two buck chuck is three bucks, has been for a while

bobcaticus

There is only one Trader Joe's in NYC and it is fucking hell. Every-time you go, there's about a 40 minute to check out. But the food is still worth the wait.

FortNinety

Trader Joe's is amazing. Even if the healthy thing doesn't appeal, the unhealthy snacks are just amazing.

Ginger Snaps containing crystalized ginger.
Chocolate covered...anything. The soybeans are a house favorite.
Actual old fashioned proper marshmallows.
And surprisingly good frozen pizzas.
And two buck Chuck.

It is about 30 minutes from us, but we're now trying to make it once a week for...pretty much everything except for milk and some produce.

moofrank

I gets my cheeses and snack foods from Trader Joe's.

GrrSnort

Those Castle Crashers chips were great!

Unfortunately, when I put them in a bowl and tried to share them with friends, my friends got about two bites in and then disappeared.

MDT

That's extremely impressive art.

...I have nothing else to say.

Oh, and Trader Joe's is awesome.

kicking222

This Trader Joe's is probably next to a college campus or on a college campus.

When I was at college, there was a Trader Joe's across the street from the quad. Surrounding it were forms of student housing and apartments that housed mostly students. The vast majority of shoppers were students and young yuppies.

It makes sense that they would advertise this way, a lot of gamers on the college diet shopped there so they wouldn't get fat.

FrigidAir44

@Kazzahdrane:

OI! SPOILERS, DAMMIT.

Mentuss

Once upon a time (about a week ago), i was a Trader Joe's hater. I felt as though the people that shopped there were snobby and thought they were better than others because they ate healthy and shopped at this pretentious hippy-mart.

Then my gf dragged me there...

It's not as expensive as i thought -- cheaper than Stop and Shop. I'm certainly not a health freak, but the quality of food there is definitely better than other stores, and comparably priced. and they have some odd stuff you wouldn't find(or even thought to have looked for) other places.

And thus ends my unofficial review of Trader Joes.

Deathimself

@EnigmaNemesis: Really? Crap, I gotta stop drinking soda. Or at least switch to Mexican coca cola.

Netnavi

The customers always ask me if work and I say no, no, no. I don't even wear trader joes uniform, duh people.

zkotaku

That's some damn good chalk art.

GrrSnort

That is pretty cool. I've always enjoyed how Tux the Penguin is on half the signs in the store...

Optimistic Prime

Could the TJ haters talk more about the reasons for their TJ hatred? I'm curious.

Wrapitup

@Torgen got his apology faceplate but not his fixed GH3 disc:

In which the liver can not properly break down, thus it forms and sits on it like crystals. Combined with heavy alcohol, can cause liver damage.

EnigmaNemesis

LOVE Trader Joe's ... great organic food, at half the prices of the grocery store!

@Lombax:

Exercise is only 20% of losing weight or maintaining healthy lifestyle ... the other 80% is your food intake.

He is right about Corn Syrups, as well as other processed sugars. And it isnt always easy eating "right" while maintaining a reasonable budget. This why stores like Trader Joes, and others are a nice thing to have, since they can offer healthy things for less than rip off prices.

EnigmaNemesis

@SilentSeraphin: It's the fructose that's bad for you. Sugar has way more glucose, which every cell in your body can use as fuel. Fructose has to go through your liver.

Torgen got his apology faceplate but not his fixed GH3 disc

I was wondering if it was official Castle Crasher's advertisement, or something of this nature. Now I know. Some chalk-boy loves his Castle Crashers. lol.

(or chalk-girl, don't hate me).

They won't get sued though. A Cease and Desist letter at the very, very worst. Lawsuit only if they continue after that, but I'd imagine that Dan Paladin would be all, "someone loves me!" over something like this.

MrBionic

@Rubix42: Isn't sugar more or less just as calorie-dense as high fructose corn syrup? I'm not well versed at all on it, so there's probably some digestive difficulties that make it different, but that's the impression I had.

SilentSeraphin

What's with all the TJ hate? They have good quality food and surprisingly cheap, sometimes cheaper than wal-mart.

Madnoir

@Rubix42:
REAL Fun fact time from a gamer.

The average gamer will drink corn syrup regardless.

race

@Rubix42: Or you could eat sensibly enjoy life and exercise every morning.

Lombax

@Rubix42: Just as soon as they start making Honey Coke.

Torgen got his apology faceplate but not his fixed GH3 disc

This would be really awesome at my Trader Joe's, considering everyone who goes to mine is a pretentious hippie who probably doesn't know what a "three sixty?" is.

DaveKap

Fun fact time from a health nut.

The average overweight american will lose about 20 to 30 POUNDS if they stop all intake of high fructose corn syrup.

Rubix42

That some mighty fine chalk art there :)

Trader Joe's is awesome.

FrigidAir44

If that's chalk on a blackboard, I'm pretty damn impressed with the artist.

