Trader Joe’s

This is an excellent location. They always have fresh produce and the employees are super helpful and friendly.
The parking lot gets hectic because it is shared with a Costco store

I’ve shopped all the Trader Joe’s on the Central Coast. All the stores are great, but this one is the best. It really is like a neighborhood store where you know all the regulars. I am kinda partial though, as I work there 1 – 2 times a month. Too many favorite items to list them all, but the Mango Sorbet is a true addiction. Very good beer and wine selection.

For the area this is one of the better choices. Especially for trying to stay «healthy» Trader Joes always has surprisingly good prices on a lot of items. Huge bonus here is no need for a ridiculous loyalty card, the sticker price is the sticker price and no surprises.
Produce section is small but sufficient, meats are alright but all packaged (no cut to orders, as far as I can tell). Prepared frozen foods are abundant and more interesting than most places. Snacks are unique, beer section is great (and I’d venture to say better prices than the store next door).
Service is friendly, I personally like TJs to pick up a small stock of items and if I lived closer I’d probably come in three times a week.

My favorite grocery store in town!!!
I absolutely love the people who work there. They are very friendly and helpful.
My kids also LOVE that store for little treat they get for finding three ducks which makes my shopping experience easier.
I once left a wallet in the shopping cart and didn’t even know that my wallet was missing. One of the employees found the wallet and returned it to me. I was so happy and wanted to give him reward money and he refused. He said that he did what was right thing to do.
This is one happy place I go to all the time!

The staff at this Trader Joe’s are helpful and friendly to the point where I am just amazed at the level of customer service they provide. I needed ideas for a dinner party, and the manager, Sue, helped me pick out what to make, Will showed me how to make something delicious in the sample area, the checker was very friendly, and the guy who helped me carry out the bags was extremely helpful with securing my groceries in the bed of my truck. I feel badly about not remembering the last two people’s names… Basically, they made my day!

Love this place, clean and very organized! People are nice and always helpful. I also love the free coffee sample :)

When I think of organic one of the first thing that comes to mind is expensive, not the case with Trader Joes. Everything is reasonably priced considering you’re getting top quality items. Something I think that gets over looked is their dog section. Dog food, treats, and vitamins all top quality items at a great price. Also they’ve got the friendliest staff.

let me start off with some fun facts
1. All Trader Joe’s products are made from non-​GMO foods, and contain no high fructose corn syrup, trans fat, artificial colors or flavors.
2. Store policy. If it wasn’t to your liking, bring it back for a full refund, no questions asked (minus alcohol)
3. Trader Joe’s donates leftover food to food banks, pantries, and/​or soup kitchens
4. Trader Joe’s doesn’t do social media, word of mouth floats the boat for them
5. They actually do have products from all over the world (check the back i saw some from italy, thailand, france, etc.)
6. Every store has a plastic lobster hiding in it somewhere (still have not found it, message me if you do!)
now the review, this place it great! friendly staff! and love their products but most important than anything else in the world. BEER! they have an awesome selection! porter, stout, pale, black n tans, etc. i was amazed with their selection i looked like an alcoholic leaving with so much liquor haha
DOGS! for anyone who has a dog they have natural dog food here which i been looking for everywhere they have treats also with nutrients and protein i bought some also and both my dogs love them! not one crumb on the carpet was left!
great place come check this place out!

Getting caught up on lots of long overdue reviews, so bear with me.
This is probably the happiest place on earth or maybe just the happiest place in Santa Maria. It’s almost a religion for me, I love this place so much. It’s not only the local grocery store, it’s a social hub of like-​minded people who are visiting and shopping. It can be the best hour out of your day and I would love to tell you why.
The staff her seem like they would show up for work, even if they didn’t get a paycheck. I have never once, in all the years that I have shopped at Trader Joe’s ever once had an employee say anything less than positive about working there. The staff is genuine, happy, knowledgeable and they treat customers like friends. The Management are on the floor, just like everyone else and always patient and kind, even if I have asked about the Frozen Mango for 60^th time in 2 months. Bubba, Sue, Richard, Daphne, Ben and Christina B., are just some of my favorite people at this location, but I really do love every one of them.
Where else can you go and get a sample of a salmon taco (What’s New? Sample Station), a free cookie and a cup of fee-​on the house (Coffee sample station)? Where else does a guy or girl in a Hawaiian shirt with a bead necklace come over, just to ask how your spouse is feeling (after sharing that my Spouse was ill on the last visit). They really DO care.
Where else can you go and buy organic, non-​GMO, real food, free from all the nasty stuff that big box grocery stores carry? Whether it’s local produce, fresh flowers, imported spirits and wine, small batch gourmet cheese or gluten-​free Everything… Trader Joe’s has it with a smile and a hug.
Thank you for being the bright spot in my day. I love you guys! I really do.
The only two things I would change about this location are:
1) Do away with the proliferation of aggressive chain-​smoking professional vagrants on the corner by enlisting Police help.
and
2) Close the Stowell road entry, as it is dangerous. Cars go way too fast and they do not care that human beings are in the road. I worry about Trader Joe’s team members getting hit.

