Trader Joe’s

Had to return a product and the two clerks at the customer service counter were Absolutely the rudest people I’ve ever dealt with in service business.

Very nice specialty market with excellent choice of pre-​cooked food. Also nice wuality selection of moderately priced wines and beer. Great little selection of packaged fully cooked meats and substitutes along back right wall going in: Mexican smoked pork+, Sliced pancetta, other Italian+, thin rice noodles, Korean pork belly+, just a few examples. I really like their frozen shrimp toast, see pic. Excellent dessert selection but different from supermarkets. Examples: pear tarte, baklava, choclate lava… Highly competitive $.

Horrible parking, and rude customers, very fond of produce section, wine section„ dairy section, but the people who shop there are so damn rude! (MAYBE ITS THE PARKING CONDITIONS?)

It does not get any better than Joe’s for selection of all avenues of food, drink, flowers and just good food. The staff is just the bests and most helpful, good taste tests on the latest food just in, just a fun place to shop. Did I say the most economical? Yes they are.
Wish I had one closer. I go 1 hr north and 1 hour south, but worth the trip.

We have shopped at TJ in Ohio for many years. The Sarasota store is a cut above. Interesting selections in every category. One small complaint — if they kept it any colder you’d need a winter coat to shop here. We probably left a bit sooner than we would have liked just to get outside and warm up. Otherwise a great place to shop if you like interesting food items you’ll never find in Publix.

I love trader Joe’s. I always come home with a lot of food for my money. Everything is non g m o. Friendly helpful staff. Very grateful for this store.

I’ve always liked Trader Joe’s. Love the knowledgeable friendly staff.

Sick and tired of Whole foods rip off pricing. Can eat for half as much here. Not quite as organic but plenty of good stuff and I can eat healthy here for less. I don’t shop at crappy grocery stores with industrial garbage like Winn Dixie, Barf! Trader Joe’s is a California Original form Pasadena and I have been shopping here since the 80’s. It is consistent, wholesome and a non corporate junk food place, making it an oasis in a desert of main stream American big Agra grocery stores.

Most friendly grocery store! They have different and delicious items in addition to the staples. Pricing is very reasonable… less than Publix and more than Walmart.

Trader Joe’s is awesome! They have great quality food and really good prices. Every single employee I have come into contact with is always friendly and extremely helpful. I love that everyday they have something for you to sample to get you hooked on another one of their fabulous products. The only down side is the fact that it is usually very crowded, but that’s because it’s soo good. I have found that if you go in the evening, like around 7 or 8 it’s not so bad.

Gotta love trader joes, the best prices and the friendliest staff. I can’t wait till they bring back the peppermint Jo joes! Be careful while parking here as the in and out gets slammed busy here!

All the perishable foods have short experation dates.

It was less expensive than going to our regular Publix, but the store is small and crowded. This was probably the most stressful grocery shopping experience I’ve ever had. From the crowded parking lot where people aren’t paying attention to the other cars who are also trying to find a spot to people leaving their shopping carts in the middle of the narrow aisle to grab something across the way, it was just overwhelming. I’d never want to make this my regular grocery store, but might come back for some of the specialty items like their cold brewed coffee concentrate.

Great quality foods and you can always find something unique and delicious here. I am so obsessed with the cookie butter! It goes great with almost any snack. They have great produce, snacks, and frozen entrees. Everyone that works here is very friendly and helpful. I live past university, so I just wish they would put another one somewhere over there so I don’t have to drive so far, but at least it’s worth it

Now that we have a trader joes in Tampa, I am able to compare these two locations. Both locations just have okay parking. Sarasota location seems bigger to me. The aisles are wider, more organized, and the alcohol section seems bigger.
I can’t leave sarasota without a trip to trader joes since I was so happy that it was the first tj in the area. I love the flowers. They r so bright and pretty. Stemmed flowers range from 3.99, 5.99, & 9.99.
Then comes the fruits and veggies. I always get baby broccolini, tofu, baby bok Choy, organic spinach, sun dried tomatoes, and the tiny bite sized potatoes.
Frozen section is always worth going through. I love the veggie lasagna, spanakopita, tamales, and these French Danish things just to name a few. i always find something new or seasonal on each trip. I picked up pumpkin butter for the season, I learned that all the greeting cards are all 99 cents, and there’s cute recycled tj grocery bags. My friend picked one up for me that said Chicago so I picked her up the bright fun florida trader joes grocery bag. Can’t beat .99 cents.
Based on checking out the sarasota and tampa location, I favor the sarasota location. At check out, there is also someone to ring up the items and someone to bag it. Much more seamless and organized. I now can’t wait until St. Pete’s location opens. I always have to visit the Winter Park location by Orlando.

