Latest news with #TraderJoe's
Miami Herald
19 hours ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Costco, Trader Joe's get backlash for similar reason
If you were to take a survey of people and ask them to rank their favorite grocery stores, there's a good chance that both Costco and Trader Joe's would top a lot of consumers' list. Both Costco and Trader Joe's are famous for having loyal fan followings. And there's a reason for that. Related: Trader Joe's faces wild protest over chicken choices For one thing, both stores pride themselves on everyday low prices. Costco's prices may be more competitive because members are buying in bulk. But Trader Joe's makes a point to keep its prices as low as possible. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter Another nice thing both stores do is offer their low prices to shoppers without forcing them to clip coupons or load deals onto a store card. It's just another means of making the process of shopping for groceries less of a hassle. Costco and Trader Joe's also do an excellent job of offering outstanding customer service. Both stores are quick to offer refunds on purchases that do not meet expectations. This extends to food products that are partially eaten, which is more than reasonable. Image source: Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Although there are plenty of people who love Costco and Trader Joe's, neither store is perfect. There are plenty of people who downright refuse to shop at Costco because they don't believe in having to pay a membership fee to get in the door. And some people don't like the Costco shopping experience because stores can get extremely crowded, especially on weekends. Related: Costco doesn't want members (and non-members) to know this Members have long implored Costco to change its warehouse club hours. And while the company did recently expand its gas station hours, many customers would also like to see their local stores open a bit earlier in the day and close a bit later. Trader Joe's, meanwhile, has gotten backlash for some of its poorly conceived product labeling. The company was no doubt trying to be cute when it slapped a "Trader Jose's" label on its Mexican food products. But a lot of people didn't appreciate it and went so far as to call the practice racist. Trader Joe's also tends to get criticized for having a somewhat limited selection of food products. Many shoppers simply cannot fulfill all of their weekly grocery needs at Trader Joe's alone, necessitating a second supermarket trip. That can be a frustrating thing for folks with busy schedules. One nice thing about Costco is that it frequently mixes up its inventory and puts new and exciting products on its shelves. So does Trader Joe's. In fact, shopping at Costco has long been compared to going on a treasure hunt. And while there's not as much square footage to cover at Trader Joe's, there's a similar sentiment in that unearthing new products can be a thrill for foodies. Related: Costco has a massive labor problem nobody is talking about Costco members were initially thrilled to see Green & Sunny Thai Mango on Sticky Rice pop up in the frozen dessert section. The product is described as, "Thai mango on top of sweet coconut infused sticky rice, drizzled with coconut milk sauces and crispy mung beans." But once they actually tried it, they felt differently. "It was awful," one customer said. Another called it "gross." Costco, however, isn't the only retail giant to get called out this summer for a frozen dessert that falls flat. Trader Joe's recently got blasted over the fact that its Italian Pistachio & Fior Di Latte Gelato Style Frozen Dessert is loaded with artificial ingredients. One customer who was less than pleased with their purchase called it "a chemical box with pistachio flavor." Another said it was just plain "horrible." More Retail: Walmart CEO sounds alarm on a big problem for customersTarget makes a change that might scare Walmart, CostcoTop investor takes firm stance on troubled retail brandWalmart and Costco making major change affecting all customers Of course, not every new product that hits the shelves at a supermarket is going to be a big win. But at a time when consumers are trying to spend their money more mindfully, bringing home subpar desserts is a huge disappointment. That said, because Costco and Trader Joe's have such generous return policies, the people who bought these desserts and didn't like them don't necessarily have to lose out on money. That's at least one silver lining. However, given these recent product failures, consumers may be less likely to take a chance on frozen dessert items from either store in the near term. Maurie Backman owns shares of Costco. Related: Trader Joe's makes a customer service decision Costco won't The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Buzz Feed
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
28 Pieces That Will Make Guests Smile When They Walk Into Your Home