Staff interactions have improved, but some employees still seem put off by critical questions. Prices are the most reasonable you will find in all grocery stores. Some of the beauty and bath products aren’t stocked like in other Trader Joe’s stores. Free demos of food and coffee are a great touch. Prices are incredibly low, the lowest you will find out of all grocery stores, just to reiterate.

Excellent experience and above-​and-​beyond service today cemented why this Joe’s is my favorite on the Central Coast. Didn’t get her name, but made sure I pointed her out to the «Captain» on my way out.

I’m a Trader Joe’s faithful. I know all of them look the same but this is the first time in my life that I live within 5 minutes of a TJs. YES! I literally come in at least once a week just to re-​up my supply of the flattened bananas. It grosses out my coworkers and tastes so darn good so its win-​win for me. Okay, more about these bananas. They taste like the fruit roll ups that we had growing up except ITS JUST BANANAS! THATS BANANAS! Now, like most people — I come in with a game plan and leave with $ 15 of more groceries that look exciting/​new. The two buck chucks (the $ 2.49 wines) are sooooooooo good. I always get the Merlot. The staff is pretty cool and theres a cashier I seem to always bump into and tell him about my weekend. I don’t think he cares but I usually tell him anyway. I love how seasonal the store gets. I’m diggin the pumpkin flavored everything.

This location is nice and clean. The only downfall is the traffic and parking. People drives crazy around this area. But the staff is very friendly and helpful!

Trader Joe’s is our grocery chain. That being said, THIS location has been the best location by far in all the locations in the Central Coast. Though all locations have nice staff, the staff here go above and beyond to find products we ask about and always have tasty samples to taste (and they’ll give you the recipe too). I also appreciate that they give my kids cookies when a given snack/​treat doesn’t work for them. They don’t have to do this but I appreciate that they do! I’ll leave names out to be fair and because everyone here is worth mentioning! :-)

Not happy with the attitude of the manager. Asked a simple question and got a condescending attitude with her response. The rest of the staff was great!

Trader Joe’s is AWESOME… friendly group of people, helpful, upbeat always smiling. Great well stocked store, clean, wide isles, also great parking. Always something new at Trader Joe’s great fresh breads for your everday picnic, great selection of cheeses. Thank you Trader Joe’s we love you!!!

Nice and clean store that is always well-​stocked with their wonderful products. I love finding new gems at TJs all the time — my latest fav are their vanilla Jo-​Jos.
The coffee and sample station are always going whenever I’m there and it is a treat to try new delicacies every now and then. I like their «new product» endcap by the cereal. We have gotten our fair share of orchids from here as well, they always last at least a month.
Very helpful and friendly employees, especially Richard who always gives me stickers to give to my baby boy. There was another nice guy who told me about a Netflix documentary about Dr. Bronner as I was purchasing a bar of that soap. Little things like those stand out to me as above and beyond behavior.
I still can’t find all three ducks though…

So I tried this place for the first time in a long time. NO THANK YOU! First off a heavy set employee in the back of the store going on and on about someone dropping tomatoes. Big deal I worked in the business for 25 years and cleaned up a lot more than that. Get over it you sounded like a fool! And the kid who checked my groceries out. Would it have killed you to acknowledge me and say thank you. The guy in the other checkstand who was bagging for me until he got a customer however was very nice and acknowledged me before going back to his station. I think I will stick with Albertsons.

Great option to get grocery items that are a little off-​beat. The produce was fresh and reasonably priced. Kudos for carrying organic milk and eggs. The biggest disappointment was the ground beef. Even the organic ground beef had several countries listed as the origin. Did not sound appealing at all.
We purchased a kogi style beef rib package that was amazing on the grill. Several other flavors also looked great. The TJs Paso Robles Reserve Grenache was a steal at $ 10. Their frozen section is extensive and offers a wide variety of ethnic fare.
Overall, this isn’t a direct competitor of whole foods since they don’t pride themselves on local produce and their meat/​fish section is lackluster. TJs is a place that I’ll frequent for hard to find ingredients, ethnic/​prepared provisions when needed, and inexpensive wine. I’m happy that TJs is in Santa Maria, but wish that there was a Whole Foods to do some real grocery shopping.

This place is great for prepared wraps and salads for lunches, along with organic cereals and frozen food. The reason it does not get five stars is that a lot of their produce is not the highest quality, especially the grapes. Several times grapes have been purchased which were bad within two days. For a store located in the middle of wine country, they should have a local source to get them fresher.