I wonder how much difference one-way aisles make. Is passing allowed? I mean, I try to follow the arrows, but if someone is standing there looking for the right kind of X, am I supposed to wait for them or can I pass them to get to what I need? If yes, then why does it matter which direction I came from? Isn’t it better if people spend less time in the store overall, rather than spend extra time walking around? And people go back and forth looking at all the chips, or produce. I think limiting capacity and group size is about all the stores can realistically do.
Not saying their aren’t other markets, but of the ones listed only WF is in this area. The ones you mention would be included under “etc.”
Unless “no passing” is strictly policed and everyone patiently waits 6 feet behind those idiots like me who take forever to make up their mind (yes, I’m That Guy, sorry), then one-way aisles make no difference at all.
Even with California being the new center of the Covid storm none of the markets here in South OC are controlling aisle direction any more. People seem to respect the distance guidance and pass by very quickly when they need to.
In the other side of the equation there was an incident in LA yesterday where anti-mask protestors ran through a market and a luxury department store confronting masked customers and employees. I just learned that a similar incident is expected in the OC tomorrow.
Good time to just stay home.
This is exactly how I feel. I try to look at overall community risk and figure out how I can mitigate it without unduly increasing my personal risk. From my perspective, the folks who do the hunting and gathering for online/curbside pick up often don’t know the store layout and seem to often spend a while trying to find things. I sort my shopping list by location and get in and out pretty quickly. I even go to a store that’s a bit further away so there is less of a chance of running into anyone I know who may want to socialize.
Over the summer I was part of a CSA that delivered and got any missing produce from my local farmers’ market. Now I order from a former produce supplier who primarily services restaurants. They are a closed environment and need the business. I do the same for meat.
Exactly. So I’m forced to basically ignore the idea of staying home, which is not good. (In my case, not having a car is actually not by choice, meaning I can’t afford a grocery delivery service.)
Some stores in my area of NJ have one way aisles, some don’t. I am able to get through the store much quicker in stores with two-way aisles. Invariably, the item I need is in the middle of the aisle going in the same direction as the one in, I’m forcing me to go down the other-way aisle even though I don’t want or have to.
I think controlling how many people are allowed in at a time is way more important than one way aisles. Many stores did that for a while but have discontinued the practice. Fortunately the stores have longer hours now so shoppers can be more spread out during the day and since I am not currently working I have the luxury of being able to shop at less popular times of the day.
To get us back on track - I find Trader Joe’s does an excellent job of limiting shoppers. I don’t go often but there are a few things they carry that I really like. I went not that long ago and didn’t want/need a cart but had to take one. That’s how they keep count of how many people are in the store.
I’ve followed this thread sporadically since inception. The posts seem to focus on one product or another without addressing the underlying question of whether to go into Trader Joes at all.
Well, yeah. That is, in fact, the entire purpose of this thread. I get that the thread title is ambiguous in that respect (and in a previous thread we did have another troll crapping on Trader Joe’s, based on the same misunderstanding), but since you have, in fact, read enough to understand what the thread is really about there’s no excuse for you derailing the discussion like this.
Especially since by your own admission, you’ve only been to TJ’s twice–which is to say, you have no idea what you’re talking about.
At the risk of being bull-headed I think people should learn to cook. sigh
And I think we should have a 20-hour work week. But we don’t, so a lot of people don’t have a hell of a lot of time in their day for cooking. Which sucks, because it means we can’t all be as smugly superior as you are.
What gives you the impression that no one who shops at TJs can cook?
And the Summer of Love spawned the whole natural/healthy food industry.
Those folks, just a little older them me, decided that Home Ec was discriminatory because almost only girls took it (I did too, because that was where the girls were). They also said shop was discriminatory because only boys took it. Rather than getting girls into shop and boys into Home Ec they fell out of curricula across the country. That is why I blame the summer of love for the decline of cooking ability in the United States.
My opinion has nothing to do with a business model but rather my opinion on a public health policy in the time of a pandemic and what makes me more comfortable.
It’s possible, though I’d tend to put much greater emphasis on a different and slower shift:
1800: “If someone in this house doesn’t learn to cook, we’ll all starve”. Literal truth without exaggeration.
2000: “We can always get something somewhere”.
There are plenty of other threads about the TJ’S shopping experience. This post belongs there, not in a thread about particular new products.
I think the whole idea that people don’t know how to do things because school didn’t cater to them is bogus. That’s what parents are for.
And grandparents, for that matter.
YMMV
I take your point. There has been a major failure in society. Too many people can’t cook and too many people can’t hang curtain rods.