A set of Slop Tart sponges to make every Pop-Tart-loving '90s baby love doing the dishes so much that they'll start fighting over who gets to do them. These also make top notch quirky kitchen decor to brighten your space! An absorbent floral dish drying mat so lovely that you'll actually — gasp — look forward to doing the dishes? The "main character in a rom com" energy of this mat is too strong to resist. A set of vinyl coasters to give your coffee table a delightfully retro nostalgic touch *and* protect it from the perils of condensation mid-party. A set of Goldfish fridge magnets — aka "Holdfish" — to instantly assert the superiority of this cracker to anyone who enters your home and dares to think they can suggest a snack food that doesn't smile back. A ravioli spoon rest to flex on all your friends — they may think they love pasta, but you actually LOVE!! PASTA!!!!!, as evidenced by this half decorative, half functional snack. A unique tripod floor lamp that will draw the eye without stealing the show — the perfect solution to keep up a modern look without falling into that trap of "woof, everything suuuure does look boring in here." A set of Lego sunflowers so cheerful that they'll put a lil' pep in your step every time you see them. A Frenchie-themed cheese board for some top notch char-woof-erie at your next party. An understatedly unique wavy corner bookshelf to give your storage some personality, gosh darn it. This is a fun, subtle way to add a whimsical touch to a living room or bedroom without disrupting the aesthetic. Birdie, an indoor carbon dioxide monitor that — bless her dramatic heart — flips over and "dies" if the air quality in your home goes down, prompting you to open a window or run an air purifier so you can breathe easier. Once Birdie is happy with the air quality again, she'll pop back up! A moon lamp candle warmer so you can get all the celestial vibes *and* the coziness of a soothing candle wafting through your space (without worrying about an open flame!). A heart hands statuette to display all your beloved friendship bracelets when you run out of real estate on your wrists. A chicken zen garden for anyone so stressed out that they don't give a cluck where there self-care comes from anymore. A "Gracula" garlic crusher, because you know what? If a 108-year-old vampire lurking moodily in the trees in the Pacific Northwest isn't going to fall in love with you and grant you immortality, one might as well make your life in the kitchen a little easier. A building block tissue box that will make any Lego fan think that eh, maybe getting the sniffles isn't the worst thing in the world, if it means you have an excuse to pull tissues out of this fun contraption. A little popcorn bucket vase for a fun punch of color that basically DEMANDS you go to Trader Joe's and get the most colorful mini $4 bouquet to put in it, STAT. A set of glow-in-the-dark "tree elves" so the next time you take an enchanted midnight stroll through your front walkway to get home at night, you'll have a whole host of magical critters to welcome you back. A wavy, textured full-length mirror, because if your mirror is lucky enough to behold your cute self every day, it better be serving looks just as adorable! A dreamy satin bow throw pillow for anyone whose coquette era is so strong that it doesn't even take a pause when they sleep. 🎀🎀🎀 A cloud-shaped magnetic key holder for an absurdly cute storage option for keys that will prettttyyy much guarantee you never lose them again. A ginormous "marshmallow cloud fleece" blanket you should only pull out in front of guests if you're prepared for them to burrow inside and never, ever leave. A decorative rainbow window film that says, "Yes, I want my privacy, but I also want to be extremely glamorous about it." Not only does this refract beautiful rainbows to turn your space into a calm, colorful oasis, but reviewers mention that it's handy for pet owners whose dogs love to bark at things outside. A fairy door garden kit you can install at the base of your very favorite tree in your backyard to let all neighboring fairies know they are always welcome in your space. ✨ (Don't worry about the fairies getting lost — these also glow in the dark!) A rotating disco ball diffuser because sometimes "come on Barbie let's go party" secretly means "come on Barbie let's diffuse some citrus essential oils and try to shake off that afternoon nap." This lil' bub will give you the best of both worlds. A set of pop-up cat and mouse hooks you can easily install with the stick-on adhesive for a downright lawlessly adorable option for stashing lightweight items like keys, tote bags, and scarves at the door. A cow-themed cheese holder that is, in fact, a Big Moooooooood. Not only is this an adorable and handy way to store your cheese slices, but tons of parents say it's been a real hit with the kiddos! A "Normal Gets You Nowhere" digital download for all the goofy goobers, unrepentant nerds, and silly geese out there who need a cute reminder every now and then. A dimmable sad duck night-light because sometimes you just have to look at this emotionally deflated creature on your desk and be like, "Welp. At least I'm doing better than that little dude."
