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Monday, December 18, 2006

Ever Shop At Trader Joe's?

No this is not a blogomercial but the old dead Republican mayor sharing some personal experience.

I enjoy shopping at Trader Joe's for a lot of reasons. They have a great selection of products at prices that beat your local mega-lo-mart supermarkets. The stores are clean & bright and the customer service is excellent.

There is just one thing I hate about Trader Joe's. Their customers.

All the Trader Joe's I shop at are in well to do tonier sections of town such as Sherman Oaks, Toluca Lake, Studio City, etc. The clientele is almost all upper class limousine liberal hoity toity uptight white people (I only point out their race to demonstrate the lack of diversity at these stores).

These people are rude and annoying. Try to review a shelf of items for more than two seconds and invariably some Viagra chewing soon to be booted out past his prime movie executive is climbing all over you. Scan the produce section for your favorite vegetable and some old million dollar biddy is yapping away on her cell phone about how awful George Bush is and is just standing there in your way. It doesn't seem to matter what time you visit, the place is always packed.

Most of the Trader Joe's stores are far smaller than most grocery stores and aren't a whole lot bigger than a 7-11. So that may be part of the problem. But the other part is the snooty rich people who shop there.

But it may be a small price to pay to get great wine for $2 or those awesome wasabi covered soybeans.

20 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Liberal Rich typical assanine attitudes.

Go To REpublican stores.

Dump Traitor Joes and return to humanity

December 17, 2006 10:55 PM  

Blogger Louis (Video Louis) Elovitz said:

Trader Joe has a BIBLE which

DICTATES the clientele

they CATER TO.

Mike, we may shop there, but we

AIN'T THE PROFILE!

Wait, that may not be true,

the bible says customers come

from Highly Educated Backgrounds.

There you are, say no more. I am in

amusement everytime I shop at JPL

infiltrated La Crescenta store.

December 18, 2006 2:06 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Your issues bring two things to mind. 1. You need to get a life and 2. My Trader Joes has a very diverse customer base. Maybe you need to look in the mirror and then leave your hootie toytie neighborhood.

December 18, 2006 7:41 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

No, poster, you are correct. The world, and especially Trader Joe's, is full of people who think the world revolves around them. Open your eyes people and discover that you are not the only human being on earth. The world will be a much better place if you do.

December 18, 2006 8:29 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Look in the mirror? Trader Joes caters only to Yuppie Liberals. Trader Joes discriminates against low income families.

Poor people don't live in the Yuppie Liberal Street neighborhood, drink wine at Yuppie hangouts, shop at Bullocks and pay for classes at the Occidental.

Now it is yuppie-ville with basic housing in the $2 million range. Do Poor people live on streets with names like Allied, Badger and Park? Jose, Leroy, and Kim feel lucky if they can afford cable, shop at Target and cringe everytime the phone rings hoping it's not another bill collector.

December 18, 2006 9:28 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

In recent years the neighborhood has experienced a considerable amount of commercial and residential gentrification. As if traditional NIMBY forces hadn’t been successful enough in deterring affordable housing, gentrification in Los Angeles has created a new and deleterious form of NIMBY-ism. Step One, higher income people move into communities that have been long depressed, lack sufficient public investment, and often are in great need of affordable housing and other resources. Step two, the new residents often begin to oppose things that make them uncomfortable, exhibiting blatant disregard to the thought of co-existing with long-term community residents. In downtown Los Angeles, those “things” that must be opposed and/or removed are homeless and poor people, as well as housing and programs that help people. Step three, the voices of long-term community residents are immediately silenced and “the newbies” are granted authority and privilege by policy-makers and public institutions to decide the fate of “their” community. In gentrifying communities, these three steps have expanded NIMBY forces to Not In ANY Back Yard that We Have Chosen to Call Home, regardless of community conditions and needs. Case in point: LA CAN recently videotaped a police officer in downtown Los Angeles telling homeless people that he had to clear “them” off the streets to make room for the “people in the lofts.”

December 18, 2006 9:34 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Maybe Jan Perry needs to force Trader Joe's to build in South Central. They could partner with Earvin Johnson and call it Magic Joe's.

December 18, 2006 9:34 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

why do you let that babbling idiot Video Louis post? He's the Don Garza of the valley.

December 18, 2006 9:35 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Hey 9:28 maybe you need to look in the mirror too. The Palmdale - oh I know how beneath you but the Palmdale Trader Joes caters to all walks of life even, gasp, blacks and hispanics - oh my!

December 18, 2006 9:51 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

I don't have a high paying job and most of my pay goes directly to bills or college. I can absolutely say I'm poor and I'm not ashamed about it. I currently have about $500 in my bank account. Wonderful! That $500 is the only thing that keeps me from living paycheck to paycheck. That $500 will easily disappear if I need to repair my old truck.

December 18, 2006 9:59 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

The guy buying frozen vaccuum packed Atlantic salmon - You're truly the antithesis of the Wine Snob, you are the guy who doesn't appreciate what he has or could have. You live in the greatest seafood city in the world. If you're snobby enough to shop at Trader Joe's you can suck it up and spring for something good from a real fish market.

