Meet The Trader Joe’s Virgin Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, pumpkin spice hummus I'm not sure that I'm ready for that.
Hey, Bombesquad you are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe. I'm your host Kerry Diamond and we are coming to you from a different location for this episode because we did a field trip for today's show. We went to the Trader Joe's in Cobble Hill Brooklyn because I have never shopped at a Trader Joe's. Until the other day, I was a Trader Joe's virgin. I know, hard to believe. I told one of my friends we were doing this episode and she said, "Are you sure you want to admit that to everyone? It's like saying you've never used the telephone." Well, too late. Here we go. Let's grab a shopping cart and hit those aisles.
First, let's thank our sponsor, Kerrygold, the folks behind that beautiful butter and cheese made with milk from Irish grass-fed cows. I have met some of those cows and they get to graze in some of the most beautiful green fields you've ever seen. If you haven't tried Kerrygold, be sure to pick some up at your favorite supermarket.
Speaking of cheese, thank you to everyone who joined us for the cheese ball last week. We had a fun night of fashion and fromage. And we were joined by Marissa Mullen of That Cheese Plate and Cheese By Numbers, who taught us how to make a beautiful cheese board that included her signature salami river. I now know how to make a salami river. Watch out, world. We ate lots of yummy cheese from our friends at Kerrygold, Cambozola, and Cypress Grove. We drank beautiful sparkling wine from Mumm Napa, and we had some chocolate bonbons with cheese in them from Vosges Haut-Chocolat. Oh, and parmesan ice cream from Caffè Panna. How could I forget? So interesting. It all took place at the demo kitchen at the new Ace Hotel Brooklyn. If you'd like to stay at the Ace, be sure to use the code CherryB for 15% off when you make your booking that's cherry and the letter B.
All right. So Trader Joe's. I know it's kind of crazy that I have never shopped at a Trader Joe's. I made that confession on my Instagram account and on Cherry Bombe's Instagram and hundreds of you gave us your product suggestions. It was honestly a little overwhelming, but fun to read through them all.
Some immediate takeaways from my visit, the Trader Joe's copywriters and packaging designers are geniuses. They make their products very desirable. What else? When it comes to the intersection of fun and price point, it's hard to beat Trader Joe's. They have definitely cornered the market on grocery shopping as affordable entertainment. One thing that mystified me is the perception that exists of Trader Joe's as healthy. So many people kept telling me that Trader Joe's is all about healthy food. I mean, yes, they have plenty of healthy things to eat, but the produce section is underwhelming and there are snacks everywhere and really sexy snacks. So you are very tempted to buy them. Oh my gosh. And pumpkin products, if you think Starbucks pushes it with the pumpkin spice latte, you haven't seen anything. Trader Joe's really jumps on a trend and rides it. In this case, they're riding a big pumpkin. So, here are some snippets we recorded on our visit to Trader Joe's. I'll be right back with Jenna Sadhu, assistant producer of Radio Cherry Bombe. Jenna is a member of Gen Z, a recent college graduate and she's serving as my Trader Joe's ambassador.
Okay, let's go visit Trader Joe's.
Kerry Diamond:
Hi everybody, so I am at a Trader Joe's for the very first time and it's kind of crowded. I came at night because when I passed by during the day there are long lines down the door and I am going to go check out all the products that everyone has recommended to me. Let's go,
Here's some of the stuff that everybody loves. All these dips. They have a lot of seasonal stuff, right?
Jenna Sadhu:
Mm-hmm.
Kerry Diamond:
That's what you love. Catherine loves the Mediterranean-style hummus. Oh, pumpkin spice hummus. I'm not sure that I'm ready for that. Gang, what do you think?
Jenna Sadhu:
No thank you.
Catherine Baker:
No thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
Pumpkin four cheese Greek style yogurt dip. That could be interesting. Okay maybe we'll come back and get that. And then...
Jenna Sadhu:
This is one of my favorites.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, cacio e pepe ravioli. That sounds really good. They have a lot of ravioli. There's lots of frozen fruit, which is great if you liked making smoothies, except there's just cookies and candy everywhere. So if you came here because you're wanting to do some healthy things and make them smoothies, you might not appreciate that there are just sweets everywhere. Blueberry goat cheese that went viral...
Jenna Sadhu:
It's blueberry vanilla goat cheese.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh boy. Blueberry vanilla goat cheese. Again, not sure about that. But people love that?
Jenna Sadhu:
People love it.
