Latest / The Radio From Hell Show - Best Of / Trader Joes List From November 14th, 2025
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Uh, I have a you know, one of these.
- 0:04Speaker 2: It's Radio from Hell with another list because people love
- 0:08Speaker 2: a good list X ninety six.
- 0:12Speaker 3: Well, I thought this would be a good list because
- 0:16Speaker 3: Trader Joe's they've opened a bunch of new ones. So
- 0:19Speaker 3: we have, of course, the one here on Forth South,
- 0:23Speaker 3: there's the one in Sugarhouse, there's one in Riverdale, Orum
- 0:28Speaker 3: Holiday Draper, Cottonwood Heights.
- 0:31Speaker 1: Good lord, I.
- 0:33Speaker 4: Think the one on for South may have been the
- 0:35Speaker 4: first Trader Joe's to open anywhere that didn't serve or
- 0:38Speaker 4: that didn't sell alcohol.
- 0:39Speaker 5: Alcohol.
- 0:40Speaker 4: Yeah. They were hesitant to open in places where they
- 0:43Speaker 4: couldn't sell ooze.
- 0:46Speaker 5: Uh yeah.
- 0:46Speaker 3: And I noticed the one like, hey, that's where the Zecoma,
- 0:50Speaker 3: the Cottonwood mall used to be in.
- 0:53Speaker 5: Now it's a Trader joe.
- 0:55Speaker 4: What the Cottonwood mall's gone.
- 0:56Speaker 3: They have one planned in Harriman.
- 1:00Speaker 5: So so so this is a thing we have now.
- 1:03Speaker 3: And I found a list that's former Trader Joe's employee
- 1:08Speaker 3: spills ten secrets every shopper.
- 1:10Speaker 5: Needs to know.
- 1:10Speaker 3: Okay, Number one, we are not trained to flirt with customers.
- 1:19Speaker 3: I hate to dash. Your hopes are rolling off in
- 1:21Speaker 3: a shopping cart. And sunset with your ultra cute Trader
- 1:23Speaker 3: Joe's crush. But employees are generally just pretty friendly ninety
- 1:26Speaker 3: nine percent of the time. Now, this is and I
- 1:29Speaker 3: have noticed this that Trader Joe's. The people that work
- 1:32Speaker 3: there are super chatty.
- 1:33Speaker 4: They are they like to chat with the customers.
- 1:36Speaker 1: I don't shop there, so this is all new to me.
- 1:39Speaker 5: Oh you don't.
- 1:40Speaker 4: You don't know there, No, we don't know.
- 1:43Speaker 2: Uh.
- 1:43Speaker 4: They.
- 1:44Speaker 3: It is a thing, though, and I think people have thought,
- 1:48Speaker 3: oh they must that must be required, like.
- 1:51Speaker 1: To be flirting. Yeah, oh I see.
- 1:53Speaker 4: Okay, Well.
- 1:55Speaker 3: Number two, you really can't have as many samples as
- 1:58Speaker 3: you want. Yes, it's true. You just don't be weird
- 2:00Speaker 3: about it. Don't make a whole meal about it. But yeah,
- 2:04Speaker 3: you can have as many as you like. Number Three,
- 2:08Speaker 3: Employees are encouraged to give away items to customers. Now,
- 2:13Speaker 3: not everybody gets a candy bar or a petite bouquet
- 2:16Speaker 3: of flowers just for shopping. I've gifted items to especially
- 2:20Speaker 3: enthusiastic customers, or on the flip side, when someone was
- 2:22Speaker 3: having a rough day and eating cheering out.
- 2:24Speaker 1: But you've handed them some flowers.
- 2:26Speaker 5: That's a thing.
- 2:26Speaker 3: Apparently nice California shoppers are often to blame for discontinued products.
- 2:33Speaker 3: I knew it well, and this happens at Trader Joe's.
- 2:37Speaker 3: Sometimes you get a favorite thing and it's not always there.
- 2:41Speaker 4: Happens at Costco all the time.
- 2:43Speaker 5: Think of it this way.
- 2:44Speaker 3: Many Trader Joe's items are in a popularity contest. If
- 2:47Speaker 3: a product isn't well loved, it might not be given
- 2:49Speaker 3: shelf space the next month or season. And since there
- 2:52Speaker 3: are more Trader Joe's locations in California than anywhere else,
- 2:56Speaker 3: the popularity contests are increasing. So if California shoppers are
- 2:59Speaker 3: into some I see, that affects what you're gonna get here.