The "Everything here is so cheap!" people - Obviously there was no math requirement at your liberal arts college. Either that, or you can't be honest with yourself through your haze of liberal guilt over your trust fund. Get over it and admit that you're a snob who doesn't really care if they pay a little more for something they like, or shut up and shop at local supermarket.

December 18, 2006 10:01 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Dear Trader Joe,
I'm sorry Joe, I just can't go on living a lie. If you can't change, or start seeing other people in your store, I have to end it.

December 18, 2006 10:03 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Specifically, I can't handle the hypocrisy at Trader Joes:

The parking lot meanderers - I understand that you're not in a hurry. And, truthfully, I don't HAVE to be anywhere urgently either; but I would much rather spend my time doing something I enjoy than waiting for you to cross the parking lot crosswalk with all the speed and alacrity of a palsy patient in a tar pit. Also, walking down the middle of the lane while the cars behind you move at your strolling pace isn't helping anyone. Please, just get in your damn Volvo station wagon parked diagonally into 2 lanes and go home, someone there may just appreciate you getting in their way. I don't.

The faux-wine snob - You would almost entertain me, if I didn't despise you. I'm glad that you like to flash your platinum card while buying a few bottles of overpriced wine that you scrutinized for 15 minutes while I ignoring my polite requests to be 'excused' and allowed to pass you in the wine aisle. Perhaps I should give you a cheat sheet which could make your wine shopping a little easier. Here are the tips you need to know:
-Joe's is great for inexpensive wines. Charles Shaw is really a wonder of the free market. Remember, you don't get to drink the price tag.
-No one is impressed by pretention. Also, for future reference, Neitzche doesn't rhyme with "peachy."
-That bottle of Sutter Home you considered for it's "earthy tones?" You can buy that at Safeway. Also, "earthy tones" means that it tastes like dirt.
-The expensive wines are just there to make you think that the selection is "great." Those are decent, but incredibly overpriced bottles for people with money who can't tell the difference. Wait... sorry, that's for you. Would it be easier for you if they just labeled them with your name?

Anyone buying organic pet food - Have you watched your dog lick his own balls or chew the shit out of a piece of colored rubber lately? They don't care if their food is organic, they just want to eat a lot of it and then shit it out on the sidewalk so you have to scoop it up. Seriously, watch how happy they are the next time you scoop up their shit for them.

December 18, 2006 10:06 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

However, I shop at "mainstream" grocery stores or occasionally gourmet shops. I simply can't bring myself to support the snobbishness of the Trader Joe's/Whole Foods culture. Sometimes Mom and Grandma did have the right ideas after all.

December 18, 2006 10:09 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Trader Joe's is for people who wouldn't dream of buying an avocado salad that didn't take a position on offshore drilling or a whey-based protein bar that wasn't fully committed to campaign finance reform. Someday, somebody should build a right-wing Trader Joe's, with faith-based chewing tobacco, rice pilaf grown by school-voucher-funded Mormon agricultural academies, and a meat section that's a bowl of cartridges and a sign reading "Go ahead, kill it yourself." But in the meantime, we will have to make do with the ethos of social concern that prevails at places like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods.

You get the impression that everybody associated with Trader Joe's is excessively good -- that every cashier is on temporary furlough from Amnesty International, that the chipotle-pepper hummus was mixed by pluralistic Muslims committed to equal rights for women, that the Irish soda bread was baked by indigenous U2 groupies marching in Belfast for Protestant-Catholic reconciliation, and that the olive spread was prepared by idealistic Athenians who are reaching out to the Turks on the whole matter of Cyprus.

December 18, 2006 10:12 AM  

Blogger Jessica Gottlieb said:

I absolutely resent the comment

"...old million dollar biddy is yapping away on her cell phone about how awful George Bush is and is just standing there in your way...."

I was NOT on the phone talking about Bush. I'm much too apathetic to care about all of that.

I was making a botox appointment. My eyebrows started to move and it scared my kids.

So there... ya got me all wrong!

December 18, 2006 10:33 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

LOL

:)

December 18, 2006 10:44 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Possibly the lamest post I have ever read on the internet.

It's a grocery store. You have no idea who those poeple are, and 99 percent of them are probably acting just like you: they browse, pick some items, pay, and leave.

Your interpretation of their livelihoods, attitudes, and biases says a lot more about you than it does about them, or about Trader Joe's.

Of all the things to complain about in this world, TJ's customers surely aren't one of them.

December 18, 2006 12:39 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Mayor Sam this is great! Its fun how you have two idiots that don't get this and even more fun how your other readers are playing along. this is the funniest post I've ever read here.

December 18, 2006 12:50 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Love Trader Joe's! Well, of course, I am wealthy, but lots of not-so-wealthy folks trade at the TJs I go to in La Crescenta and La Canada. Well, actually the La Canada store is full of wealthy Koreans -does that count as diversity?

But the La Crescenta store has a virtual sign saying "Please shop at our store all of you who are diverse as well as not diverse and you who are poor as well as wealthy" so I feel free to go as often as I please, being wealthy and a WAS -sorry not a P!

December 18, 2006 8:57 PM  

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