my hometown of Lynchburg — so I was happy to learn that there is one in Charlottesville, about an hour away.
I took an early ride up and got there just as it opened — which gave me plenty of time to roam and load up on items I love from T.J.‘s and also to find new and interesting things.
Helpful people and great prices on quality products — I think most people are familiar with what they have so I won’t go crazy going into that here.
All I can say is that it is worth the trip for me and I will be making it as often as possible.
Parking in front

My husband and I go here all the time. It’s pretty much the only place we go grocery shopping. Trader Joe’s has the most wonderful, helpful staff. They are always there to answer questions and make sure that we get everything we need. They also have an incredible selection of organic foods for considerably lower prices than other grocery stores in the area. We love Trader Joe’s!

Friendly staff! For some
Reason a lot of their produce I’ve bought has been gone off? Not sure what’s going on there.
Excellent kosher selection!

This Trader Joe’s is a happy, bright, and relaxing place to shop for light groceries. I say light because while they do have a nice produce selection, their meat options are rather limited, as are their general non-​food products such as cleaning supplies, etc. However, they do boast a great selection of beer, wine, and greeting cards which for 99 cents a pop, are 5 stars in themselves. Those greeting cards are so darn affordable and charmingly illustrated its hard to not walk away with one, or ten by the fist full.
Let me just continue on my tangent by introducing a non sequitur: their flower selection is surprisingly lovely. On any given day you’re bound to find bouquets that range from $ 5.99 and onward, many of which are seasonally appropriate and beautifully arranged. If you’re looking for an affordable bunch for your sweetie, yourself, or hey, your mum, this is one of the first places I look.
Customer service is consistently friendly and warm as they are helpful. The shelves are neatly stocked, well organized, and well kept. While there are a limited amount of aisles I always find myself spending more time here than expected due to the hidden gems items such as Lavender hand soap, or that new spicy Trader Joe’s green sauce. Yep, I can say I’m a huge fan of this place!

I understand that the check out attendants at the Trader Joes are encouraged to cajole the customers on the way through the line and normally this is rather nice, however I feel it is COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE for the employee to Preach his polical view and verbaly insult the candidate that he doesn’t happen to like. I clearly made it known that I did not follow the political race and did not want to talk about politics, but he was persistant. When I did not respond in the way he was obviously wanting, he seemed to make an unnessary assumption and inquired about my origin. Please have your employees curb their conversations, if they must have them, to some thing more appropriate, perhaps their shopping experience. We would all greatly appreciate it.

I love TJ. Though TJ doesn’t have everything under the sun, I find I can get most of the stuff I need as far as meat, fruit and vegetables and bread. They have very good quality prepared fresh and frozen meals that aren’t typical of what most other grocery stores have. Sure you can go to Whole Foods and be dazzled, but you will also be dazzled at the check-​out when they ring up the tab. I find the prices reasonable at TJ for what I need. It’s great for shopping if you are single or a couple. Sure you might have to go to another grocery store for toilet paper, cleaning products, etc., so this would be another stop for most families.

This is a nice-​looking, larger-​than-​normal, well-​stocked Trader Joe’s with all of the products that you know and love and the same confusing checkout — do you go right or left?
The problem with any TJ’s are the customers who act like they’re the only people on the planet. Show some courtesy to other shoppers!

Nice employees and super clean — just like every Trader Joe’s out there. The one thing I think is really cool is that I’ve noticed their GM ringing up people at the cash register just like every other employee, which is pretty cool.
Other than that, standard Trader Joe’s. What else could you ask for?

I am glad they have Trader Joe’s in Cville. I often go to the Alexandria, Va location. I save more money at Trader Joe’s than at Whole Foods.
I like all Trader Joe’s in general because it does not have endless racks of junk food middle aisles. I eat to survive, not to be entertained. TJ provides me with just what my body needs.
Top TJ guilty pleasures:
1. Kale Bites
2. Sweet potato chips
3. Plantain Chips
4. Speculous (plain or swirl)
5. Macadamia nuts
6. Chicken liver pâté
7. Coconut oil
8. Coconut Milk
9. Kerrygold butter
10. Bacon
Bagging your groceries: Some locations EXPECT you to bag your own groceries, especially in Gaithersburg, MD, Rockville, MD, Fairfax, VA, and Alexandria, VA. Mind you, I’ve been lectured by the TJ cashiers in these locations to bag my own grocery, so when I came to Cville and started bagging my own groceries, people looked amazed or grateful whatsoever.
But really, you should be bagging your own groceries.

Definitely overrated. The stores in NoVa are much better. They didn’t even have pomegranate juice that wasn’t made from concentrate.
I’ll take Whole Foods (fruits), Kroger, and Cville Market (vegetables) over this store anyday.

