I finally made it out
to Trader Joe’s. Yea-Yea. I know everyone has written about their own great
trip, but I found some interesting tidbits I wanted to share.
Let me first say
that I have never really been a fan of Trader Joe’s. I grew up in California
and have been around several of them. I never understood the hype behind the
excitement about this chain of stores. I have been to a lot of their stores,
even the one in Greenville. “Nothing really special” was my take.
When they opened a store here in Columbia, I was not super
excited to jump in the car with my two little’s and race right over on Opening
Day. I was interested to see what they had to offer but not I-have-to-have-it-right-now
type of interest. So a few months have gone by and everyone has asked if I have
gone yet.
“No, ugh” was my continuous answer.
Through peer
pressure I finally made the trip across town and headed in, with the kids in
tow, just before naptime.
Jesse loves to push the small carts so I was happy to see
they had plenty of them to offer. It’s a great addition to any store and I really
think more should get them.
Being that I had both kids, I was not planning on
googly-eyeing every item in the store. I had a short list so I could be in and
out in a quick minute. I just needed almond milk, cheese, apples, bread and
juice. Easy peasy, right?
It’s funny what happens when you start reading labels, and
your three year old is pushing a cart of his own.
“Mommy, we need watermelon.” Jesse belts out.
“Ok, Sure. We can get a watermelon” says mom as she is
deciding that the cheese is good.
I turn around to see him trying to pick up said watermelon.
I phase into an Ally McBeal moment to visualize the stack of watermelon
crashing down. Chunks of melon spinning around, people falling, and my kid at the
center of it all. Thank god it was too big for him to really even move.
We made our way to the juices and that’s when a young lady
stopped us to ask if we needed help with anything. She proceeded to tell us
that if “We bought anything and didn’t like it, we could bring it back”.
She went on to say “They encourage trying new things” hence
the return policy.
Oh, It was on! I bought some wasabi seaweed, pea chips and a
few other random items I would have never picked up before. Needless to say, my
small list became a full cart and I headed to checkout.
I easily caved to my set budget and dove into our monthly
budget. I figured for the amount of items I was purchasing it would be a little
ding that would work out in the long run.
The items were rung up and I was truly surprised that the
cost was way less then I figured it to be. Huh, ok. Maybe it was a fluke.
We headed home.
The next week I had a friend in town and she wanted to hit
traders. So I headed back with her, her two little’s and my two little’s.
We
had hit a local park after lunch and were surprised by the sprinkler-tower
being on. So we were in traders with semi-wet kids. But once again, it was an
in-and-out trip.This time I needed a few meals for dinner, snack stuff and
drinks.
We got the meals and other items, and then headed to check
out.
Again, way less then I budgeted! So much though that I am now convinced I can do a good cut
of my shopping there and save a ton of money. I mean I bought four supper meals, wine, snacks and other
random odds and ends for right at one hundred dollars.
With this type of savings for me, I can buy more local meats
and veggies! Now if I could just make it to the farmers markets on a more
regular basis. Baby steps, it’s all about baby steps.