- 3:04Speaker 4: Damn those California cators.
- 3:07Speaker 3: Your favorite item is probably just on a production delay.
- 3:10Speaker 3: Common scenario you go to find your favorite frozen chicken tacos.
- 3:14Speaker 5: Those are good.
- 3:14Speaker 3: I've gotten those before, only to discover they're still out
- 3:17Speaker 3: of stock and it's been months. What gives many factors
- 3:21Speaker 3: at play. Trader Joe's database often distills it down to
- 3:24Speaker 3: any number of production delays. That can mean harvest timing, supply,
- 3:27Speaker 3: or raising prices or something else, but it usually comes back.
- 3:32Speaker 3: Prices do drop and rise on certain days of the
- 3:35Speaker 3: week depending on the store. There's a specific day of
- 3:38Speaker 3: the week when prices shift. At the store I worked at,
- 3:41Speaker 3: it was Wednesdays. An employee, you would go around the
- 3:43Speaker 3: store noting which items would be marked up or down
- 3:45Speaker 3: the following day. This was handy intel if you wanted
- 3:48Speaker 3: to shop after work. Number seven stores are placed in
- 3:53Speaker 3: very specific cities for specific reasons. The basic secret sauce
- 3:59Speaker 3: is trade. Joe's are often located in larger college towns
- 4:03Speaker 3: where the majority of resident residents are college educated, with
- 4:06Speaker 3: a median income around one hundred thousand dollars a year.
- 4:09Speaker 4: Oh, the gulible population.
- 4:12Speaker 3: They want to sell the young educated folks with plenty
- 4:14Speaker 3: of cookie butter spending money.
- 4:16Speaker 5: They've got good cook Carrie.
- 4:17Speaker 2: You should go they got I heard about their cookie Yeah,
- 4:21Speaker 2: I mean they do.
- 4:22Speaker 4: They have really excellent snacks yep.
- 4:24Speaker 1: It's the expensive snack stores what we refer.
- 4:27Speaker 4: To it as.
- 4:28Speaker 3: And they have really good frozen like if you need
- 4:30Speaker 3: to just stick a bunch of stuff in your freezer
- 4:32Speaker 3: for nights when you're not cooking, and what they're really
- 4:35Speaker 3: good frozen food section h Yes, the parking lots are
- 4:40Speaker 3: frustrating for a reason to offer low prices. There's often
- 4:44Speaker 3: a lot of space saving measures measures. So yes, parking
- 4:47Speaker 3: lots are intentionally small.
- 4:49Speaker 4: That doesn't make any sense.
- 4:50Speaker 2: But that new one, then holiday looks like it's got
- 4:52Speaker 2: a lot of parking because it's where the old cotton. Yeah,
- 4:55Speaker 2: when's the next time I'm going to get to Trader
- 4:57Speaker 2: Joe's parking lots of nightmare.
- 5:00Speaker 4: That doesn't make it what you just read. Read that again.
- 5:02Speaker 4: It doesn't make any sense.
- 5:03Speaker 5: To offer low prices.
- 5:05Speaker 3: There are a lot of cost and space saving measures,
- 5:08Speaker 3: meaning they're built in places where they don't have to
- 5:10Speaker 3: pay a lot of rent on the space where.
- 5:13Speaker 1: The story is Oh yeah, there you go.
- 5:16Speaker 5: Number nine.
- 5:16Speaker 3: You often don't need to bring back a product to
- 5:18Speaker 3: get a refund.
- 5:19Speaker 5: This is weird.
- 5:21Speaker 3: In fact, please don't bring those rotting, less than delicious products.
- 5:24Speaker 3: We believe you tell a manager or a crew member
- 5:26Speaker 3: that something wasn't up to snuff, they'll look up the
- 5:28Speaker 3: product code and you can have it deductive from your
- 5:30Speaker 3: bill or refunded in cash.
- 5:32Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I've had that happen at Smith's. You
- 5:37Speaker 4: know you you say I bought the last time I
- 5:40Speaker 4: was here, I bought these bananas or whatever they were,
- 5:43Speaker 4: and they were chromied, they were rotten by and they said,
- 5:46Speaker 4: well here, just take just get some other ones and
- 5:48Speaker 4: you can have those.
- 5:50Speaker 5: And number ten.
- 5:51Speaker 3: The last one, my favorite secret involves the frozen reduced
- 5:54Speaker 3: gilt macaroni and cheese. I remember this is a list
- 5:58Speaker 3: put together by someone who used to work at Trader Joe's. Me.
