13 Mildly Annoying Things About Shopping At Trader Joe’s – Chowhound

Trader Joe’s was once a quirky specialty chain found only in Southern California, but it’s expanded to become one of the most popular stores across the nation. Its customer base is very dedicated, with online forums and social media accounts devoted to discussing how to use products and alerting other users to new or returning favorites. People openly lament having to move away to areas that don’t have a Trader Joe’s (like these eight U.S. states), and cheers erupt when a new store opens, even if there’s another location just a few miles away.

But that doesn’t mean shopping at Trader Joe’s is heaven. In fact, even the most die-hard fans have some complaints about inconveniences and baffling issues at the stores. Those customers do keep trying to shop there, so obviously the problems aren’t complete deal-breakers. However, if you’re new to the chain and are wondering about these issues, here’s a list of mildly annoying things about shopping at Trader Joe’s.

Trader Joe’s is known for its quirky decor, interesting products, and horrendous parking lots. The company has even started joking about it in its advertising. Claims even sprang up that Trader Joe’s was deliberately limiting the size of the lots (or looking for small lots on purpose) as a way for the grocery chain to save money.

The parking lots at Trader Joe’s tend to be terrible, but the reason why is really not that sinister, according to the hosts of the “Inside Trader Joe’s” podcast. Cities generally assign commercial parking based on the size of a business, so Trader Joe’s, with its smaller stores, gets fewer parking spaces than a larger supermarket might. Some unlucky locations don’t get any parking at all. Again, though, this is all about zoning and local rules rather than any devious corporate motives.

These issues with parking have started to become less of an issue at many new Trader Joe’s locations, however. The chain isn’t planning to make stores bigger to get more parking, but it has opened several new stores in strip malls and shopping centers that have huge central parking lots. For now, though, those larger lots remain an exciting sight, with the size of the parking lot at one new store in Palm Harbor, Florida even making the local news (via 10 Tampa Bay).

The lack of aisle labels is an annoyance for new Trader Joe’s shoppers. The chain doesn’t use signs to let you know which middle aisle holds which products, and this forces new customers (both to the chain in general and to the particular store they’re visiting) to walk up and down different rows searching for what they need. From a company or manager point of view, this is a great tactic for ensuring people see everything a store has to offer. But for customers who aren’t there to meander and browse, walking down every single aisle just wastes time.

To longtime Trader Joe’s customers who are familiar with a particular store, this may seem like a non-issue. After all, the company limits most store sizes to between 8,000 and 15,000 square feet — only a few outliers are bigger (such as the Essex Crossing store in New York that’s 30,000 square feet) or smaller (such as the Back Bay store in Boston that’s 5,200 square feet). It doesn’t take much time to memorize the entire store. But even the small stores have a few aisles for shelf-stable goods and snacks, and the location of particular foods can vary between locations. For someone just entering the store for the first time, the lack of direction can be frustrating. You can, however, always ask an employee where a particular item is.

Do you follow one of the many Trader Joe’s fan accounts on social media? Plenty of people do — so many, in fact, that when the company releases a new product that gets great reviews, that product can sell out so quickly that the company has to place limits on how many each customer can buy. This has happened with everything from the chain’s Ube Mochi Pancake Mix and frozen kimbap to its Brazil nut body care line, its mini totes, and even its insulated bags.

Many times, the problem is that products are surprise hits, with both Trader Joe’s itself and its partnering manufacturers underestimating how popular an item will be. For example, when the frozen kimbap was first released, the company sold 300% more than it expected, according to one crew member who spoke with South Korea’s MBC Newsdesk. In that same report, filmed in August 2023, another crew member said the store wouldn’t get more kimbap until October of that year. The manufacturer, Allgot, had to increase production dramatically, and for months, each store limited kimbap purchases to avoid hoarding. It can be frustrating to hear about a new product only to learn that it’s constantly sold out, but at least Trader Joe’s does what it can to make the product available to as many customers as possible.

Something veteran Trader Joe’s shoppers understand is that seasonal products can disappear quickly. These can be on the shelves for anywhere from a week or two to multiple months, depending on the supply, and online forums are full of people asking if various limited items are still available. Realizing you’ve missed your opportunity to get more of the horchata ice cream, Thanksgiving products, or anything ube-flavored can be disappointing, and people have commented online that the constant changes wreak havoc on their budgets and shopping lists.