We arrived a little before 10 am on a Saturday and I was happy to see the store wasn’t crowded at all. I could have spent hours there looking at all the products but I only had a few minutes to grab snacks for our roadtrip and my pantry.
This location was neat and organized. I liked the spacing of the aisles where it’s not too crowded. I saw a couple buying several boxes of wine in their cart and made note of its popularity :)
Of the things I bought, my favorite find this time was definitely the Roasted Coconut Chips. They were absolutely addictive. Other great buys that I’ve had before are their dark chocolate almonds, Thai chili spiced cashews, and cookie butter (for my baby brother).
The cashier ringing me up was SUPER friendly. Loved my experience at TJ’s from start to finish. I can’t wait until it comes to Tampa! When it does, I can buy the more perishable/​time-​sensitive products.

Sunday mornings around 9:30 or 10am this Trader Joe’s is a ghost town. Today I went (another Sunday) and the place was packed at 11:30am. Get here early!
Trader Joe’s has healthy food like Whole Foods but much cheaper prices. The produce is great, fresh, and cheap. You will find a lot of organic products at Trader Joe’s vs not many at Publix.
Trader Joe’s is my 1^st choice when buying groceries! This is at a great location too!
Try the Salsa, Corn Tamales, and PotStickers — three of my favorites here

I expected to have a tough time finding parking but there were plenty!
You have no idea how excited and happy when I drove past Trader Joe’s…in my hometown!
There is practically everything here that I’m familiar with in NYC. The interior décor is almost too spacious. I’m so used to utilizing every real estate possible. The wines are located near the back corner. There are 2 – 3 stations set up for sampling. The cashiers will walk away from their station to ask if anyone needs help or if they are ready to be checked out.
One downside is there are no more dried green mangos :(
I wonder if they have frozen chocolate bananas here too.
Bring your own bag to win raffles!

Allow extra time to shop… it’s so busy.
This is a relatively new store in the Sarasota area. As such, the locals have been starved for a Trader Joe’s, and now they come from 50 miles away to shop here… thus it’s frantic and frenzied, especially on the weekends.

I’ve never experienced Trader Joe’s so I do not have another location to compare it to, but I can honestly say it was worth the drive from Tampa.
Yes, it was quite packed but nothing you couldn’t maneuver through.
I came prepared with a list (thanks Caroline C) of items I was in search of purchasing. It will take me awhile to get through them all, but before leaving the store, we did sample the triple ginger snaps (A++) and the cinnamon Abc cookies (B+).
Once home, I thought that I had more room in my freezer, but I did not so I was «forced» to taste test some items in order to make room for freezing. I must say, the homemade tortillas are great, and so is the cranberry walnut chicken salad.
My only gripe us that I didn’t feel as though the customer service was as great as everyone raves about. I didn’t experience the «culture» exuding from its employees. Another complaint I had was I was hoping since Trader Joe’s is new to a lot of people in the area, I thought it would have been nice and helpful to have employees wandering the aisles to help first time customers with their purchases. It’s a lot to take in and thus extra personalized service would have been nice.
Will I be back? For sure!
Now build one in Tampa ASAP.
Here is a quick list of the items purchased:
3 buck chuck Cabernet
Cranberry walnut chicken salad
Mango strips
Heat and eat falafel
Wood fired Sicilian pizza
Turkey meatballs
Turkey bolognese
Almondictive bits
Chock covered espresso beans
Speculoos cookie spread
Broccoli salad
Hummus salad dressing
Edemame hummus
Cilantro hummus
Frozen basil and garlic
Coque a vin
Icecream sandwiches
Light frozen Mac n cheese
Triple ginger cookies
Salsa
Abc cinnamon cookies
Crumbled goat cheese
Rice/​cheese balls
Tamales
Somosas