Tip of the hat: Trader Joe’s

The idea of Trader Joe’s is an island market where some wily trader scours the world for tasty bargains and passes the savings along to you. Shopping there was supposed to feel like a treasure hunt, and amazingly enough, after all these years, it still does.

Like Costco, it’s a crossover experience: a store where the Range Rover crowd in search of clever bargains rubs shoulders with students looking for the modern equivalent of TV dinners and working people stocking up on frozen chicken. The checkout folks are decked out in Hawaiian shirts and actually seem to be enjoying themselves a little bit.

Every product gets its own branding, its own homespun copy, and if it’s lucky, a prime spot in the Fearless Flyer, their tacky but always charming
literary contribution to the bathroom library. TJ’s always has a few art students on hand for signage and displays to make walking through the store fun and interesting. This may seem a bit trivial, but compared to Safeway, Ralphs, Publix and even Whole Foods, this helps Trader Joe’s have an unmatched store experience.

For all these reasons, we tip our collective hat to you, Trader Joe’s.