My 12-year-old son has been complaining that we've been out of bacon for two weeks, so I headed to Trader Joe's in Paramus today to pick up that and some of our other favorites.
Trader Joe's isn't anywhere as big as a supermarket and doesn't reward you for bringing re-usable bags, but it has a great selection of antibiotic-free meat and poultry, and drug- and preservative-free cold cuts and bacon. Not everything is a bargain, either, but you'll find a lot of quality food at good prices.
I picked up Applegate Farms sliced roast beef and smoked turkey, uncured Italian salami, Trader Joe's uncured bacon (three packages, two for the freezer), T.J.'s sliced yogurt cheese with jalapenos and one of our all-time favorites, a 3-pound rack of fully cooked and sauced St. Louis-style pork ribs from the Niman Ranch, a relative bargain at $5.99 a pound.
The 2%, lactose-free milk cost about the same as I pay for organic at ShopRite. Organic plain, low-fat yogurt was a steal at $2.99 for 32 ounces, but organic and conventional tomatoes from the small produce section were pricey. I paid $2.99 for 20 ounces of tomatoes on the vine, compared with $2.99 for 16 ounces of herbicide-free Campari tomatoes at Fairway Market.
I stopped at Trader Joe's about 1:30 yesterday afternoon. The store was crowded, with customers jockeying for position with their carts. If I stopped to read ingredients or look for a price sign, another customer would invariably thrust past me to pluck an item off the shelf. The staff is perky and helpful. But few of the customers were smiling.
I have found the customers there on the snobbier side as opposed to say a Shoprite customer. However, the customers at the Paramus Trader Joe's are not nearly as snobby as those who shop at the Westfield location near my job.
ReplyDeleteBefore the Paramus Trader Joe's opened, I would visit the Westfield store maybe twice a year, on trips to or from the shore. I have also shopped at the Hillsdale store a number of times over the years, but only in Paramus have I noticed such grim determination. Also, try to talk to a shopper at Trader Joe's and the reaction is often so uptight....
ReplyDeleteI make my trips to Trader Joe's as brief as possible, I go in and get what I want and leave, there really is very little opportunity to browse there. Off topic, I noticed that Fattal's has a lot better selection than year's past in products from Syria, notably Al-Durra brand and Al-Amin brand. I picked up very high quality hummus, tomato paste, hot pepper sauce and Syrian ketchup there the weekend before last.
ReplyDeleteThanks for tip. I stopped at Fattal's Tuesday, on the way back from Morristown. Didn't notice those brands, but will look for them in the future. I did notice that the large, Lebanese-style bread with Fattal's name on it is from Canada.
ReplyDeleteIs it really? I havent bought that big Lebanese style bread in over a year. I remember years ago that bread was very hard to come by.
ReplyDeleteWell, first Fattal's sold Lebanese-style bread in bags with the name of the Canadian baker; now the bags carry the Fattal's name and Paterson address. When I turned the bag over, it said "Product of Canada."
ReplyDeleteThey must of worked out a deal with the Canadian baker. There are so many Syrian/Lebanese bakeries in the Montreal area its unbelievable. Some of them are quite good.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to try them.
ReplyDeleteI went to Luna this past weekend with my wife and in-laws, the spinach pies were decent, so were the meat and cheese pies, the zatar bread was overcooked. I think the quality was better a few months ago. They have a new woman preparing the food there and I don't think she is as good as the woman who was previously preparing it.
ReplyDeleteThat's too bad. Guess you couldn't say anything. The one time I bought the za'atar bread, I liked it. It was chewy with a lot of flavor.
ReplyDelete