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Review: Trader Joe's at Rollingwood
Sep. 21st, 2013 01:42 pmAustin's first Trader Joe's is big.
And they have the everything crackers I liked from the first time I visited one of their stores but haven't been able to find since. By everything, they mean garlic, onion, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, and caraway seeds.
They also have GMO-free* cheese puffs. With lower-than-typical fat content. And they didn't even replace the fat with extra sugar--it looks like the only sugar is from the milk. And they are yummy.
I'm bringing both of these to the End of Summer party, so if you're there, you might have the chance to taste them.
Also, they have the cheapest white whole wheat flour in town ($2.99 for five pounds), which costs less than the cheapest whole wheat pastry flour I can find. My sister uses this for everything I use whole wheat pastry flour for, so I'm hoping to like it just as much.
And they have very affordable bags of organic salad ($1.99 for 5 ounces).
So, we'll be going back.
Even though I saw no sign of shade-grown cocoa or chocolate products (which includes organic and fair-trade). So sad. Googling shows me there is such a thing as Trader Joe's fair-trade chocolate truffles and candy bars and organic candy bars, but I was only looking at chocolate chips and dark-chocolate-covered, uh, everything.
Also, the check-out line was quite long. It snaked around the store from the check out lines to the guy holding the big "END OF LINE" sign up in the air. But it moved fairly quickly, and of course everyone was happy and excited. Hopefully it won't always be that crazy; if so, it might get better once two more Trader Joe's open next year.
I don't want to go back terribly often because it's at the other end of town from my house. Of course travelling so far, you get to see more things. On the way there, we got to see sweaty people in matching t-shirts, which I thought was a bad sign, and indeed, we did have to make a detour due to a road race. On the way back, we got to see grey smoke, then a fire truck zooming past, then black smoke, then another fire truck, then a lack of smoke, then we got to be almost first in line where all the traffic was blocked. Not much later we were let through and we saw what was once a motorcycle, crumpled into a tiny burnt-up ball. You don't see a thing like that every day. Thankfully, the guy being loaded into the ambulance looked to be in much better shape - he definitely had a scraped-up knee, but probably escaped being burned. He might even be basically okay.
In other news, the new Wheatsville down south also opened this weekend, but we've been to a Wheatsville much more recently, so we didn't check it out.
*Trader Joe's brand products do not have GMOs (as much as it is possible to say that, anyway). I'm not sure what I think of GMOs, but I am sure what I think of the companies that create GMOs and I prefer not to give them my money whenever reasonably possible.
And they have the everything crackers I liked from the first time I visited one of their stores but haven't been able to find since. By everything, they mean garlic, onion, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, and caraway seeds.
They also have GMO-free* cheese puffs. With lower-than-typical fat content. And they didn't even replace the fat with extra sugar--it looks like the only sugar is from the milk. And they are yummy.
I'm bringing both of these to the End of Summer party, so if you're there, you might have the chance to taste them.
Also, they have the cheapest white whole wheat flour in town ($2.99 for five pounds), which costs less than the cheapest whole wheat pastry flour I can find. My sister uses this for everything I use whole wheat pastry flour for, so I'm hoping to like it just as much.
And they have very affordable bags of organic salad ($1.99 for 5 ounces).
So, we'll be going back.
Even though I saw no sign of shade-grown cocoa or chocolate products (which includes organic and fair-trade). So sad. Googling shows me there is such a thing as Trader Joe's fair-trade chocolate truffles and candy bars and organic candy bars, but I was only looking at chocolate chips and dark-chocolate-covered, uh, everything.
Also, the check-out line was quite long. It snaked around the store from the check out lines to the guy holding the big "END OF LINE" sign up in the air. But it moved fairly quickly, and of course everyone was happy and excited. Hopefully it won't always be that crazy; if so, it might get better once two more Trader Joe's open next year.
I don't want to go back terribly often because it's at the other end of town from my house. Of course travelling so far, you get to see more things. On the way there, we got to see sweaty people in matching t-shirts, which I thought was a bad sign, and indeed, we did have to make a detour due to a road race. On the way back, we got to see grey smoke, then a fire truck zooming past, then black smoke, then another fire truck, then a lack of smoke, then we got to be almost first in line where all the traffic was blocked. Not much later we were let through and we saw what was once a motorcycle, crumpled into a tiny burnt-up ball. You don't see a thing like that every day. Thankfully, the guy being loaded into the ambulance looked to be in much better shape - he definitely had a scraped-up knee, but probably escaped being burned. He might even be basically okay.
In other news, the new Wheatsville down south also opened this weekend, but we've been to a Wheatsville much more recently, so we didn't check it out.
*Trader Joe's brand products do not have GMOs (as much as it is possible to say that, anyway). I'm not sure what I think of GMOs, but I am sure what I think of the companies that create GMOs and I prefer not to give them my money whenever reasonably possible.