But the real issue — and some may consider this more than mildly annoying — is the sudden discontinuation of longtime, non-seasonal favorites. Turkey bolognese, aloo chaat kati pouches, Belgian chocolate pudding, Joe’s O’s canned pasta, and several other items have all been discontinued after years of making customers happy. The reasons are usually sensible, like the manufacturer has shut down and Trader Joe’s hasn’t been able to find a suitable replacement. But that doesn’t make the truth any easier to accept, especially if the item that disappeared was a staple in your kitchen. All you can do is either find a duplicate product somewhere else, learn to make the item yourself at home, or look for a new item to take the old one’s place on your shopping list. In the latter case, you can only hope that item doesn’t disappear, too.

One effect of Trader Joe’s being both smaller and far more popular than other grocery stores is that the stores quickly get crowded and loud. Customers have complained that there’s really never a great time to avoid the Trader Joe’s rush, even when trying to shop first thing in the morning or just before closing. (While certain days are reportedly better for shopping, be aware that this can be location-dependent.) Some folks’ complaints have to do with dodging crew members who are trying to stock shelves, but at least that type of crowding is understandable, as the crew members are just doing their jobs.

Most of people’s complaints, however, focus on the other customers. Pushiness, rudeness, cluelessness, and a complete lack of self-awareness are among some of the complaints that customers have about others they’ve encountered in the store. The size of many of these stores doesn’t help — if you’re in one of the company’s smaller locations, the crowds can seem even more overwhelming due to their comparatively narrower aisles. This is less of a problem at newer spots that have opened with square footage on the more spacious side, and some customers have even marveled online at the width of the aisles in select stores.

Every late summer and early fall brings both joy and olfactory fear to many of Trader Joe’s customers and crew, as that’s when the cinnamon brooms return. The company sells both full-length brooms and shorter whisks that smell — or, rather, reek — of cinnamon as part of the company’s fall product line. Customers love hanging up one of these brooms in their homes so they can inhale its fragrance daily, but there’s a problem.

Some have complained that the smell from the brooms is too much for the interior of a home, and the brooms — pine scented with cinnamon oil — certainly are strong. But get several boxes of those brooms together in a display in one store, and you have a cinnamon-scented nightmare for anyone who’s sensitive to the odor. That goes for both customers and crew. Some stores have taken to displaying the milder whisks inside the store but leaving the stronger brooms outside, where the smell has a chance to waft away and become diluted. The good news is that the scent doesn’t stay too strong for very long.

Another mildly annoying thing about shopping at Trader Joe’s is that you have to be extra careful when buying perishable goods, especially produce. The company’s plastic-wrapped produce, such as its bagged greens, tends to have a remarkably short shelf life when compared to produce bought elsewhere. Part of this has to do with the packaging itself — that plastic traps gases that promote ripening, as well as condensation that forms when the bags sit in the refrigerator. Both of those lead to premature molding and wilting. Even produce with ventilation holes in the bag can end up spoiling quickly if too much condensation builds up.

If it seems like your bagged produce from Trader Joe’s is wilting exceptionally faster than bagged produce from other stores, your location could be the reason. Customers have reported that produce from one Trader Joe’s seems to last longer than produce from another location. This may depend both on when the store’s crew yanks produce nearing its best-if-used-by date and how much time passed between packing and delivery.

You may have encountered this next one if there are multiple Trader Joe’s locations near you: Each store may have slightly different hours. Opening hours may be 8 or 9 a.m., many close at 9 p.m., and some close as late as 10 p.m. Plus, hours at many locations have changed recently, such as the store near the University of Southern California, which used to close at 10 p.m. but started closing at 9 p.m. in March 2024, according to Daily Trojan. Several other stores also switched their operating hours from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. in 2024.

This does sound like a pretty minor inconvenience, but it means that you can’t just assume one location will be open as early or as late as another. These variable hours exist for good reasons, however. In many cases, it has to do with delivery truck schedules. Those areas with earlier deliveries have earlier hours. Local noise ordinances play a role, too, because some prohibit delivery trucks from entering certain areas before a specified time each morning. Crime also affects hours, as one person pointed out on Reddit — they claimed stores in their area had to close earlier due to an increase in thefts.

The cashiers and crew members at Trader Joe’s are legendary for their ability to engage almost anyone in conversation. However, not everyone likes all the chit-chat. Sometimes it’s the type of conversation that’s an issue — some customers have commented on Reddit that they don’t mind talking but prefer to talk about the products instead of what they’re planning to do for the rest of the day. For others, the opposite holds true.

