Trader Joe’s

Everybody and their mama’s seem to be at the Trader Joes on Capitol Hill because this is the busiest one I have been to yet!
Aside from the stampede of people, I have to give it to the staff here– they sure give patience a new name, because this place can be a madhouse! Staff are beyond helpful, friendly, and very accommodating. From the cashiers, to the parking attendants, they make a conscious effort to make sure you’re experience doesn’t suck.
Food selection– it’s Trader Joes. Need I say more?

Love this location! The parking garage is so handy.

I love this place the staff here currently are lots of fun very eclectic food for all

I really enjoy trader joes, but I really dislike coming here because of the parking situation. Actually it’s the only reason I do not frequent this space more. Street parking is not very easy to find so you go to park in the garage. When it’s not busy, it’s a breeze! When it is busy you can be sitting in your car waiting to get into or out of a spot for quite some time. We were led into a spot by a parking attendant that was at the bottom of the ramp. So when we went back to our car it was horrible trying to get out. The attendant paid us no attention and kept letting cars go behind us to enter and exit the garage. It became very frustrating to sit and watch people continue to pull out and drive off that just got to their vehicle. I’m kind of being a brat, but time is money. And the money spent on this melty ice cream was wasted just like the 5 – 10 extra minutes sitting in that garage.
2 stars for service, 1 for selection, minus 2 for the parking garage and crappy attendant.

I was shopping this afternoon at this store. Sure, finding a parking spot is near impossible in the garage, but I was lucky enough to find a free parking space on the street.
I’d happily give this store 5 stars to honor the excellent customer service staff.
While I was shopping at this store a male customer tried to communicate with a female member of staff via sign language. I do not know what the customer and the staff member were saying but eventually she led the customer to the snack section. She did not just walk ahead of him, she led him hold onto her arm so that it would be comfortable for him. In a world where everyone is busy talking and wanting to be heard, this employee took extra time to «listen» and understand what this customer needed, then gently guided the customer to the section where he needed to go. Seeing them interact made my eyes well up a bit. I sensed so much gentleness in their interaction.
This employee is a gem!
Thank you… You made me really happy to shop at Trader Joe’s /​Capitol Hill location. :)

Shopping here is the worst part of my week but the food is so tasty that I can’t resist.
Not a fan of the crowded parking garage full of overly passive and/​or elderly drivers. That parking garage director dude seems to do his best, but it’s a tight space and parking can be very very difficult at peak times.
But the lady we ran into last week really took the cake as far as weird Trader Joes patrons go. For reasons I can’t understand, she brought her big dog, no service dog vest, and two kids under 5 shopping with her during rush hour on Sunday and was letting her dog sniff unopened bags of dog food and hang around the sample counter. I guess none of the employees had the balls to tell her to leave.
TJ employees: there’s a little thing called health regulations (no big deal, but kind of great if you don’t want dog germs all over your food) that don’t allow animals besides service animals in businesses that serve or sell food. I love my dog but I’m sure as hell not going to bring him into a grocery store and let him sniff a rack of bagels.

I Love love the staff and this store so much I come here at least twice a week but the only down side is the parking «director» he seriously just causes traffic jams and makes parking so much more stressful!!! I hope the manager will see this and consider a different option. It’s great that it’s creating jobs but it’s more of a hassle then help

The store and most of its staff are awesome and super helpful. Last night though I had a rude cashier who ended our shopping trip by walking away without even offering to bag our groceries and telling me «you can grab your receipt», making me do the ultimate customer checkout faux pas and reach over the register to take my receipt from the printer. I think he got a chip on his shoulder when his manager agreed with my roommate and I that I was allowed to buy a bottle of dessert wine even though my roommate didn’t have her ID since we were doing separate transactions. Better luck next time Aaron.

The food selection may be smaller compared to other locations, but I still give them 5 stars because people who work here are by far the nicest/​friendliest at any TJ’s I’ve been to. There’s a guy who always works in the wine section, and he’s happy help you out whenever you have any questions on their wines. Every time I go in there they make me happy.

I love how close work is to TJ’s, I love how I have willing and awesome work friends who are willing to get a ZIP car and chance their crazy parking garage, and I love picking up stuff during lunch to save me a trip later. The peeps that run the sample area are some of the nicest, friendliest peeps around. What I don’t love however is the vibe from a small few of the staff members, I said some. Some of these peeps are rude, cold, or feel too self entitled. That goes for some of the folks that shop here too. Otherwise mostly good experiences with people here. I’ve gotten bad salad a few times where the salad tasted funky before it’s due date. It was just too much hassle to take it back. For the area and location I think its great to have a TJ’s but wish it was a bit bigger.

It’s pretty good! It’s like a grocery store, but with more addictive snack foods and less perishables. All of my favorite things seem to get removed from stock, but that’s a constant (r.i.p. frozen vegetarian enchiladas, pre-​chopped fresh sweet potatoes for oven fries, citrus gumdrops, frozen grilled eggplant parmesan).
Bonus: If you’re into looking at dudes with beards and cutoffs, TJ’s on the hill is where you want to be.

This TJs location is great. Unless, you are here on a Sunday afternoon, which is madness! Parking is a little tricky for new comers. Great lay out inside the store. It kind of flows to the check-​out area. I love to hang at the free samples and coffee area. Staff is great, very friendly.