Kerry Diamond:
So now I'm in front of the frozen dumpling section, and so many of you mentioned that you love the frozen dumplings. Pork shumai, chicken shumai. Looks like they got a little bit cleaned out of the dumplings, but maybe I will buy some of those. Oh, they've soup dumplings. That's funny. I think we'll try those. But they also have beef soup, wonton soup, French onion soup, steak and stout pies. I mean, they have everything it's kind of crazy. So like I said, they are really nuts for pumpkin stuff. There's pumpkin spice coffee, there are actual pumpkins, there's pumpkin bisque, pumpkin ravioli, pumpkin hummus, pumpkin beauty products on and on. I saw a lot of other pumpkin things. I'll spare you all the pumpkin stuff.
All right, then right in front of me, apparently this is a famous Trader Joe's thing too. The cinnamon whisk. Oh no, wait, the cinnamon broom. So it's like a broom scented with cinnamon oil. It's $3.99 cents. And it says the broom is made in China, but it is scented in America. Okay. And then there's a smaller one. There's a whisk, a cinnamon-scented whisk for 99 cents. Bring home and enjoy the smell of fall. I think I might pass on this, but it's an interesting product that I've never seen anything like that before. The lady in front of me has the cinnamon broom and her young child is using it as a weapon. So she's trying to wrestle it away from the kid.
Oh, they also have gluten-free pumpkin spice bagels. Okay, I'm going to turn into a pumpkin before I leave Trader Joe's, that seems to be the clear message. More pumpkin gang, look. Organic cans of pumpkin private label. Baguettes. Oh wow. They also have pumpkin spice coffee. I will stop calling out all the pumpkin things because I think this whole episode should wind up being pumpkin stuff at Trader Joe's.
Okay, I'm back with Jenna. Jenna, how are you?
Jenna Sadhu:
Hi. I'm good. I'm so good, Kerry.
Kerry Diamond:
It is so good to see you. So Jenna is here to talk to me all about Trader Joe's because Jenna is definitely not a Trader Joe's virgin. Jenna, just to be transparent with our listeners. You are a Trader Joe's super fan, right?
Jenna Sadhu:
Yes. One of the biggest.
Kerry Diamond:
How often do you shop there?
Jenna Sadhu:
I shop there, you can find me there every Sunday night at my local Trader Joe's or I'm there whenever I run out of lava cakes. So three times a week.
Kerry Diamond:
Wow. Okay, you are a regular. What is a lava cake? Is that the same as like a molten chocolate cake?
Jenna Sadhu:
Yes. It's warm, cut it open and it oozes out with chocolate ganache. It's delicious.
Kerry Diamond:
Yum yum. Okay. Where else do you grocery shop or shop for food?
Jenna Sadhu:
If I'm getting produce, fruits and veggies, I go to my local farmer's market, which is about a mile away from me. But everything else, bread, eggs, frozen food, dessert, alcohol, that's all at TJ's.
Kerry Diamond:
TJs. And tell us who called it TJ's?
Jenna Sadhu:
I think Californians only call it TJ's, but it might just be me.
Kerry Diamond:
When did you fall in love with Trader Joe's?
Jenna Sadhu:
I fell in love with Trader Joe's in college. It was a really cheap way for me and my roommates to get food. We would walk down... The smallest Trader Joe's in the world is actually in Boston, where I went to school. So we would go there, have a great time. It's really an experience.
Kerry Diamond:
What did you find different about the Brooklyn Trader Joe's, that we visited, versus the ones you love in California?
Jenna Sadhu:
The Brooklyn Trader Joe's was beautiful. It was in an old bank building. It had a high ceiling, chandeliers. The people there were so happy. But the alcohol section was a little lackluster in comparison to the California stores.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, definitely. You can't sell wine in New York City supermarkets. You might not have known that. So there was no Two-Buck Chuck, which is the famous Trader Joe's inexpensive wine. So I've yet to try Two-Buck Chuck, but maybe when I come out to California. Jenna, you also told me about this try before you buy thing that Trader Joe's has.
Jenna Sadhu:
Yes. Trader Joe's... If you're unsure about putting something in your cart, you can actually ask an employee to slice it open, and then you can try it. Anything besides the frozen food and the dairy products, I believe. And the meats, of course... The uncooked meats. You can just ask anybody to try it.
Kerry Diamond:
Huh. That sounds like there's a high potential for abuse.
Jenna Sadhu:
Oh, absolutely. And that's me every week.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you feel guilty and have to buy everything when you ask them to open it so you can try it?
Jenna Sadhu:
Yeah, sometimes.
Kerry Diamond:
I would feel guilty and buy everything. And the building you talked about, I should have jumped in and mentioned. It's a bank building that was built in 1923. So it definitely was a fancy Trader Joe's. My next question for you Jenna. Is trader Joe's a cult?
