Comments on: Have you been to Whole Foods/Trader Joes? How to they stack up to ET’s?

By: Gnome

Gnome — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:59:12 +0000

Well good patricia, stay away from them then, more room for those who are impressed with them.

By: Patricia

Patricia — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:31:24 +0000

Not impressed with either one. Big deal.

By: Bassett

Bassett — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:00:44 +0000

Former river city dweller now up in Boston.

Elliot Thompson is fine, but I think that cost and scale are the biggest differences.

Whole Foods is FANTASTIC for produce, meats, cheeses. It’s the only place I buy fish from … if I can afford it, but certainly the only place I get fish if I am making sushi. Their 365 store-brand products are decently priced, but regular grocery stores are starting to bite into those prices with their organic products (much more organic stuff these days in regular supermarkets and their store brands are the cheapest out there).

Trader Joes is great for packaged stuff. Pretzels, snacks, frozen burritos, wine/beer, etc. I’m not a fan of their produce or meats.

By: tanya

tanya — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:10:57 +0000

I loved Trader Joe’s! so many things were at least $1 cheaper than even Kroger. Customer service was nice, they let me crack open a pumpkin beer in the store and see if it was pumpkiny enough. Also don’t have to buy a six pack of anything, just whatever. Great inexpensive wine selection.
Whole Foods was nice with great customer service as well. My self bagged salad ended up being free and when I was looking for dog treats and couldn’t find a sample size, the guy just wrote it off as a sample and it ended up being free. Great wine beer and wonderful seafood selection. The boiled shrimp reminded me of home(new orleans, biloxi)!

By: Adam Kunicki

Adam Kunicki — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:28:09 +0000

ET’s is ridiculously expensive. Whole Foods is much larger but pricey as well unless you buy their store brand.

Trader Joe’s on the other hand is my favorite. Its more geared towards prepared foods for people with little time or effort for cooking. Almost everything there is great tasting and is usually frozen. The prices are reasonable and you can get away with dinners for <$2.50.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:24:17 +0000

I haven’t gone to the Whole Foods in Richmond yet, although I was recently in Maryland and visited a location there cos it was near the hotel I was staying in. I thought their prices were pretty good. Their bakery items were really good.

Trader Joe’s prices are awesome, although the store was much smaller than I thought it would be, and I didn’t notice a hot bar at all. Most of the food I’ve gotten is pretty good, although their frozen vegetable samosas are bad.

Both are way too far out for me to visit often though. But I also can’t make ET my only store. I pretty much only go there for a few select items that I can’t get at Kroger.

By: Bud Tugly

Bud Tugly — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:05:54 +0000

WF clobbers ET in price, selection and variety, no if’s, and’s or but’s. ET has it’s definite place but it can’t compare or compete with EF which is whyI am not terribly optimistic for their futures success in DC. WF is nearby and there are any number of organic/health food specialty shops in the area who have an establish clientele and lower prices.

I love TJ’s for certain things like nuts or other relatively healthy snack foods as well as excellent selection of coffee’s at great prices and of course “Three Buck Chuck”. Some of there prepared stuff is fine but on balance we keep to the above mentioned items and use WF, Ukrops, Kroger, etc for produce.

WF house brands are excellent quality and value, TJ’s prepared stuff is convenient and also good quality at good prices and far less expensive the E.

By: chase

chase — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:35:01 +0000

ET wins just because I can walk there, and because the one time I went to WF (near the opening) it was an effing Zoo with a miserable labyrinth of a parking system. That said, great stuff in there! great hot bar, fair but not great prices. haven’t tried the wine bar yet.

I gotta say, I was disappointed with TJs. The produce and frozen fish I got was either moldy or, in the case of the fish, repulsive mush. I don’t drink much wine but it looked like you could save some money getting loaded there.

By: ET Shopper

ET Shopper — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:13:46 +0000

The best thing about Whole Foods is that their private label organic stuff is cheap, way cheaper than Ellwood’s or even Kroger. Even the name-brand stuff is cheaper. If you call it Whole Paycheck, then ET would be Paycheck and a Half. I love ET, and I buy what I can there, but it could never be my only store.