Trader Joe’s

Not the place to grab-​n-​go a meal if you have only 15minutes at lunch. As The line up to check out can be really long, or seems long, because of confusion around how to pay with the new chip credit cards. Nearly every payment with chip card requires customers to re insert the card for some reason. I hope the staff and the customers figure it out soon.

love, love the Bellevue WA store and it is only 1.5 miles from my home. All of the staff are fabulous, helpful and knowledgeable. You never wait in line more than 1 person, even at their busy evening times. We are moving to Florida soon and I shall miss them.
Fi

Oh my goodness, I just had the most awful experience at this Trader Joe’s! I love TJs and go to other ones weekly, but this one is closest to my parents.
They have the cramped checkouts, so the line I got in was actually for 2 checkers. It’s confusing, you kind of have to do a double take and commit to one, but most of us kinda wait to see which one is going faster.
When the nice guy in front of me was letting me put my stuff down near his so I wouldn’t have to carry it, a crazy lady started screaming at the couple behind me, yelling that it was so rude that the lady was still shopping, but I guess she had still lined up behind me. In the most awkward Trader Joes fight, she started screaming about how ridiculous the couple was, and «what is with these foreigners?!»
That’s the type of people you get at this Trader Joe’s. I’m from LA, so I don’t blink twice when someone has an accent, and I think it’s so great that everyone is floating around in their sari’s, because I only see that at big parties, or in India. But this is the type of TJs where psychos feel the need to scream in public about foreigners acting rudely, so beware. Please see attached photos before I get in trouble with Unilocal.
So sorry to the elderly European (sorry, Eastern European? Russian maybe?) couple who were so cute, well dressed, and very kind to ask me which line I was in earlier. I’m sorry I didn’t do a great job at telling the scary lady that she didn’t see the husband standing in both lines while the lady grabbed something from a nearby shelf. I hope you know that I wish now I had done more, because I have felt more welcome in so many other countries. Traveling humbles you because you rely so often on the kindness of strangers, even just to buy food.
I’m so sorry the Trump/​Hitler thing is getting out of hand, and that the crazies are letting loose and attacking «foreigners.» I hope that you two and anyone reading this will come back to this TJs and have a better experience.
Ps, check out the pics, this lady loaded her stuff into a white wrangler in the handicap parking, but I didn’t see anyone in the drivers seat. Im pretty sure those spaces are reserved for people who have a difficult time walking, not abusive people that go on rants about elderly foreigners.
Still 5 stars bc it is one of my beloved TJs, because more people will see it on Unilocal,and because the nice Asian American dude in front of me mirrored my shock and awkwardness about the whole awful experience. We foreigners or kids of foreigners ain’t all that bad.

Trader Joe’s is amazing! I’ve always had great customer-​service here and high-​quality produce! At checkout I am always surprised at how cheap my bill is compared to everything I have purchased.
They have a great selection of healthy, organic foods here as well as sweets for those wanting more. I love their chocolate covered almonds!
The only thing I dislike about the store is that it is in a shared parking lot, so it can be difficult to find parking at times (and to leave as well).
All-​in-​all it is a great store. I will definitely be back again and again!

I love going to Trader Joe’s for specific items that I don’t get anywhere else because the prices at TJ’s are so much better such as the cheese, brown rice pastas, almonds, some produce, etc… This Bellevue location is nice, especially since it’s no longer in the old shopping centre that it was in since parking was a little crammed for space. But now where TJ’s is located is in a much spacious area in a newer shopping centre, which is easy to get to from the main street. The staff is always very friendly, especially the staff at the registers, as they always make light conversation. I like too how the staff has had most of the TJ’s items, so that was they can give you recommendations on recipes, which has happened to me more than once. It’s nice to know that the staff values where they work and believes in the products they sell.
The only negative about Trader Joe’s in general is that some of the items’ portions are too small, thus having to get more than one item. This is the case especially for the freezer items. If you’re shopping for a party, then you’ll have to get duplicates of an item, to ensure there’s enough food. Also, the ready-​to-​go items are hit and miss for me. I like to try new stuff all the time, but sometimes the items are not what I had hoped they’d be like the sushi, the buffalo chicken wrap, the chicken enchiladas, etc… But all in all, when I find items I like, I tend to stick with them and stock up, especially those items that I don’t get anywhere else but here.

Let me start out by saying that I usually love TJ’s. I tend to buy most of my groceries here and adore everything in their freezer section. A huge step above other grocery stores.
This location, however, has a MASSIVE issue with slow product turnover within fresh produce and bakery items. Last week I bought muffins that still had 7 days before the «use by» date. The next day I went to grab one and their was mold speckled all over it. Yes, the store manager refunded me but that required an additional trip. Again, today I went to buy raspberries and when I got home saw that the use by date was 6 days prior. I usually am good about checking these but the print was so faint that I missed it.
The thing that irks me the most is that every time I have quality issues (there are more times than these 2 sadly) I let the manager know very nicely and he says he will fix the shelves. Never happens. I am in ~1 time per day to get a salad for lunch and check and always see the same issues.
Also — lines at lunch time are INSANE — why do they not have 1 – 2 express lanes?