Miami Herald
4 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Trader Joe's targeted by protesters for surprising reason
If there's one thing people tend to say about Trader Joe's, it's that the store has a pretty good reputation. Granted, you may not find every single product you need at Trader Joe's, and you may get annoyed by the fact that your favorite products might disappear without warning. Related: Costco doesn't want members (and non-members) to know this But for the most part, people tend to agree that shopping at Trader Joe's is a positive experience. Not only do the prices tend to be competitive, but the unique array of products makes for an interesting shopping trip. And while it's always sad to lose a favorite product, it's also fun to see new ones hit the shelves. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter Plus, Trader Joe's also has some of the most courteous employees in all of retail. Customer service is a core part of the company's philosophy and culture. And when you're doing a mundane errand like grocery shopping, it's a nice thing to be smiled at. Though many shoppers are loyal Trader Joe's fans, the store has been called out on more than one occasion for several of its practices. For one thing, the company has been accused of racist product labeling, such as its Trader Jose's branding for Mexican food. While Trader Joe's no doubt meant it to be cute, a lot of people took it the wrong way, and understandably so. Related: Another supermarket chain tries new way to fix checkout Trader Joe's has also been accused of trying to prevent workers from unionizing. The chain wouldn't be the first business to try to engage in union-busting. But for a company that prides itself on putting employees first, some of its practices in that area have been questionable at best. One of the products you'll find at Trader Joe's is poultry. It's a staple item found in many consumers' refrigerators. On July 2, a protester from Direct Action Everywhere, a Bay Area-based animal rights group, was arrested after super-gluing himself to the poultry section at a Trader Joe's in Pasadena. Related: Costco has a massive labor problem nobody is talking about In addition, multiple members of Direct Action Everywhere stormed the store to protest the company's connection to Petaluma Poultry, a division of Perdue Foods that supplies Trader Joe's with chicken products. "Chickens deserve medical attention," chanted one protester while standing on a cash register. The protester who glued himself to the poultry shelf was eventually removed by law enforcement, who handcuffed him and led him out of the store. More retail: Walmart CEO sounds alarm on a big problem for customersTarget makes a change that might scare Walmart, CostcoTop investor takes firm stance on troubled retail brandWalmart and Costco making major change affecting all customers That same day, another member of Direct Action Everywhere was arrested after she glued her hand to the front desk at Trader Joe's headquarters in Monrovia. The group claims its goal is to educate the public on animal rights. Instead, it seems like all it did was cause chaos at a busy supermarket. Either way, Trader Joe's may want to rethink its poultry source - if not for the sake of animals, then for the sake of avoiding mayhem while people are trying to shop. Related: Walmart makes bold move to compete with restaurants The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Business Insider
5 days ago
- General
- Business Insider
We made Ina Garten's easy 5-ingredient summer pasta. It was delicious and basically cooked itself.
Ina Garten's summer garden pasta only requires a few basic ingredients. We marinated our tomatoes and basil in olive oil for four hours — the wait was definitely worth it. The noodles only took five minutes to make, and the delicious dish required barely any cleanup. Ina Garten is famous for recipes that are just as easy as they are delicious, from her Greek salad to her blueberry-ricotta breakfast cake. One of Garten's most popular summer recipes is her summer garden pasta. It's also essentially a no-cook recipe, since the only time you'll need to use your stove is to boil the pasta noodles. It's important to note that while Garten's summer garden pasta only has a few simple steps, you can't whip it up right before dinner. To create the sauce, Garten marinates the tomatoes, basil, and olive oil for four hours before serving with the cooked pasta, so it requires some planning ahead. Despite some extra steps, the end result was a delicious and easy dinner that was impressive enough to serve at a summer dinner party. We had two Business Insider reporters put this recipe to the test — here's how it stacked up in terms of flavor and how easy it was to make. Ina Garten's summer garden pasta requires just five main ingredients. To whip up her dish, you'll need: Angel hair or another kind of dried pasta noodles Parmesan cheese Cherry tomatoes Minced