Jenna Sadhu:
Absolutely. Trader Joe's fans try and get other people to be Trader Joe's fans. So it's definitely a cult. That's what I'm trying to do to you right now.
Kerry Diamond:
It's working somewhat. Okay, Jenna, since we have verified that you are a cult member, I'd like to know your three favorite trader Joe's products.
Jenna Sadhu:
Okay.
Kerry Diamond:
So let's start with number three.
Jenna Sadhu:
Coming in at number three, Kerry, I think it would be the mango sparkling wine. It comes in cans. And it's $4.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. It's a fun little cocktail in a can. I wouldn't have thought of combining mango and wine, but hey, why not? Okay. Number two.
Jenna Sadhu:
Number two is their chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich.
Kerry Diamond:
Is that like a Chipwich?
Jenna Sadhu:
It's exactly like a Chipwich except the texture is beyond better.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. All right. And how about number one? Drum roll please.
Jenna Sadhu:
Number one has to be their chicken samosas, they're delicious.
Kerry Diamond:
That's your favorite? Would you eat them with anything?
Jenna Sadhu:
They're nice and crispy. They're really flavorful. They're spiced inside. And I have them with a little bit of sriracha and ketchup. Perfect.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. Got your own ketchup blend going on there. I can appreciate that. All right. So Jenna did a little Trader Joe's homework for us and studied up on the history of Trader Joe's. Jenna, who founded Trader Joe's?
Jenna Sadhu:
Joe Coulombe founded Trader Joe's in 1967. He opened up the first Trader Joe's store.
Kerry Diamond:
What was behind it? Why did he open this sort of interesting, different kind of grocery store?
Jenna Sadhu:
He really wanted a tiki-themed, Caribbean-themed grocery store where people can find inexpensive food and drink.
Kerry Diamond:
Definitely different from the traditional grocery store. Where was the first trader Joe's location?
Jenna Sadhu:
In Pasadena, California. Southern California.
Kerry Diamond:
How many locations do they have today and in how many countries?
Jenna Sadhu:
You can only find Trader Joe's in the United States and there's about 500, 530 locations.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, okay. That's more locations than I thought. For some reason I thought they were an international. Maybe I thought that because Trader Joe's is owned by that German grocery company, Aldi, if I'm saying that correctly. So US only. Okay, good to know. Next, Jenna and I are going to talk about some other Trader Joe's products. Prior to me visiting the Trader Joe's, I'd never stepped into a Trader Joe's, but I definitely knew about some of their products. And we're going to try one of those products right now. It is their speculoos cookie butter spread. Definitely one of their most famous products. Are you a fan Jenna?
Jenna Sadhu:
I am a fan, but only after one spoonful. That's all I can handle.
Kerry Diamond:
I didn't even know what cookie butter is, so I had to look it up on a Wikipedia. Thank you, Wikipedia. But according to Wikipedia, "Cookie butter was invented in Belgium in 2002." So it hasn't been around that long. It's made of cookie crumbs, fat, sugar and flour. So it's definitely not a health food. Mixed until it becomes spreadable. So I'm guessing Jenna, that this is like a Belgian Nutella?
Jenna Sadhu:
Yes, it is like a Belgian Nutella.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. All right. So I'm going to... I got a spoon right here. Do I need some milk or water or something to go with this?
Jenna Sadhu:
I would just let your saliva break it down. Really get all of it on your taste buds. The texture is crazy.
Kerry Diamond:
Texture’s crazy? Okay. I'm guessing it tastes like peanut butter. No?
Jenna Sadhu:
It is very comparable to peanut butter. Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay, I've got my spoon. I've got my speculoos cookie butter right here. Okay. Ready? Let's go.
Jenna Sadhu:
Enjoy.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. It's a lot like peanut butter. I'm really surprised there are no nuts in this.
Jenna Sadhu:
Yeah, no nuts. Just cookies...
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah.
Jenna Sadhu:
And a lot of fat.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. I do need some water, Jenna. I'm looking at the label right now. They call it deliciously unusual with crushed Belgian biscuits and the warm flavors of holiday spice bread. Oh my gosh, Jen, it really is like peanut butter. I need some more water.
Jenna Sadhu:
It's very sticky. It really gets to the roof of your mouth and everything.
Kerry Diamond:
Wow, okay. I am surprised there are no nuts in this, but apparently not. And it says product of the Netherlands. Okay. So, that is the speculoos cookie butter. Jenna, tell us about the second product we're going to talk about cause I know you're a fan of this one.