Strangelove

@callmesteam: Trader Blows. Awesome.
I wonder if Behemoth knows about this? Also, as much as I don't like TJ I do like what their artists can do with chalk. Now I know why I never got that TJ artist job.

firstworldman

RANDOM CLOWN AND PENGUIN DANCE!

Kazzahdrane

That's pretty cool. Good for that poor stockboy they force to write that crap out every week. Not a bad artist at all, you keep keepin' on, stocky.

monkeysaresilly

holy crap, someone drew that on an advertising board? doesn't sem like shilling as much as "man, i can't stop playing this game, it's all i think about.. i have to draw the board today? hrmm.."

hope they don't get sued. :x

geekgrrl

I wonder if they got permission from Dan Paladin or if they just randomly felt like putting up Castle Crashers stuff.

SilentSeraphin

I love both of these!

francoamerica

As much as I hate Trader Blows... that's badass!

callmesteam

man i love that place.

d.doldrums

Yes, each Trader Joe's has a (really skilled) artist. It's obvious this one has a thing for said game.

The illustrations they make are very detailed. There is a Trader Joe's that's [kind of] near me (one must cross a freeway and hit a ton of stop lights unless using the South Mountain Freeway stub).

RavingRabbid

@FortNinety: Yeah, Union Square. Right by NYU. When that place first opened up, there were lines going quite far outside the store...and it remained that way for well over a week. You'd think they were giving free food or something.

I've never been there, because I hate having money and love to eat food that I find to be mediocre at best.

Furious_Liver

My TJ's sells $2 Mystery Soda, just a grab bag of 6 sodas you won't know specifically until you buy it.

Today I ended up with 2 Diet Hansens, 2 regular Hansens, Reed's Extra Ginger Brew, and some carbonated coffee drink.

normalmode

This is surely just the local artist who decided to draw this on the ad board. Every week they've got a different product up there and there's always some sort of random picture accompanying it. The stores themselves always seem to have some sort of large-scale art project on the walls. The one I used to go to had a bunch of planes doing loops and stuff on the walls. The one where I live now has a water-themed scene on the walls with lots of local landmarks. It's a nice touch, and gives you something to look at while you wait at the register.

Cloral

@EnigmaNemesis: I have dialysis every day because of this.

Tubes everywhere.

I ain't quittin my drinkin, so the corn syrup has to go!

Anarchist_Gamer

my only probalme with trader joe's is that if I find something I really like, it's discontinued after like 4 months. they move stock around so much, they never have any one item for more than a few months. i find it's pretty hit or miss.

3inst3in

On the subject of Trader Joe's: You may find cheaper, but it's hard to beat TJ in terms of overall quality. You get organics, smaller independant brands and lots of fresh/hard to find stuff there without the nasty mark ups from places like Whole Foods or Gelson's. And it's not all "hippie food", just some of it... You will find lots of regional and seasonal stuff for sale.

For college students or struggling young professionals, it's a godsend. You don't have to settle for $1 chip bags and packages of cookies at the 99cents store (though you can still hit it up) when you're hungry. If you want something with actual nutritional value but are on a budget you can go grab some meat, veggies and a novelty drink or two and get to eating. Their dips are fresh made and tasty. Combine those with thier pita bread and you've just scored a meal.

For more information visit your local library... or check the following links:
[www.traderjoes.com]
[www.traderjoesfan.com]

On Castle Crashers: Kick ass. The artist got that clean and bright look down.

Parsifal

Good artwork ... also, why do so many people hate on Trader Joe's?

cmcginn

Just one of the many reasons why Trader Joe's is the best grocery store EVAR.

Placentasaurus

BTW, that chalkboard drawing of Castle Crashers is INSANE!!!

dead_red_eyes

@EnigmaNemesis: - "LOVE Trader Joe's ... great organic food, at half the prices of the grocery store!"

Same here my man, same here.

dead_red_eyes

I just did that lemon cleanse thing. Bought 7 trader Joes organic lemonade and some cayenne pepper. I only lasted 3 days.

Onegai

@Lombax: I don't call eat syrup enjoying life... but that's just mean I rarely ever have waffles because syrup is sticky, no I'm not messy but there is something about the ugh of that stickiness. *looks at artwork again* beautiful

Shockadin

I love trader joe's artwork, great idea too I read like every sign there :D that, my pals, is GREAT marketing.

Shockadin

That cant be official...

Altima NEO

@Strangelove: It is.

Papapishu

@RavingRabbid: Emphasis on TALLENTED. The one in NYC actually has three employed full time that make murals, all the pricetags, and all the signs BY HAND. So that was hand done.

And they give you blue cross/blue shield if you work for 3 months.

And peanutbutter is like a buck fifty.

.... I'm so gay for trader joes.

Papapishu

Oh wow that is such great artwork! I'd be more apt to congratulate some gamer/artist employee rather than the store the art sits in.

kwant

Trader Joe's has been doing this for years...mine has a faerie from Neopets on price cards.

urutapu

"Rich, creamy" root beer sounds vomitous.

