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We shop there. I obviously don't think it is local. I've been to huge Trade Joes with large multistory parking garages nearby (in LA), I've been to them in other cities, by where I live etc. What they have going for them in an image of a healthy, wholesome, quality foods for reasonable prices. I think initially they started to appeal to the Whole Foods crowd who couldn't quite afford the prices.

It is interesting that a lot of the food at TJs is not organic. But by clever marketing, using brown paper bags, imagery/graphics with a turn of the century feel to them, they impart the idea that there they are healthy, natural and good for you. In reality it probably is not no better or worse than the food you'd get a Kroger, Giant, Safeway or other such traditional grocery stores.

TJs is a blessing for a vegetarian though, as they have a variety of options places like Target and GEagle doesn't offer.

Even more so when you're in Ohio...

People buy groceries at target? wtf

My wife shops there so she doesn't have to go to Walmart.

Isn't that Target's slogan? "Target: It's not Wal-Mart!"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_Corporation#SuperTarget

In Chicago, we have an urban Target concept store called "City Target" which is pretty much the only place to buy groceries in the Loop other than the pricey, minimal selection at Walgreens.

I'm a vegan and live just outside of Fort Wayne, Indiana. I expected the worst moving here from Boston, but it has been extremely easy to make all of the same vegan foods I loved cooking when living in Boston and shopping at Whole Foods.

I rarely need to go anywhere but Kroger to get everything I need (tofu, soy/almondmilk, nutritional yeast, Daiya products, Silk products, produce, hummus, vegetable stock, pasta, etc.)

There is another grocery store called Earth Fare nearby which fills the void due to Whole Food's absence in this region. I occasionally go there to buy more specialized spices, tea, and Field Roast products (especially their sliced chao tofu cheese). Plus they have delicious vegan chocolate chip cookies that I totally should not be eating. One time I made a pulled jackfruit recipe and had to drive a bit out of the way to buy the canned jackfruit from an Asian grocery store.

At any rate, I've been remarkably surprised and happy with how easy it is. And I don't live remotely close to "downtown" or "urban" Fort Wayne. My area is better described as straight up rural. I feared the worst given Indiana's politics, religiosity in this part of the country, and high cultural value placed on hunting and meat consumption. But it's been really easy to be vegan here.

Cooking with soyrizo is almost like cheating it's so good. TJ's introduced me to it.

> It is interesting that a lot of the food at TJs is not organic.

They do often offer organic choices, too. Such as regular bananas for 19 cents and organic bananas for 29 cents.

Personally, I appreciate the non-organic option.

  In reality it probably is not no better or worse than the 
  food you'd get a Kroger, Giant, Safeway or other such 
  traditional grocery stores.

Entirely possible, though part of their marketing (if you read the "Fearless Flyer" they send out) centers around certain standards they hold their suppliers to. For instance, when they talk about their turkey corn dogs, they lament how most suppliers they talked with used ingredients they "didn't like" until they found one that would use a recipe TJs was satisfied with.

I'm sure reality was a little less heroic than the story makes it sound, but it's still something a bit more concrete than olde-timey graphics.

TJ's has certain standards which means that even though much of the food is comparable to elsewhere, they don't have the crappiest stuff that other stores have. That's the point. It's not about being all the best, it's about doing their job of removing the bad choices so I don't have to worry about it.

Exactly, it isn't about being healthy all the time. They do have a desert and candy aisle of course. But, the worst corporate garbage "food product" is thankfully absent.

How do we know? (I say this as a person who shops there as well). Just because they say so, or they use wholesome packaging or labels? I certainly hope their stuff is healthier, but I am not convinced objectively that it is.

Ingredient labels (I read every one), organic choices, uncommon healthy foods such as flax seeds. Liter bottles of olive oil for half-price of other stores. As I mentioned before they offer brie instead of corporate garbage like cheese-food and cheetos.

While I suppose they could outright lie about things, you could imagine it would be an incredible risk to the business.

They have their own brand of cheese puffs. The kids love 'em.

Trader Joe's branded products are not GMO [1].

[1] http://www.traderjoes.com/faqs/product-information

> I think this is key. Being "local" is important. I saw this in the comic/gaming shop I volunteered in. We had a web presence and facebook page, but no one used them except for memes and news links. The money was made with people coming into the store and impulse-spending during a Friday Night Magic tournament or RPG sessions. Conversations and real-life interactions with people are why these shops have survived the move to online and big-box outlet stores.

I'm not sure you've thought this through. How are you getting people in to a game shop to spend money? (Or: a game shop is not analogous to Trader Joes.)

10 years ago I ran the Magic events for a large game shop and also the corresponding part of their website. The events mostly ran at break-even to get people into the store to spend money. And the website - specifically the event calendar and email list - was incredibly successful at getting people to come to events.

Game shops should absolutely have as much social media and web presence as possible, tuned towards raising awareness of events. And also possibly raising awareness of their electronic shopfront, if that's something they do - another thing that was a nice extra source of revenue even 10 years ago.

Agreed, and the lack of local content is something that has been noticed by media companies. AOL spent tons of money trying to address it with Patch. It'll be cool to see someone else tackle it one of these days, and hopefully it'll eventually stick. May be a good vertical for something like Nextdoor.

I'm a little surprised at the neighborhood secret idea. The TJ's I know are all characterized by large crowds, cars circling the parking lots looking for parking, and a weekly mailer. Secret is never a word I would have used.

So far we've got social and local, and everyone knows how important mobile is. SoMoLo.

But perhaps they are missing an opportunity to become a "hub" of their communities and replace the now mostly gone local newspapers.