I don’t usually review chains, but this location of Trader Joe’s is so great I just can’t not!
While there is nothing out of the ordinary about the product selection here compared to other TJs, I have such a good time shopping here because of the great energy put out by employees. Conversations at check out are always delightful, it’s easy to find someone around to answer product questions and they pretend not to see when I take more than one free sample…
I usually hate grocery shopping, and this TJ makes it quick, easy and enjoyable! If this location carried the TJ meatless crumbles, I’d give one more star.

Can’t beat the local prices on quality food products. Don’t forget to check out the tasting bar in the back of the store. Today the had Bacon Chocolate brownies. Never would have thought about making that. Plus you can’t go wrong with 2 buck chuck wine.

I love Trader Joe’s! Parking is tight and the corners are sharp (the first corner after entering is a bit blind), but it’ll do when you have a small car (don’t recommend with SUVs). The people who work here are incredibly kind and helpful. I love the selection and everything is well-​stocked. I go about a half hour to an hour before closing and there’s not that many people, so you don’t feel claustrophobic and parking isn’t bad.

This is my go-​to!
Why I love it here:
–Private parking lot (when it’s busy, there’s people that direct the parking traffic)
–Cheap and high-​quality produce
–Free samples of whatever food they are providing free samples of
–Free coffee!
–Pretty tasty Trader Joe’s cheesecake
The only con: hipsters shop here.

As far as TJs go, this one isn’t my favorite to go to, but it’ll do in a pinch.
It’s also pumpkin season now, so if you go to TJs (any TJs really) you’ll be visually assaulted by too much orange. It also means that some of their other seasonal products are out of rotation, but I guess that’s the tradeoff when you are selling 20+ pumpkin products.
The layout is a little weird with all the fridge stuff down one side in separate cases (there’s one for veggie burgers/​dips, one for cheese and ready-​to-​eat stuff, one for other dairy), and they’re staggered so you can’t always see where something is, which means you have to wander around for longer.
That said, customer service was pretty good; because of the weird layout I guess we looked a bit lost and had a staff member offer to help us. I asked where a few things were (since it wasn’t set up like my regular TJs) and he didn’t just say where it was, but he led us to the stuff we were after to make sure we’d have it. And this was on Saturday afternoon when the store was pretty busy; after he helped us I saw him go up to someone else and help them too.
The produce didn’t seem too bad when I was there; I know other Unilocalers have mentioned that it seems to go off super quick, but it’s day 4 and our bananas and avocado are still going strong.
Parking is super crazy here; the TJs has its own little parking lot but it’s insanely cramped and the marks on the walls and bent poles are good evidence that it’s not made for all cars/​drivers. It’s also not a huge lot so you usually have to wait. You’re better off finding a park on the street and then walking in.

Trader Jose’s. Home of 2 Buck Chuck, Buffalo Burgers and hummus smooth enough to spread on the bare chest of Zues himself. Also an excellent place to get quinoa, almond milk andother super foods such as 206 Vodka and Cookie Butter – a revolutionary new spread that’s a hybrid between cookie dough and pure butter fat – 100% healthy obviously.
The workers are hopped up on trader joes cool aide and I think they’re convinced they’re volunteering for peace corpse and have 0 idea that they work for a national grocery conglomerate driven by profits and shareholders. All good though as long as they keep stocking my brown rice and buffalo burgers – I’m not going to be the one to tell them Santa Clause doesn’t exist and I’m sure not gonna tell them they’re any less valuable to society than an American Red Cross volunteer, the Navy SEALS or the good hippy dippy folks of the peace corpse off fighting AIDS and teaching villagers on other continents the upside of drinking and defecating at different points along the slip n’ slide.
Keep up the good work of guarding the winter wall Trader Jose Hipsters – you’re bravery is the thin line of resistance between humanity’s survival and a Safeway/​whole foods apocalypse !

Sorry TJ’s! I have been such a big fan– just check out my photos. Unfortunately something has gone really wrong, maybe just in this store, or overall quality of this chain. I am strictly taking about their meats.
I usually just go for their dry goods and frozen food items. I am obsessed with their coffee, frozen macaroons, chocolate covered bananas, nuts, snacks and cheap wine.
Since every grocery store on the Hill seems so overpriced to me I started buying meats here: ground turkey, smoked salmon and small tray of imitation crab sushi. All of the mentioned above gave me really upset stomach! Maybe they were stored incorrectly or were really bad quality, who knows? I am not risking buying any meat here again.
I got a refund for all of the items I mentioned and the manager seemed half way concerned and half way doubtful. I appreciate that they did return my money, but would like to avoid this altogether in the future.

The layout of this T-Jo’s (as my friend calls it) feels small. I’m not saying it is small, just sayin’ it feels that way. I’ve been able to find all my regular items here with no problem.
Parking? Kind of a problem. You can’t park on Madison Street. You can only park on the west side of 17^th Street. There is a garage for your shopping convenience with small stalls (sorry Monster Truckers).
I had very little interaction with staff members until the last visit. Having gotten into a verbal altercation with a signature canvasser in the garage, I reported the issue. I found the staff members to be friendly and efficient in resolving the issue. They were kind and understanding.
This location is the closest to my work (even thought it requires a bus ride). The bus ride is short and working downtown, I don’t have a lot of grocery options so sometimes it’s worth the trip.