The cashiers can sometimes be so friendly that new shoppers might even think that there’s a bit of flirting afoot. Rest assured, that’s not the case. The company deliberately hires the type of people who volunteer to talk rather than waiting for others to draw them into conversation, and the CEO admitted during the “Inside Trader Joe’s” podcast that this can be surprising to some customers who aren’t expecting the cashier to be so interested in groceries or the customer’s day.

Trader Joe’s has many frozen meals that are packaged in shallow trays with a layer of plastic sealed over the top. These trays are then packaged in the boxes you see in the freezer aisle. A weird problem that certainly isn’t limited to Trader Joe’s but that does show up a lot in its meals is that the outer box will be in great shape and properly sealed, but the plastic layer over the tray will be partially open, as though it wasn’t glued down properly. This is one of those situations where you never know if the food is safe to eat because there seems to be no damage, but the lack of a proper seal means that dust (and who knows what else) may have settled on the food. Some customers have also complained on Reddit about the seals having too much glue and the trays being cracked.

If this happens to you, you can do two things. One is to contact your Trader Joe’s location and check if you can bring the meal back for a refund or exchange (after all, Trader Joe’s return policy is one of the best in the game). The other action you can take is to visit Trader Joe’s website and let the company know what happened through the site’s product feedback form (just make sure you choose “quality concern” as the feedback type).

Trader Joe’s crew members often hop from register to register and help cashiers bag everything up — but there always seems to be that one cashier who tells you to start bagging. Some folks insist that the customer has to bag their own groceries, but you’ll also see crew members grab paper bags, whip them open, and start packing without a word. So, are customers or cashiers supposed to bag the groceries at Trader Joe’s?

Well, customers bagging their own groceries at the store has some precedent. In March 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, Trader Joe’s briefly required customers with reusable bags to bag their own groceries. Even now, bagging your own groceries is appreciated by busy cashiers, especially if you brought your own bags (some customers may bring in absolutely filthy bags that the cashiers don’t want to touch). Still, most cashiers handle bagging automatically.

Is there a definitive answer? Overall, the consensus is that you’re not required to bag your own groceries at Trader Joe’s. You will find the occasional cashier on social media who posts that they’ll judge you if you don’t, or random people who scold those who don’t hurry up and bag. But the majority of responses, including other Trader Joe’s cashiers posting online, state that you’re not required to bag your own groceries. Basic bagging advice is even mentioned during crew member training. Just please make sure your reusable bags are clean.

Not every Trader Joe’s customer wants to (or can) go into the store to get their groceries. Whether it’s the crowds, the lines, or health issues that prevent some would-be Trader Joe’s fans from visiting the store, an in-store shopping experience can be difficult (if not impossible) for some people. Unfortunately, customers have to buy Trader Joe’s items in person, and there’s no option to buy items online or have a delivery service do the shopping for you. The company states on its FAQ page that it has no association with delivery services or third-party sellers. Its reasoning is that it sets up its stores and chooses its crew in order to create a specific type of experience for customers that can’t be duplicated online. The company is dedicated to being a neighborhood store where customers and crew interact.

Trader Joe’s isn’t alone in its stance against delivery services or online ordering. On Reddit, customers have described logistical problems that would affect these efforts at Trader Joe’s specifically. For example, some have pointed out that many stores have such narrow aisles that allowing shoppers from delivery services like Instacart would only make the crowding worse. Another issue is that much of the inventory at any particular Trader Joe’s location is so limited that it wouldn’t be possible to complete very many orders. Despite these reasons, some customers believe Trader Joe’s is behind the times.

Employees at Trader Joe’s typically double-bag your items, especially if your purchases are relatively heavy. But even the double-bagging sometimes isn’t enough to prevent one of the most classic Trader Joe’s annoyances: the failure of one of the paper bag handles. This isn’t a rare thing, unfortunately — complaints on Reddit about the handles are numerous, even while those same people are noting how sturdy the bags themselves are. This issue with the handles is why cashiers tend to double up on the paper bags, so if you get the urge to tell them that a single bag is fine, just let them use two instead — they’re not just trying to waste paper.

It’s possible that this annoyance could change soon. In early December 2024, a Trader Joe’s customer made a Reddit post about a new style of paper bag at a store in Massachusetts. The bag was similar in construction to the current bags but had the handles attached on the inside of the bag rather than the outside, and the bags had slightly thicker paper. According to the Redditor, the new bags supposedly don’t have to be doubled. How long it will take the company to roll out the new bags at other locations is unknown. But be aware — one commenter replied that the handles on their new bags failed, too.