- 6:02Speaker 5: Yeah, sit down for this one.
- 6:04Speaker 3: The frozen reduced gilt mac and cheese is actually just
- 6:09Speaker 3: the regular mac and cheese, but half the size.
- 6:11Speaker 5: It's true, they're the thing. They're not reduced. It's just a.
- 6:15Speaker 4: Smaller, smaller, fewer calories.
- 6:18Speaker 3: Yeah huh but Carrie, I I am shocked you have
- 6:22Speaker 3: not now so that one, that new one.
- 6:25Speaker 2: Is close down the street, and I haven't noticed that
- 6:30Speaker 2: are all that expensive?
- 6:32Speaker 4: I mean, and they have unique snacks there there.
- 6:36Speaker 5: I think you might become a fan if you try it.
- 6:40Speaker 1: Uh No, I don't know.
- 6:43Speaker 5: We'll see Trader Joy.
- 6:46Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really up to her. Bend to Trader Joe's.
- 6:48Speaker 1: We went when when when Drew was living.
- 6:51Speaker 2: In California, California, we we went there here so texting
- 6:57Speaker 2: loll snacks and frozen food things that we don't have
- 7:01Speaker 2: that we don't need.
- 7:04Speaker 4: You don't ever buy snacks for movie night? No, what
- 7:08Speaker 4: do you do? You just don't eat anything during movie night?
- 7:12Speaker 5: No pop popped? Is there popped?
- 7:15Speaker 4: You don't have any popped corn?
- 7:17Speaker 1: Popped corn? We might have.
- 7:22Speaker 4: A glass of wine.
- 7:23Speaker 2: Chips and cheese, okay, a glass of wine. You know, yeah,
- 7:28Speaker 2: Chuck HOUTERI what that's a good Trader Joe is a
- 7:32Speaker 2: good place for chucktery.
- 7:35Speaker 5: They have good flowers there. You buy flowers.
- 7:37Speaker 2: I buy flowers, but I buy local. Uh see, it's
- 7:42Speaker 2: right by my liquor store.
- 7:43Speaker 1: They say, yeah, I know.
- 7:44Speaker 4: If I see it there, I think you carry would
- 7:47Speaker 4: know that.
- 7:47Speaker 3: Yeah, Trader Joe's has stuffing flavored popcorn.
- 7:50Speaker 4: Right now, I try that that flavor popcorn.
- 7:58Speaker 1: That sounds good.
- 7:59Speaker 4: Actually, yeah, and that's they do stuff like that. That's
- 8:03Speaker 4: you know, like like you go, hey, I have to try.
- 8:06Speaker 1: That stuffing flavored potato chips as well.
- 8:10Speaker 4: We just had from Trader joe. My wife got them
- 8:12Speaker 4: because we like the flavor of horse radish and they
- 8:15Speaker 4: have horse radish and uh cheddar potato chips and they
- 8:20Speaker 4: were delicious.
- 8:22Speaker 5: Come on, carry joint, join the all the kids.
- 8:25Speaker 3: We go.
- 8:26Speaker 1: We buy local stuff.
- 8:27Speaker 2: We you know, we'll go to Harmon's and yeah, get
- 8:30Speaker 2: the local stuff.
- 8:31Speaker 5: I mean, of course, I prefer Harmons.
- 8:34Speaker 2: Pumpkin spice, doughnut holes, maple flavored fudge. Everybody's sending their
- 8:39Speaker 2: favorite Trader maple flavored fudge. Sounds good anyway, all right,
- 8:47Speaker 2: We hope you'd enjoyed another list with Radio from Hell
- 8:51Speaker 2: on X ninety six.
- 8:52Speaker 4: But it didn't. It didn't explain who's who Trader Joe is.
- 8:57Speaker 4: I didn't get that. Oh, we used to get that.
- 8:58Speaker 4: They used to have a newspaper, Trader Joe, and they
- 9:02Speaker 4: would send it to our house every like once a month.
- 9:07Speaker 4: I haven't seen that for a long time. I forgot
- 9:08Speaker 4: about that, the Trader Joe's newspaper and was laid out
- 9:12Speaker 4: like a newspaper.
- 9:15Speaker 1: Pumpkin ice cream.
- 9:17Speaker 3: That might get you there, Carrie, It might, It might anyway,
- 9:22Speaker 3: all right,