Went after work to check out their pre brined turkeys 1.99 $ a pound. Great price and pre brined? What? Anyways they had them organized it weight, smaller to large no need to sort through to find what your looking for. I passed because I already bought a butterball for 99cents a pound at target taking up room in my freezer. I saw this add after I already bought my frozen turkey. Too bad! I will cook it because I already have it. Next year I will try the trader joes turkey. I did find some monkey bread frozen and hidden because it was sold out in the space they had it reserved for. I felt lucky… Even though 4.99 $ for some garlic, rosemary bread seamed steep it looked interesting. I love how the checkers engage with what your buying and give their opinion if it is good. They don’t ask stupid questions like «have exciting plans this weekend?» They engage it what your buying and give their sincere engagement in your experience.:

This store rocks. I’m a general TJs enthusiast. The one downside to this store is that the lines can get REALLY long — which isn’t what I’ve experienced at other TJs with more checkstands. The samples are always awesome, though. Can’t beat the produce prices, either!

The store itself is fine, but I received some unwelcome interaction from a male employee there… a really old guy working on the checkouts. The staff should act in a more professional manner and avoid making rude comments — seriously, it’s not that difficult. I can see at least one other review here stating a similar issue. Could be just one employee, or could be ingrained in the culture of the place — I’m not going to stick around to find out.

I am giving one star because I can’t give –100. Its worst grocery store I have ever shopped in. We usually shop in fred Mayer’s or qfc and never had bad experience with it. We tried trador joes last week. Here are the list of things that went wrong.
— Cucumber had fungus in it.
— Cabbage was saur
–Bread was expiring on same day I purchased.(I should have noticed)
— Orange juice was tasting like preservatives overkilled it. We threw it the same day.
— potataos have some jelly coming out of it.
All of the stuff went bad before expiry. This might sound fake but I swear not a single bit is lie. This is my first review on Unilocal just to ensure they know what not to do with their customers.

Absolutely the nicest staff in the industry. We purchase produce and some meat or dairy weekly. Consistently good quality across the board. Their dried fruit and nuts are terrific. Best price/​quality for unsweetened cranberry juice, stevia, cocoa powder and chocolate bars. LOVE their strawberry juice bars in the summer! I often make chocolate cakes for events, so Trader Joe’s is an essential ingredient «vendor» for me. Prices are competitive with Costco. Some items are much better priced at Trader Joe’s, and we don’t have to hassle an absurd parking lot to do the shopping. :)

Great, spacious store that is clean and well organized. They are very friendly with kids. Fast checkout and awesome staff.

I love TJ’s. Being from Cali, I’m used to seeing them everywhere and wish there were more stores in my neighborhood. There’s one on the other side of town which I’ll go to, even though there are 5 other grocery stores that are much closer.
What I love about TJ’s:
1. Cheap and delicious wine selection (this store does wine tasting Thursday — Sunday)
2. Cheap seasonings (~$ 2 per bottle)
3. Great frozen food selection — my favs are the palak paneer, chicken tacos, pork gyoza
4. SAMPLES and FREE COFFEE!
5. Fresh produce — especially love the Brussels sprouts and ready to eat beets
6. Dips! Hummus! Guac!
7. Good cheese and nut selection
8. Lots of grab and go items like salads and sandwiches
This one is there new-​ish location with larger aisles and plenty of parking. It can get extremely busy around 5p when the nearby Microsoft folks are heading home (I used to be one of them. Would stop every day on my way home when I used to work in Redmond — not great for my bank account but fun way to unwind from work).
This will always be one of my favorite grocery stores to shop in and I heard that there will be one built in downtown Bellevue soon — can’t wait!

Seems like a pretty new store — haven’t noticed it in the past. As always with each Trader Joe’s, you can expect the produce to be fresh and the shelves to be stacked. The employees are super friendly and helpful. This store is a bit smaller than most but maybe just efficiently displayed. I also do like the spacious parking lot. It makes it easy to get in and out without driving around trying to find a spot.

TJ’s is the best. I buys most of my groceries here. Affordable, high quality food, unique items, helpful staff.
I have to stay away from their frozen food aisle because it’s just way too delicious. They have deep-​fried mac n’ cheese balls that are almost exactly like the Cheesecake Factory’s. It’s so unhealthy but so amazing.
I can’t believe how nice the staff are! They never look annoyed or inconvenienced when I ask for help. And the cashiers are so friendly and quick! It’s rare to find that in a grocery store. I’ve heard they are paid min. wage there so I don’t know how they can be so happy to help you, haha. They always grab more cashiers if the lines start to pile up, I’ve never waited more than a couple minutes at check-​out. I just feel overall welcome here.
Their brie is affordable and reallyyyy good. Some of my other favorites are their sliced mangos, pre-​made salads, their chocolate lava cakes, chocolate covered potato chips. My goodness I could go on about this place for forever.

