Tell your friends.
At many Trader Joe's, employees hide a stuffed animal for kids to find and redeem for a lollipop.
"Some stores will hide it in the shelves for the kids to find, others put them in a high place and all the kid needs to do is say where they saw it to the cashier to get a lollipop," says this Reddit user and Trader Joe's employee. "Often we'll ask the kids who found it to rehide it for us and they'll sometimes hide it so well we can't find it for weeks."
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You can taste test any product.
"I've only experienced two or three occasions where a customer tried to take advantage of this and wanted us to open literally 10+ products," says the Reddit user and Trader Joe's employee. "Management had to step in and kindly inform them that one or two products is fine but we have to draw the line somewhere." The remainder of whatever food is opened is apparently offered to crew members.
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The peanut butter pretzel — one of Trader Joe's most popular items — is created via a "marvel of food manufacturing."
According to an NPR article: The pretzels are created via a process called co-extrusion, invented in the 1980s. "Basically, an outer tube pumps out pretzel dough, while an inner tube pumps out peanut butter filling onto a conveyor belt," NPR explains. "The whole thing is then sliced up and baked in a giant 100-foot oven."
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Some of Trader Joe's most popular products are believed to have well-known suppliers behind them.
As Eater explains in "What Brands Are Actually Behind Trader Joe's Snacks?" popular brands (such as Naked Juice) have directly supplied TJ's with their products. TJ's is pretty secretive about their suppliers, but comparisons of other items — like TJ's gluten free chocolate chip cookies vs. Tate's Bake Shop's — reveal almost identical ingredients, packaging, and taste, says Eater.
And while Trader Joe's did not confirm any information regarding its suppliers, I think we can all agree on the general finding that almost everything you buy at Trader Joe's is probably sold at another store, for a higher price, without the cheerful, Hawaiian–shirt-clad staff to help.
Trader Joe's / Jet / Via jet.com
via BuzzFeed/Food