garlic Basil leaves For seasoning, you'll also need "good" olive oil — Garten wouldn't have it any other way — plus salt, freshly ground black pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. We tried making the recipe with angel hair pasta, like Garten recommends, and with spaghetti. Both types worked well with the dish, showing how versatile it is and how you can make it using any kind of pasta you might have lurking in your pantry. We started by halving the cherry tomatoes, the stars of this pasta dish. Anneta opted for cherry tomatoes on the vine, while Erin purchased 2 pints of cherry tomatoes from her local Trader Joe's. Both worked for this dish, though the pint of tomatoes was slightly easier to prepare. Garten's recipe calls for 4 pints of cherry tomatoes to serve six. Since we were making a much smaller portion, we cut the recipe in half. We then prepared the other ingredients for the marinated tomatoes. Per Garten's recipe, Anneta minced three cloves of garlic and julienned nine basil leaves. By placing all the basil leaves on top of each other and slicing through them a few times, she was done julienning in a matter of seconds. This is really the extent of the prep you need for the entire dish. You can also make prep even easier by using jarred minced garlic. After all, Garten claims that store-bought is fine in a pinch. We threw the ingredients into a glass mixing bowl. We seasoned everything with half a teaspoon of salt, a few dashes of red pepper flakes, and freshly ground black pepper. To top everything off, we soaked the tomato mixture in olive oil. We used about half the olive oil Garten recommends. It was enough to cover the tomatoes and create a base of "sauce" at the bottom of the bowl. We gave everything a good mix and then covered the bowl with plastic wrap. Garten recommends letting the mixture sit at room temperature for about four hours, so find a good spot in your kitchen and don't put it in the fridge. We loved the ease of this meal — it reminded Erin of slow-cooker meals she's made in the past, since it's somewhat of a set-it-and-forget-it meal, other than making the pasta noodles. Just before the four hours were up, we made the pasta noodles. We added olive oil and salt to the pasta water before boiling it, per Garten's instructions. Anneta made the recipe with angel hair pasta, while Erin opted for spaghetti noodles she already had in her pantry. The cooking times will vary slightly depending on which pasta you use, but Garten recommends cooking your noodles al dente. Since angel hair pasta is so thin, it cooks much faster than other types of pasta, making this recipe even quicker and easier to make. As the pasta cooked, we gave the tomato mixture another quick stir. We were instantly hit with a delicious scent, reminiscent of a plate of bruschetta. With a smell so fresh and crisp, we understood why Garten decided to throw "garden" into the name of her dish — cherry tomatoes and basil might even be two ingredients you grow yourself in your home garden. Once the pasta was done cooking, we threw the noodles into a bowl with the tomato mixture and added the grated cheese. We followed Garten's advice and added freshly grated Parmesan cheese and fresh basil leaves before tossing everything together in the same pot we made the pasta in. The Parmesan cheese really made the sauce come together, and allowed it to coat the noodles. The easy pasta dish looked beautiful, and it tasted just as good. Marinating in Garten's mixture for four hours gave the cherry tomatoes a rich and intense flavor, and the olive oil, seasonings, and Parmesan cheese combined to create a rich sauce that coated every noodle. We couldn't stop snacking on the tomatoes as we tossed the pasta together, and Anneta said she'd definitely make these tomatoes again for a cheese plate or Greek salad. Anneta thought the angel hair pasta was the perfect foundation for this dish. After her first bite, she completely understood why Garten recommends it. The airy and fluffy noodles balance out the richness of the tomatoes perfectly, ensuring that the pasta is still light, exactly what you want on a hot summer night. Erin thought the spaghetti noodles also sopped up the delicious sauce and provided a more filling dish — it really depends on your own personal preference. We'll definitely be making Garten's summer garden pasta again, even when the season ends. While we're both huge fans of pasta dishes drenched in heavy meat sauces, we loved how Garten's pasta was simple yet rich — and unbelievably easy to prepare. Between prepping the tomato mixture and cooking the pasta, we only had to clean a few dishes, and the actual cooking time took less than 10 minutes. This recipe was easy enough for a beginner cook to master, but still worthy of serving at a summer party. Combined with the fact that you might have most of these ingredients lying around, we'll definitely be adding this Ina Garten dish to our repertoire of recipes.
