Intrepid Adventures in the USA

[Jenise]

If anyone had said that I'd finish my stay yearning for fare the equivalent of Dennys....If there had only been something other than the Hunan Horror within walking distance.....

Perhaps the root of this problem is that someone decided to hold a convention in Everett of all places. Of all the large cities in Western Washington, that would be about the least promising.

But speaking of conventions, what does one do at a rhodo convention, anyway?

That Hunan place is about 5 miles from the Everett Trader Joe's, which was the closest TJ's we had until Bellingham opened up. I see a Joe's is going to open soon in Huntington Harbor, CA.

Yeah, two blocks from my old house.

Were you a regular? How was it?

Trader Joe's, a grocery chain, is it special?
LOL, kinda like asking if the RCMP is special, well dunno about now but it was when Sergeant Preston and his dog King were there!
Huntington Harbor, Nice neighborhood Jenise.

[Jenise]

Trader Joe's, a grocery chain, is it special?
LOL, kinda like asking if the RCMP is special, well dunno about now but it was when Sergeant Preston and his dog King were there!
Huntington Harbor, Nice neighborhood Jenise.

It probably takes a Biblical level of knowledge of the neighborhood to understand, but yeah. A hundred years ago (long before I bought a home there) that building was an El Rancho market. Upscale, special--a destination market. Then it morphed into a Ralph's. A small Ralph's and the first of three Ralph's you'd pass in about one mile driving out of the hood and down Warner Avenue toward Fountain Valley (where there are no fountains and no valleys). Harborites used it like a 7-11 so the meats would rot and the skimpy produce selection was always tired. For anything other than beer or milk everybody would go the extra half mile to Ralph's #2. So that it's now become something else, anything else, that's a pretty big deal. Anything would have been better than that Ralph's!

Mike, good suggestion.

Chris, what is Trader Joes? We don't have them in Canada. I see from the net that it is a grocery chain - is it special somehow? We did alright with the QFC we found.

Bill -

TJ's is a chain of grocery stores that specializes in goods that you either don't often see in regular grocery stores or that you see at much higher prices. They promote natural and organic goods and have good selections of items such as imported cheeses, snack items like unusual crackers and potato chips, juices, and high quality frozen foods. Not to mention wine - they are the home of 2-Buck Chuck. I don't know a whole lot about their business model (I'm sure others here do), but the upshot is lots of interesting food at great prices.

[Jenise]

Mike, good suggestion.

Chris, what is Trader Joes? We don't have them in Canada. I see from the net that it is a grocery chain - is it special somehow? We did alright with the QFC we found.

Bill -

TJ's is a chain of grocery stores that specializes in goods that you either don't often see in regular grocery stores or that you see at much higher prices. They promote natural and organic goods and have good selections of items such as imported cheeses, snack items like unusual crackers and potato chips, juices, and high quality frozen foods. Not to mention wine - they are the home of 2-Buck Chuck. I don't know a whole lot about their business model (I'm sure others here do), but the upshot is lots of interesting food at great prices.

You got pretty close. It's kind of a regular grocery store in that yes, you can buy milk, butter, eggs, cereal, beer, wine, dog food, and a steak and salad for dinner with some imported chocolate mints for later. You can also choose from the best and freshest selection of dried fruits and nuts unlike anything you see in regular supermarkets, and from a pretty unusual and very international variety of breads and bread-like items. But perhaps what's most significant is that there's no Kraft, Nabisco, Kelloggs, Alpo, Purina, Coors or Gallo products--there is zero presence (at least, to the naked eye) of the brands that are the foundation of American supermarket/agribusiness. Most of TJ's products are things made somewhere on the planet especially for them, and there's no price variation from region to region. If they have X item, it's the same price in Bellingham as it is in Los Angeles as it is in New York, so some things we're used to seeing marked up up here because they're relatively rare elsewhere are bargains at TJ's.

True story: when I was about 20 and dating my first husband, he lived down the hill from TJ's second or third California location. It was a tiny store about the size of your average Dry Cleaners with a meat counter in back that had high end beef and pork, a few heads of lettuce and a few boxes of things like tomatoes and onions from which one could make a salad, lemons and limes for your martinis, jars of olives and all kinds of wonderful imported snacks, and stacks of imported wines with names that were mysteries to most of us, and an unusual variety of distilled spirits and liqueurs (in California where this was, unlike Washington there's no problem selling hard stuff AND wine on the same premesis). Basically, it was oriented toward selling the well-travelled person of taste the rudimentary but high-end basics they might need for a nice dinner for two. You can still see that mindset in the stores today, but of course now you can get everything else there too.

Most of TJ's products are things made somewhere on the planet especially for them, and there's no price variation from region to region. If they have X item, it's the same price in Bellingham as it is in Los Angeles as it is in New York

There's at least one exception to this that I'm sure you're aware of, Jenise, and that's pricing on alcohol. "Two Buck Chuck" is "Three Buck Chuck" here in WA and, I understand, more than that in some other places. I don't know if that applies strictly to Charles Shaw because of its unique business model in CA or if pricing variations are true more broadly for alcohol because of local taxes.

[Jenise]

Mark, actually I'd read that the prices were more than two bucks in some places out of neccessity, but hadn't realized that here was one of those places. I honestly never looked at the price on the wine (because I never entertained buying it). But it's not a surprise--I'm sure local taxes has everything to do with it.