Jenna Sadhu:
The Everything But the Bagel Seasoning. Yes. This really took off. It went viral on TikTok. People use it on vegetables. They use it on sandwiches. They use it on cream cheese and bagels, obviously. Everything.
Kerry Diamond:
I bought a little of it. I'll give it a little shake. Can everybody hear that?
Jenna Sadhu:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
It's unlike the speculoos cookie butter, which has a lot of ingredients. This does not have a lot of ingredients. It's just sesame seeds, sea salt, dried minced garlic, dried minced onion, black sesame seeds and poppy seeds. So it's like a classic seasoning blend. What do you put it on, Jenna?
Jenna Sadhu:
I personally put it on a piece of toast with some cream cheese, some seasoning and some hot sauce. And because of the salt in the seasoning, you really don't need much with it because it has that own flavor.
Kerry Diamond:
You love your hot sauce. A lot of people recommended this and they said they put it on eggs. So maybe I'll sprinkle some on... Oh, you know what I bet it's really good on? Avocado toast.
Jenna Sadhu:
It's great on avocado toast. It's also great on rice with an egg on top and then some seasoning. It's perfect.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, you know what I love? I make a kimchi... I mix kimchi and rice and I put a fried egg on top of it. This would be yummy.
Jenna Sadhu:
Have you tried anything else that you picked up at Trader Joe's?
Kerry Diamond:
I did. I mean, I feel like I bought a lot at this point. A lot of them were your recommendations, some were other friend's recommendations. Let me see, I've got some of them in front of me. I bought... Oh, Samah Dada. Who a lot of you maybe heard on Radio Cherry Bombe, she has a great cookbook out now called Dada Eats. Samah told me to get the raw almond butter, creamy version, which I haven't tried yet, but I'm guessing it's good, no salt. And then she also told me to get the roasted and salted rosemary Marcona almonds. I love a Marcona almond. So I picked that up. I got a beauty product, [Gaby Vigoro 00:16:36]. I don't think you've met Gaby yet, but Gaby was Cherry Bombe employee, number one. Told me that they have good beauty products. So I picked up some hand and body cream.
Jenna Sadhu:
They have a coconut body butter that a lot of people swear by.
Kerry Diamond:
A lot of people mentioned the body butter when we were asking for product recommendations. But this is fragrance-free because when you're cooking and making food, I don't want a lot of fragrance on my hands.
Jenna Sadhu:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
I got the sliced goat's milk Dutch cheese. Everybody said to get that. Mini milk chocolate peanut butter cups. They're like little baby peanut butter cups. Those were yummy. I got Catherine Baker, our managing editor, told me to get the dark chocolate almonds with sea salt and turbinado sugar. Those are yummy. What else? All right. Two things that I wasn't too wild about. You told me to get the steamed pork and ginger soup dumplings. I think I made a amateur mistake and I microwaved them. They're not that good microwaved.
Jenna Sadhu:
They're not that good microwaved. But that's the easiest way to do it. If you want to take that further step, I would steam them. That's what I do and they're delicious.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. I think steaming is definitely the pro tip. Okay. One thing I got that was kind of vile and I hate to... I don't use that word often. And now that I read this, I'm like, why did I buy this? The pumpkin four cheese Greek style yogurt dip.
Jenna Sadhu:
It's okay that you didn't like it. We had to pick up something pumpkin because of the seasonal stuff.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell me about the seasonal obsession. I mean, every other product was pumpkin when we were there.
Jenna Sadhu:
Yeah they're really known for their seasonal stuff. Of course. Pumpkin takes over fall. Peppermint takes over winter. In the summer, they have a lot of stone fruits like peach flavorings, nectarine flavorings.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. One more thing I bought, I should give a shout out to because one of my lovely former colleagues recommended it. [Michael Jorgensen 00:18:25] told me to go buy this. The frozen oatmeal. And I'm a little skeptical of the frozen oatmeal because oatmeal is pretty easy to make on your own. But I don't know, I love Michael. So I said I would try it. So stay tuned for a report on that.
Jenna Sadhu:
So when you're walking through Trader Joe's and you're putting stuff in your cart. Did you notice how everything is Trader Joe's brand? How did you feel about all of that stuff being private label?
Kerry Diamond:
That, I think was the biggest surprise to me. I didn't realize... I don't know the percentage that's private label, but I didn't realize that almost everything they sell is Trader Joe's branded. I saw a few other brands. I saw Talea our pals from the beer brand, the New York City beer brand Talea. What else did I see? I saw Kerrygold, butter and cheese. We love our pals at Kerrygold. That was fun to see. I saw Health-Ade kombucha, which I really like. But I don't know I could probably count on one hand the number of independent brands I saw.