Atlantic
5 days ago
- Business
- Atlantic
What Your Favorite Grocery Store Says About You
A couple of months ago, Shannon Fong woke up before dawn; drove to the Trader Joe's in Montrose, California; and waited. And waited! So did dozens of other people at this location, and thousands more at other Trader Joe's around the country. They brought lawn chairs and picnic blankets; they wrapped around the block in New York City and baked for hours in Los Angeles. (Some stores hired extra security to account for the crowds.) Before the Montrose store opened at 8 a.m. sharp, Fong told me, she and everyone else counted down, as though the diurnal operation of a discount grocery chain was New Year's Eve, or a rocket launch. Then they got what they came for: canvas shopping bags, not much bigger than a box of cereal, with the store's name and logo on them, available in four Easter-eggy colors, $2.99 each. The totes sold out in minutes at many locations and are now going for up to $1,000 for a set of eight on eBay. Later, when Fong posted a short video diary of the experience on Instagram, more than 19,000 people smashed the 'Like' button. It's a little like being a superfan of the bank: A place that was once entirely utilitarian is now a place to line up to get into. On social media, people profess their love for the Pennsylvania convenience store Wawa and talk about Target like it's a habit-forming substance. Recently, I saw a guy at a bar wearing $300 pants and a sweatshirt with a logo for Kirkland Signature, the Costco house brand. When Wegmans, a supermarket chain based in upstate New York, officially opened on Long Island in February, people—they prefer the term Wegmaniacs — started waiting in line the night before. (Wegmania is so almighty that the company recently opened a high-end sushi restaurant in Lower Manhattan.) Fong's Instagram account, @traderjoesobsessed, has more followers than Fiji has residents. The supermarket is now a brand unto itself, not just the building that houses the other brands, and its shoppers aren't just brand-loyal—they're fanatical. Maybe this was inevitable. Over the past two decades, after all, fandom has escaped sci-fi conventions and high schools to become the animating force in cultural and political life. Fans drive what art gets created, what products get made, who gets canceled, and who gets venerated. They have remade language and remodeled social life: We stan now, and we find fraternity in our fandom, and we expect the corporations we love to love us back. Susan Kresnicka is an anthropologist who now studies fandom on behalf of corporate clients; she told me that in surveys, some 85 percent of Americans consider themselves a fan of something—a film franchise, a product, a music group, an influencer. Fandom, Kresnicka told me, is now 'part of our lexicon of self,' a means of connecting with others and making sense of who we are. Political and cultural affiliation have declined, and the internet has enabled a new kind of community building and identity signaling, one that is anchored to consumption rather than creed. 'I mean, consumer behavior and signaling has taken the place of religion at this point,' the Wharton marketing professor Michael Platt told me. All culture is consumer culture now, and the grocery store is the physical store that the most people go into most often—a place that Americans visit more often than church. Kresnicka compares identity to a gem with many facets—regional identity, political identity, professional identity, demographic identities. The grocery store can map onto several of these facets, she told me, and the ones with devoted fan bases do it exceptionally well. The San Antonio–based chain H-E-B has explicitly made itself a stand-in for Texan identity; you could, if you wanted, outfit a kitchen with the state-shaped gallimaufry it sells: waffle irons, chicken nuggets, Post-it Notes, charcuterie boards. The Los Angeles–based chain Erewhon, meanwhile, explicitly caters to the MAHA-curious and disposable-incomed; 99 Ranch, H Mart, and Vallarta have all built loyalty by providing authentic ingredients to a diasporic audience—Chinese sauces, Korean noodles, Mexican snacks. In all cases, shopping at one of these places says something about who you are, something deeper than I need to eat to stay alive. 'There's a general underlying biological and social driver for that kind of connection and social signaling,' Platt told me. 'It all boils down to tribalism, right?' Platt has training in both anthropology and neuroscience—he's interested, he told me, in how consumers make decisions generally, especially when they're choosing based on 'something beyond the actual product.' An avocado or a box of cereal is more or less the same at any grocery store, so what is it about some stores that inspire lines-down-the-block fandom? Platt and his colleagues recently conducted a study in which they hooked Trader Joe's shoppers and Whole Foods shoppers up to EEG machines and showed them good and bad news about the various brands: product recalls and launches, earnings, that kind of thing. His team had previously studied the brain activity of loyal Apple consumers—the first modern consumer megafandom—and suspected that they might discover a similar phenomenon among Trader Joe's obsessives. They found that Trader Joe's people do in fact have 'much higher brain synchrony' than Whole Foods people—they think alike, in the same way Apple people tend to. 'This is a real characteristic of a tribe,' he told me. 'You know, a community that's dialed-in and self-reinforcing.' Grocery stores are much more robust and specialized than they used to be: They're easier to love, and more reflective of their shoppers. They are also where we enact our values—about nutrition, about the climate, about caring for our families and what's worth spending money on—and find like-minded people. 'You have all of this complicated morality going on with our food choices and our health and our bodies,' Kresnicka told me; the grocery store is a neat metonym for what we deem important. The grocery-store thing reminds me of a lot of the way we exist these days. Online, we are tinned-fish girlies or Carhartt bros. We are defined by our tastes, which, usually, are telegraphed by what we buy. And so we walk around advertising our local pizza place or bookstore on our chests, for free, and do unpaid marketing for the supermarket: little billboards everywhere.
