Why is Trader Joe’s so chaotic?

[Anonymous]

I grew up in southern California and remember when TJs was a tiny wine, cheese and vitamin store (mid 80s). Quiet and pleasant. I avoid it now. You're not alone, OP!

[Anonymous]

I call it Trader Joe’s tourism. People are wandering about looking for interesting things. They insist on taking carts down aisles too small and go in all directions. I don’t know if the TJ tourists are just excited about TJ specialities or if half of them have literally never visited a grocery store before.

[Anonymous]

At regular grocery stores, there is a clear path up and down aisles but at TJ people jump around because the layout is terrible.

[Anonymous]

Super quiet at the Springfield store at 830am

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like it but at my local TJs all the staff and half the customers are in masks! It's like stepping into 2020.

Yeah, staff and customers of TJ around here are super weird that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Their workers all look like they are one body piercing away from being an Antifa operative. Not exactly the type that are good at imposing order on chaos.

The employees ARE the Antifa operatives; you can tell because they’ll be the first to claim

- “ANTIFA does not exist! (just don’t ask me what I was doing last summer).”

[Anonymous]

It’s designed to give you the feel of an authentic bazaar or exotic international street market, but without Indiana Jones shooting a swordsman in the middle of it.

[Anonymous]

I like the new one in Bethesda. Easy parking, big store, wide aisles. I’ve never found it chaotic or overcrowded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I call it Trader Joe’s tourism. People are wandering about looking for interesting things. They insist on taking carts down aisles too small and go in all directions. I don’t know if the TJ tourists are just excited about TJ specialities or if half of them have literally never visited a grocery store before.

TJ does seem to attract the aimless, unguided, must examine everything shopper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s designed to give you the feel of an authentic bazaar or exotic international street market, but without Indiana Jones shooting a swordsman in the middle of it.

Lol. true

[Anonymous]

You guys are weird. Sometimes it’s crowded, yes, because they are in smaller spaces than stores like Wegmans and Costco. But nothing is going on differently that makes it chaotic. It’s just a grocery store 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Anonymous]

TJ is not nearly as bad as the Gaithersburg Costco. Oh my lord, Costco is ALWAYS a zoo. I went on a weekday morning and couldn't find parking. Why do so many people go there all the time? It's not that amazing.

[Anonymous]

I went to TJ's yesterday at around 2:30 in the afternoon and it was full of people. It was difficult to shop. Afternoon on a Tuesday. But interestingly when I went to pay there was no line.

[Anonymous]

I really don’t experience this. Except the parking can sometimes be awful because they tend to be in older shopping centers with bad parking (like federal plaza in Rockville or that awful original bethesda one). I don’t find the aisles at all chaotic — it’s very well organized and I find it very efficient. The only thing I don’t like is the new short checking things which means I can’t pack my own bags. I hate having someone else pack the bags — no one trains bag packing anymore.

[Anonymous]

All grocery stores are like this now. Someone shoved me with their cart so they could get to the organic strawberries at whole foods. Aisles are more narrow, store hours are more limited. It's the physical manifestation of shrinkflation