This is your average Trader Joe’s. Same layout and rough of the same size as a standalone Trader Joe’s.
I will say this Trader Joe’s did not have any ham or black-​eyed peas, and that was a disappointment. That’s basically what I feel about all Trader Joe’s, is that you can’t do all your shopping at this establishment, it’s always an extra stop. And so while I do enjoy some of the random exotic choices I can get at Trader Joe’s, it’s nothing I couldn’t get at Whole Foods, which is literally across the street. There’s also a Kroger’s across the street, so I don’t really see the point of going to this Trader Joe’s.
Nothing bad about it to complain, it’s just an extra stop, not a destination.

I was in town and decided to take a look at the local Trader Joe’s to see how it might compare to the one in my town. A bit larger and they also carried some things that mine either used to and no longer does, or things they don’t at all, which was fun. Otherwise it’s pretty much the same.
I was surprised that it was in such an upscale shopping center and a very congested one at that. Customer service could swing from the stock people and cashier’s being fantastic to the sample person being not friendly at all. Go figure!

Clean, organized, well-​stocked and full of amazingly inexpensive alcohols.
I wish MD could sell beers and wines in grocery stores. It’s so much easier to get everything in one shot.
Also, super friendly employees!

Best trader joes. It is so spacious. We are used to our DC Trader Joe’s being jam packed with people in the tiniest of spaces. But I still love Trader Joe’s. All of them, but this one is just the bees knees. The people, (like at all the Trader’s I have ever shopped at) are super nice.
Lucky for us, this one is one our way down to Greensboro NC, so every time we pass through, we can stop in!

We’ve been Trader Joe’s fans for many years now, & yesterday we finally had a chance to stop in at this relatively new one in Charlottesville.
For starters, this is the largest Trader Joe’s we’ve been in. Everything was bright, clean, & well-​organized, & we’re surprised at all the naysayers posting here about both cloying service & high prices, because not only we were only asked once if we needed help finding anything, weren’t accosted by the cashiers at all, or see/​hear anyone else suffering, but prices were frankly right in line with what we’ve always paid at TJ’s.
That said, we didn’t look at the fresh produce at all, since we don’t really consider that Trader Joe’s forte. We did, however, accept samples of both their raw seedless Concord grapes, as well as their «Eggplant Parmigian». Both were delicious. The grapes in particular were very sweet & intensely grapey.
But since we’ve been Trader Joe’s fans for so long, we pretty much already knew what staples we wanted/​needed to pick up, & weren’t disappointed. For starters, I couldn’t leave without 2 bottles of TJ’s Feta salad dressing, especially since I haven’t been able to find Feta salad dressing anywhere else lately (& yes, I know I CAN make my own — lol! — it’s just nice to not have to sometimes). TJ’s Feta Salad Dressing makes goat &/​or lamb burgers extra special, & also makes a nice dipping sauce for stuffed grape leaves.
Also decided to try a jar of TJ’s own Arrabiatta pasta sauce & their Habanero Salsa, along with our usual favorites of Green Olive Tapenade, Masala Indian Curry Simmer Sauce, blue corn tortilla chips, roasted almonds, etc., etc. Unfortunately, as is common with TJ’s, they have discontinued a few of our favorites, including a number of the other «simmer sauces» they used to carry which made terrific bases for tweaking into excellent quick Indian meals. But c’est la vie.
Was pleased to find Chicken Andouille sausages, which will go into a gumbo in the near future, as well as a container of Burrata cheese for ½ of what I pay to other vendors. Burrata (basically a fresh mozzarella with an extremely soft, creamy, oozy center) is a MUST HAVE for when garden tomatoes are in season. Brings a Caprese Salad to new heights. We also couldn’t resist an iconic raffia-​wrapped bottle of Chianti that, after we slug the wine down, I hope to turn into a traditional Italian-​bistro-​type candle (if I can keep my darn cats from shredding the raffia first — lol!). And last but not least, dear hubby insisted I treat myself to an absolutely beautiful, healthy 2′-high in-​full-​bloom Oncidium orchid (I’m an amateur orchid fancier) that was only $ 7.99 (would normally have been around $ 20 elsewhere).
All in all, we spent around $ 50 for products that will make or add to several nice meals.
Bottom Line: Very nice experience at a very nice store — especially if you’re already a Trader Joe’s fan. Even if you’re not, worth a visit to see if this store might make you one.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
Butternut squash risotto, chicken wontons, cranberry chevre, soy chorizo, pasta peperonata, vegetable pad thai, butter chicken, cream of corn and red pepper soup, several kinds of Greek yogurt, red curry, Mandarin chicken, and for the love of all that is good and holy, the COOKIE BUTTER. They were passing these out as samples, and I went back and got three spoons from the very nice man, and he was kind enough to put up with my disguises — a ponytail the first time, hair down the second time, and sunglasses the third time. I am without shame. I also learned that as long as you paste the shiniest happiest smile ever on your face, you can get away quite blatantly with cutting small children and little old ladies in line for the cookie butter. Just kidding. Wait your turn!
(-1) imaginary point for being located at the worst intersection in the world. Traffic up on Route 29 near Hydraulic will be absolutely unbearable now. Whatever. There’s finally a Trader Joe’s in town! Hurrah!