I think there is a correlation with schools dropping home ec and shop. Correlation doesn’t mean causation. I could blame Trader Joe’s on the summer of love, conceivably. grin
You keep saying there’s a failure in society because people can’t cook and make boot scrapers. I don’t see it.
My kids were too busy taking classes that would enhance their ability to get a scholarship.
And it worked. Both learned how to cook too. I didn’t worry about the boot scrapers because they favor tennis shoes.
I searched for data to support your belief but that is sketchy.
I think it is an urban, or more accurately, a suburban myth.
I don’t believe I mentioned boot scrapers. When discussing this topic I usually refer to hanging curtain rods. Were boot scrapers a shop project for you?
I maintain that life skills are a reasonable element of primary and secondary education. It is my observation that many such skills have fallen from favor to make room for topics like “gender studies.”
To quote Robert Heinlein:
Mr. Heinlein is clearly better spoken than I. Cooking and fixing things are fundamental skills that are no longer valued by public schools outside of trade tracks and two generations after the summer of love parents don’t seem to have the ability or interest to teach their children.
This is only relevant based on the observation of someone in the original TJ’s thread that the appeal of TJ’s is the abundance of prepared and semi-prepared foods they carry. That could certainly explain why their limited selection did not push any buttons for me when I visited them - if I want macaroni salad I’ll make macaroni salad.
I spent some time reading the Wikipedia article about TJ’s. I’m not the only one to lump them in with companies like 7-11 as a convenience store - they have and do themselves. Their limited inventory (about 4,000 vice a supermarket with about 50,000) is consistent with that categorization also.
A Google search for “can Americans cook” was illuminating. Most disturbing to me was the consistent assumption that a Blue Apron box or even a Kraft macaroni and cheese box count as “cooking.” This observation does support the reasons for TJ’s financial success, it’s popularity among many, and why I find that popularity bewildering.
Accordingly it would appear that TJ’s is a representation of Americans who don’t want to or can’t cook. I do call that a failure in society. That makes TJ’s success a symptom.
I would like to hear about your boot scraper experience.
What is your theory on the young minds who didn’t have homec or wood shop in school but went on to become professional chefs or builders? What about adults who grew up cooking but never learned in school? The summer of love gen had working parents. '70’s latchkey started…and so did my learning some basics at home. Skipping through the many other details along the way…
I had all the public school electives a suburban upbringing offered and I still didn’t elevate those skills until decades later…well after public school ended.
Not only do I wonder when you came to believe this is where the gap lies but why you say it with such matter of fact repeat.
Education of any kind has never been 1 size fits all.
With regards to the “Summer of Love” being the beginning of the end of people learning how to cook, things were trending in that direction, decades before. Due in large part to improved efficiencies and automation on the farms, resulting in greater crop yields, thus more food, there became a need to preserve this food on large commercial scales. Enter the food companies, the factories, and great progress was being made! And the railroads were already in place. People went without food in the Great Depression, and there was rationing during the war. Folks were anxious for food security, and the government didn’t want the excess food to go to waste either. The two world wars undoubtedly delayed this progression, due to the obvious need to utilize both factories and food for the war effort. Once the war ended, it was game on. Families, and women, in particular were targeted on many levels to use the new convenience products, thus liberating themselves from kitchen and garden drudgery. Many people from my mother’s era (1930’s) saw how hard their respective parents worked just providing food and bare basics for their family; they left the farms, along with more traditional cooking styles, and decided not to grow the big, labor intensive gardens, with the resulting need to can, pickle or preserve all the crops. It was the “modern” way! At this time too, breastfeeding fell out of favor, with new mothers encouraged to use formula.
The rapid societal changes, IMO, caused a backlash. The flower children wanted to get back to basics, grow their own food, and heal themselves with natural remedies. The ethos there was for more self sufficiency.
Other people, who may have grown up with adequate, but not great food, rebelled a bit, and learned to cook delicious food from scratch.
Personally, I’ve always thought everyone should know how to feed themselves, manage their own finances, and know how to clean up after themselves. Whether they choose to do so is up to them. As far as I know, HomeEc and Shop are still electives, and not restricted by gender. Thankfully! In a perfect world, there should be a mandatory life skills class to graduate. To be fair, however the schools can’t do everything.
We’re all different in our needs, and the way we allocate our time. Not for me to judge people who don’t cook.
I’m sure @Harters, has an interesting perspective on this. @Harters??
ETA: to above post, to keep OT; while not a one stop shop for all groceries, I think TJ’s appeals to both cooks and eaters. It’s handy while traveling for small provisions, snacks or meals, too.