Redditors Shared Their Trader Joe’s Hot Takes, And The Response Was Wild

People have a lot of opinions about Trader Joe’s. If that feels like an obvious statement, I apologise. But we were reminded of this fact, and just how many opinions everyone has, in a pretty major way this week. The Trader Joe’s Reddit is a go-to for temperature checks on new items, but it’s also a place where its customers can share their thoughts about where the store could improve, and/or feelings they might have never expressed out loud. 

Videos by Sporked

So when a thread appeared a couple of days ago asking TJ’s customers what their hot take was about the store, you’d better believe people jumped to voice them. As of today, this thread has over 4,400 comments. Four thousand, four hundred opinions. And we wanted to highlight a couple of them. 

Limitations

Perhaps one of the most interesting hot takes that came up again and again pointed to Trader Joe’s potential limitations as a grocery store. “Its not a long term place to buy groceries, more novelty snacks and meals,” said one person in a highly upvoted comment, while another said that after going to Trader Joe’s, you still need to go elsewhere to do a full food shop. 

Now, there are plenty of people who do the majority of their shopping at Trader Joe’s – but it’s definitely true that it places a much higher emphasis on left-field items than somewhere like Walmart, Target, or Kroger does. What’s interesting, though, is that it definitely carries the image of being a one-stop-shop. Maybe a slight rebrand is in order, TJ’s?

Parking Lot Conspiracies

Ah, the Trader Joe’s parking lot. It’s a constant source of frustration to customers, and it’s probably no surprise that a lot of hot takes here brought it up. What was interesting, though, was how convinced some people were that it’s by design. “The parking is almost always terrible and that’s on purpose,” said one person. Someone else, in a (we hope) more tongue-in-cheek way, said “Satan is on every board of directors in designing the parking lots.”

The truth is actually slight more boring than that. Trader Joe’s parking lot sizes are determined by the size of its stores – and its stores are intentionally smaller than other supermarkets. As such, it’s more of a municipal decision than a malicious one. Still annoying, though. 

Seasonal Stress

Sick of pumpkin spice? Blame Trader Joe’s. The supermarket is well-known for trailblazing pumpkin spice flavors in its products, and its customers are sick of it. “There are too many pumpkin items during fall.” “We don’t need pumpkin samosas.” “Pumpkin flavored items are unnecessary.” Time and time again in this sprawling thread, people said they wanted something different – and to its credit, the store is increasingly focusing on fall items that don’t just taste of nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves. About time!

Straying From The Crowd

Everything has its haters, and Trader Joe’s is no different. Some people took the opportunity to express that, frankly, they think aspects of it are totally overrated – and this stemmed from its dark chocolate peanut butter cups, one of its most-loved items, to the store itself. “It’s a cult,” said one person. It’s definitely true that Trader Joe’s gets a loooot of goodwill from its customers. But maybe that’s because it’s…getting it right?