The sign is good, though.

justhesh

sign me up on the TJ bandwagon. Clif Bars are like a buck each (score!) and they have buffalo burgers, which have less fat and calories than beef, and are mighty tasty to boot. my friend just moved across the street from one.. damn, i should have bugged her to take me there tonight instead of Jewel.

geekgrrl

that is so full of win

wonderful work if it is indeed chalk on board.
aMAzing

Mr.Sad

Sadly that sign will only exist for a week or two before they change out the endcap.

@bobcaticus: On the west coast 2 buck chuck is still $1.99.

akruble

I love their white cheddar mac n cheese. Sad because they discontinued the macaroni kind and went with shelled. Oh well! I love it when they hand out free steak samples too.

PS: Awesome art.

Puchi

I work at trader joes, I wonder which store this was in...too bad im on vaca for a week and won't know until monday if it's mine or not.

FREIGHT TRAIN

I also work at Trader Joes, yay for seeing my workplace twice on Kotaku.

And yes each store has it's own artists, and there is no set criteria for what signs are made.

karaquazian

I already loved Trader Joe's, now I love it even more.

metalgear08

I'm pretty sure Paladin, Fulp and Co really don't mind the homage, in fact they love it!

"Something someone spotted at Trader Joe's. Thanks anonymous chalkmaster, you are a master of chalk. Your efforts are appreciated!!!!"

[castlecrashers.com]

marcus_ivo

Apparently Orange doesn't approve.

Wei

If this isn't a sign to give Virgil's a try, I don't know what is.

beeporama (brian.j.parker)

Give Virgil's a try, definitely. I wouldn't call it the best root beer like a number of people do, but it's unique, and it's very good.

I still like Stewart's and Weindhard's better.

QuietStorm

EnigmaNemesis: Exercise is only 20% of losing weight or maintaining healthy lifestyle ... the other 80% is your food intake.

Do you really believe that?

Losing weight is all about creating a calorie deficit. There are only three ways to do that.

1) Calorie restriction (IE, don't take in the calories in the first place).
2) Calorie burning (via exercise).
3) Calorie extraction (via an operation).

If you consume more calories than you burn, you gain weight. If you consume fewer calories than you burn, you lose weight. Plain and simple. (and ideally, you want to reduce intake and increase burn to get the best results).

However, there is no hard fast rule regarding percentages. So statements such as "Exercise is only 20% of losing weight" are patently BS.

Generally (in theory), you can always exercise more and burn more calories than what you can cut out of your diet.

For example, let's say that you weigh 190 lbs and consume around 2500 calories per day. If you could somehow survive on sunshine, air and water, you could cut those 2500 calories per day out of your diet. And that's it, you can't cut any more since your caloric consumption is 0.

OTOH, you could (in theory) do a 5 hour hike every day and burn ~3400 calories.

Now, I know what you're thinking, that's an extreme example. So let's dial it back a bit.

You can burn ~680 calories in a 1 hour hike (which is doable on a day to day basis). Or, cut ~680 calories out of your diet.

Let's take another step up, a 2 hour hike. Now we're talking about ~1360 calories. (or cut ~1360 calories out of yoru diet).

Still, perfectly doable. Especially if, instead of doing a 2 hour hike daily, you do a 1 hour hike per week day, then do two big 4.5 hour hikes on the weekend (that gets you your 14 hours of hiking per week, or 2 hours per day average, yeah, your feet/legs will hate you, but it's doable).

Cutting ~1360 out of the diet of a person consuming 2500 calories brings them down to 1140 calories.

But, what if our theoretical person were consuming 2000 calories per day to start with? Cutting those calories would bring them down to 640 calories per day, which isn't good. Whereas doing the hike is better since you'd still be getting nutrition from the food you ate.

lordargent

@lordargent: Actually, eating well has a bigger impact then exercise.

Check out this link of a chart I got from the site itself. Let's say you want to reduce your diet to only 2000 calories per day, and you usually consume 3000. You'll notice it takes a much longer time to burn that 1000 calories exercising then to eat food that is both filling and leaves you at the 2000 calorie diet plan.

(Also, not everyone can have easy access to hiking, much less spend two 4.5 hour hikes on the weekend!)

Exercise is important, but eating right is more on target for a healthier lifestyle.

Annnnd on back on topic, Castle Crashers is awesome and so is the artist who made that.

Dr.Chocobo

@lordargent:

Any properly educated nutritionist will tell you what I said is fact, any guy trying to sell you a gym membership with tell you the opposite.

EnigmaNemesis

I always find the strangest things at Trader Joe's. One time, I got a thing of 2 foot long spaghetti noodles. Good times.

Anyways, nice to see some gamer/artist is making a living.

Sooku

Tricky little punctuation mark made its way in the link. try this : [www.myspace.com]

ooooGINOoooo

Hey everyone - thanks for all the kind words. I'm the guy responsible for the CC chalks. I had a lot of fun doing them. I try to make a few of my chalkboards a little obscure, hoping a small group of people will get a kick out of 'em. If you want to check out some more boards, all I have right now is my myspace gallery: [www.myspace.com]

Glad you all dig the art!

ooooGINOoooo