Other than the fact that competition is good, especially when it comes to the price of and access to organic foods, I am not sure what the big deal is with the new Trader Joe’s in Cary. For the uninitiated, Trader Joe’s is a grocery store carrying largely organic brands, similar to Whole Foods. It is located at:

It opened yesterday in Cary and the place was packed. I walked there from my house (thank god I didn’t try to find parking) hoping to get some lunch. I figured it would be crowded (and it was) but was surprised to find it to be fairly small compared to other grocers in this the era of bigger is better stores (which is not a negative). Frankly, though, I didn’t find anything that was all that special, but I also didn’t look beyond the surface, merely scanning the shelves in lieu of waiting in line for 15 minutes. Nothing stood out as being better than Whole Foods and I was sorely disappointed by the lack of prepared meals (remember, I went there for lunch.) Nothing struck me as this is great I can’t wait to come back, not like the Whole Foods in Alexandria VA (which is an amazing store), anyway. My wife will probably be able to give a better accounting as to pricing, but all in all, I felt it was just another grocer. The prices probably were lower today, since it was the grand opening, but the cynic in me knows that it is a bait and switch tactic anyway. Most people will walk away thinking the prices are great, not bothering to think about it again in 2 months after the prices have returned to normal and they are still shopping there. As far as contents go, they do have a lot of organic foods and the name brands in organic, in addition to their own brand.

All together, I don’t think it is good enough to warrant me switching from Whole Foods, esp. since WF is going to double the size of their Cary store in 2007 and has a nice hot-food buffet to boot. It will, however, be interesting to see how prices are affected by Trader Joe’s and the newly reopened Fresh Market down the street on Cary Parkway.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 at 8:31 pm and is filed under Cary, NC, Nutrition, Organic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.