It was interesting walking up and down the aisles and trying to figure out who made the product for Trader Joe's because they obviously don't make their own product. One thing that I will say is a bummer, I did get a DM from someone on Instagram and we shared that we were doing this episode and they said the Trader Joe's had reached out to them to make a product that they make as part of their small food business. They couldn't make it for the price that Trader Joe wanted to. So Trader Joe's just went ahead and made it on their own and they felt that wasn't the coolest thing. It would be nice to see them work with more small brands and try to help them out if they could.
Jenna Sadhu:
Do you have any thoughts about that petition last year to change Trader Joe's packaging?
Kerry Diamond:
I thought that was really interesting, I followed that when it was happening. For those who don't know what that was all about, there was a young woman named Briones Bedell. I think that's how you say her name. And she had started a petition to get Trader Joe's to change some of its packaging that she felt was racially insensitive. And I have to say, I think she was correct to do that. And they were smart to change the packaging. It's just much better off if they call it Trader Joe's across the board.
Jenna Sadhu:
Okay. So you walked into the Trader Joe's in Brooklyn for the first time. What was your overall impression?
Kerry Diamond:
They make grocery shopping fun and they play up the quirky factor. And a lot of people think grocery shopping is a chore, but it does not seem like a chore at Trader Joe's.
Jenna Sadhu:
They do a really good job of getting people excited to try stuff. Why do you think you've never really shopped there before?
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, that's a good question. I don't think Trader Joe's came to New York until maybe a decade ago. I own some restaurants. I dated a chef for a long time, so I probably didn't grocery shop as much as the average person. I love my farmer's markets. We have a big whole foods here that I'll go to. And I mean, you've seen the street that I live on. We've got a lot of little food stores and I do love to frequent the small businesses in my neighborhood. So that's probably why.
Jenna Sadhu:
So Kerry, the big question here is, do you think you're going to go back?
Kerry Diamond:
I do think I'll go back. I mean, you definitely caught my attention with the peppermint products. I do love peppermint. I like peppermint more than pumpkin. So I'll go back during the holiday time and check that out. I'm a little nervous about buying too many snacks. I mean, Trader Joe's is really sexy snack headquarters. So you have to be careful of not going overboard with the snacks. But I think also just as a member of the food media, it's really interesting to see what people are buying. Trader Joe's does a great job staying on top of trends. So it's fun to literally just walk around and look at all the labels and see what they put out. So yeah, I'll go back. Maybe Jenna, next time I'm in California, you and I can go together.
Jenna Sadhu:
Of course. Then we can actually see what a real TJ's alcohol section looks like.
Kerry Diamond:
We can buy the mango sparkling wine and we can have lava cakes and we will just have a great time.
Jenna Sadhu:
Awesome.
Kerry Diamond:
Jenna, thanks for taking this Trader Joe's journey with me.
Jenna Sadhu:
I'm so glad that we got to do that together. It was really fun.
Kerry Diamond:
Me too. You're the bombe.
That's it for today's show. Thank you to everyone who gave us product suggestions on Instagram. I tried a few more products since Jenna and I recorded this, the frozen oatmeal, admittedly, it was delicious with a perfect texture and not too much sweetness. I am not a fan of sweet oatmeal, but I don't need oatmeal pucks wrapped in plastic. I don't think anyone does. So I say skip that product, make a big batch of oatmeal and reheat it throughout the week.
The speculoos butter is almost too good. I might have to hide it away so I stop eating it by the spoonful. My cat Dusty gobbled down the Trader Joe's version of Fancy Feast. So paws up for that. The Super Lemon Room Spritz, skip it. It smells like furniture polish, sorry. And you might laugh at this, but you know what my favorite thing is so far? The unscented hand and body cream with Moroccan argan oil. Obviously, it's not edible, but it's a really good product. And as I record this, I have water boiling so I can make the corn and burrata ravioli for dinner. I have high hopes for that product.
Thank you to our assistant producer Jenna Sadhu for engineering this episode and sharing her love for Trader Joe's. Thank you to Kerrygold, makers of great butter and cheese and to the very cool Ace Hotel Brooklyn for supporting our show. Radio Cherry Bombe is a production of Cherry Bombe media. Don't miss our magazine sale, it ends Tuesday night. Visit cherrybombe.com for more and snacks and back issues for just $10 apiece. And yes, we do ship to international locations. And hey, thanks for listening everybody. You are the bombe.
Harry From When Harry Met Sally:
I'll have what she's having.