Love going here! I always find more stuff to try (good and bad thing?)
A few items I’ve bought:
–almond butter: yummm
–mango& cream AND coffee latte & cream bars: perfect size that won’t make you feel like a fatty
–garlic naan: better than ones I’ve gotten in Fred Meyer
–falafel wrap: good lunch for on-​the-​go
–cookie butter good but not spectacular as everyone makes it IMO
–chia seeds: good, but definitely better value at Costco
–milk chocolate covered peanut butter pretzels: uhm YES
there’s tons more, but I am blanking right now.
Also the workers are great and the space is clean.

I’m a huge Trader Joe’s fan, and when I first moved to the PNW nearly 20 years ago, the Bellevue TJ was the first such store I frequented, when it was located down the street on 156 Ave. NE in a strip mall. It was small, with a dicey parking lot, but still awesome, with all the swell products and great prices and cheery staff I loved from the get-​go.
I’ve been going to the Kirkland/​Totem Lake and the Redmond TJ’s more frequently over the years, but I stopped in this new Bellevue TJ location the other night — and I was BLOWN AWAY. Wow. First of all, the parking lot is huge and easy to navigate. (This used to be the site of the old Uwajimaya, a small sushi restaurant whose name eludes me at present, a ratty discount furniture store and an auto parts store, back in the day. So now it’s this huge open parking lot dedicated to this Trader Joe’s store and the adjacent Walgreen’s. Nice!).
The TJ interior is humongous — WAY bigger than the other TJ stores I’ve been to. It’s more open, with wider aisles. Because it’s more open, it seems brighter, somehow. They seem to have more shelf room for more product, too (this may be an optical illusion of sorts, but it really does seem that they are able to stock more foods here than in the other TJ stores I go to — especially in the refrigerated areas along the perimeter walls).
The staff is as friendly as they are in the other stores, and are always around if you have questions. I wasn’t able to find something immediately, but there were employees stocking the shelves down every aisle it seemed, and I didn’t have to wander aimlessly looking for help (as I do at times in other stores). Also, I liked how, when the check-​out registers all had lines building, they immediately opened up new registers. The check-​out gal who summoned me over was so nice.
What a pleasant shopping experience! Keep up the good work, TJ!

I have been shopping here since they opened around the corner (when Longs was next door). This is a bigger store which is nice, but I kind of miss the old one. Either way I love TJ’s and most of their stuff, they get some fun healthy items that are priced right, and they seem laid back yet helpful.

They must put crack in their product because I am totally addicted. I have to come here every week to buy teas and try new products.

I like this «new» Trader Joe’s. Shopping is much more pleasant with the wider isles, and parking is good. I wanted to get some of the handmade tamales (only available in Dec) so although it was the weekend, I headed to TJ’s. Hint: traffic and parking is great if there is a Seahawks game going on. Eliminates a portion of shoppers.
This morning,(a Monday,) I called to inquire if the tamales are available nationwide, as I have a son in Boston who didn’t know about them. Took some time to research by the employee, but yes they are ! He also mentioned they freeze well, and he had already stocked up. Me too.
I think the checkout stations are smaller than the previous store. As I only go every couple of months, my cart is overflowing, but the checkout person managed it well. Always amusing clerks at TJ’s.

Gotta love having wider aisles and space to move around in at this new location.
Tired of Seattle parking and claustrophobia situation at most locations. Come here instead.

I love Trader Joes, but I hate the new location. Parking is a ¼ of what it used to be. People are so overly concerned about getting a spot up front that they’re willing to run down pedestrians.
Service is great. I do feel bad for Crew members who are racing to restock the shelves. Same great products at great prices.

This Trader Joe’s in Bellevue next to Walgreen’s opened up about a month ago replacing the previous store just down the street. The old location seemed small and old compared to many of the new TJ locations that have opened up in past years.
The new location is similar to the Redmond branch and has an almost identical layout. The parking situation seems a little better at this location. Though it seems to be a bit more challenging on the weekends. I expect it will become tougher as the holiday season progresses.
Though they are pretty much the same, I still prefer the Redmond location just slightly better. I think they could use some additional help at the checkout. It seemed so busy that I ended up bagging my own items. Usually, there is a bagger.
Overall, I like the newness of this store. It is bigger and brighter making for a better shopping experience overall. Though the checkout situation and the ability to get customers in and out of the store quickly could be improved.