Trader joe's & whole foods question
 

So Grand Rapids is going to evolve out of the dark ages and get a Trader Joes and Whole Foods...I have seen people mention them on here, do they carry a lot of English foods?

Re: Trader joe's & whole foods question
 

Trader Joes is great but is doesn't really have British food, our store has good British cheese and toblerones!

It also does better curry than our local Indian restaurant!

Re: Trader joe's & whole foods question
 

Not British stuff but Trader Joes does have a lot of nice things. I wouldn't do a weekly shop there but I like to go every so often for goodies. They have things in their freezer section that we don't see at our usual grocery store, chicken samosas and snacky stuff. Their frozen chocolate croissants are to die for, I love their cheese selection, the hot and sweet pepper jelly is delish and cookie butter straight out the jar with a spoon, yum. A lot of their sweets and biccis are good too.

Whole Foods again I don't do a weekly shop but when I do go I clear them out of their Irish Bangers (I have no hesitation saying yes I'll take them all) and we often see haddock in batter which we hardly ever see in other grocery stores. And their Lacey biscuits are the best.

Re: Trader joe's & whole foods question
 

I hate Trader Joes, I don't get what all the fuss is about, it's over priced and the choice is extremely basic. Whole Foods is lovely but ridiculously expensive.

Re: Trader joe's & whole foods question
 

Purely on price I prefer Trader Joe's. I find Whole Foods way overpriced in my area. TJ's is more reasonable for basically similar wholesome food (i.e. no additives, colourings & general crap added in). Both are better for many items than the general supermarket, but pricier. I find WF too high-priced to shop there much, whereas I try to hit TJ's once or twice a month for certain reasonably-priced staples like cheese, bananas, nuts, & some decent frozen stuff.

I haven't seen much in the way of British food at TJ, though. Their British or Irish teabags are excellent & cheap, though, & nice & strong. I get most of my Brit foods at Ocean State Job Lot, but you may not have that in your area.

Re: Trader joe's & whole foods question
 

The best thing about Trader Joe's is two buck Chuck, even if it is more than that now. :thumbsup:

Re: Trader joe's & whole foods question
 

Yes and no.

Wholefoods has lots of Brit stuff, but very expensive. Great to hit the sales, samples and bulk bins though.

TJ is great, but depends on local store. Not so much Brit stuff, but very European feel to a lot of goods, great cheeses, yoghurt, bread, baking supplies, snacks and frozen/prepared meals. It's great if you've got little kids just for the snack food type things.

I suppose it does depend on location though, some stores are definitely better than others. Locally, the one in Framingham is awesome and it does the booze, the one in Needham is ok, the 3 floor one in Boston is fab. Once in Acton is mediocre and the one in Shrewsbury is a bit minging. The new one in Portsmouth, NH is amazingly nice, but prices were quite different to the ones in MA.

Same could be said for Wholefoods, but it's generally equally as expensive all over, just the quality of the stores and range of produce differed.

Re: Trader joe's & whole foods question
 

$3 locally, $3.50 in other stores....it's not that bad, but a buck more and their house red is a pretty decent French number.

We stock up on it though for cooking as we're not big wine drinkers and the only other place with drinkable wine that's cheap is Wegmans and there, the cheapest is $6.

Re: Trader joe's & whole foods question
 

We are so different, I buy pretty much everything from there :lol:

Re: Trader joe's & whole foods question
 

Trader Joes - I believe they have English & Irish Cheddar, crumpets and Irish butter. I think that's about it though. Wait, irish oatmeal too, right?

They have a lot of interesting foods. Tons of goodies. Frozen foods and desserts and biccies.

I don't shop there very often, but when I do I buy the stuff that I cannot buy elsewhere - you will learn what they do well and what they don't. Apparently they have a really good return policy too - if you don't like it you can bring it back OR bring in the receipt and tell them and they will credit.

To me, Whole Foods is disgustingly expensive. If you have a Fresh and Easy near you - they should have some Brit stuff (altho they may close soon)

Re: Trader joe's & whole foods question
 

Up here in our town (I refuse to call it a city like is says on the signs) we have a dilemma. It looks like we'll shortly have a Trader Joes to call our own but at the cost of losing Ace Hardware.
Will admit both are expensive but can't be beat for the little items, TJ's for everything listed in the thread so far and Ace for the obscure bits, screws, fixing and tools that you always forget on the big trips to Home Depot. I guess we could have had both if it wasn’t for the arrival of Petco – who needs another darn pet superstore ;-)

Steve

Re: Trader joe's & whole foods question
 

TJ crumpets are the best ones I have been able buy over here, Weetabix are $2.99, they have a great frozen food selection and their jars of cooking sauces are quite nice. Their 1lb bars of Belgian chocolate are very, very nice. I tend to go to TJ every other week or so and I usually buy something new each time.

Since TJ opened near me the only time I go to WF now is to get dinner from the hot food bar.

Re: Trader joe's & whole foods question
 

Two Buck Chuck was $1.99 in southern CA when I was there last October. Tasted like shit, mind.

Re: Trader joe's & whole foods question
 

We have WF and TJs right next to each other.

I tend to go to Wholefoods for stuff I can't find anywhere else but not really British food (except Weetabix which is cheaper there than anywhere else). Also for their Irish Bangers.

TJs has good crumpets and naan bread and meringues if you're looking for Brit staples. I really like it for good quality meat, pre-chopped veg in bags, and just for general ideas and quick meals. I work and have kids so quick and fairly healthy is important to me...

Re: Trader joe's & whole foods question
 

They have loads of Brit cheese, but also a decent amount from NH/MA/VT that are English types for less money, around here at least.

You can also ask to try anything and everything in the store before buying, which is handy :)