9 Frequent Complaints Trader Joe's Shoppers Have

Trader Joe's is a well-loved grocery chain with roots dating back to 1967. It has a lot of amazing snacks, interesting products, great deals, and friendly crew members (what it calls its staff) to help it stand out to loyal customers. After all, you can't be a 50+ year-old grocery store with locations sprawled across the United States if you didn't have some incredible things in place. However, Trader Joe's is not perfect and has some issues that customers frequently raise.

We sought customer insights from public forums like Facebook and Reddit and drew on our own insights as frequent, decades-long shoppers. Let's dive into some of the biggest and most persistent issues that the company has in its stores, from food quality to packaging to the store layout. These are not standalone one-time issues either, but rather consistent problems that people discuss. In fact, it's likely you may have experienced some, if not all, of these yourself.

Trader Joe's has a lot of impressive products, but produce isn't always one of them. The chain receives many customer complaints about its fresh produce, including fruits, vegetables, and salad kits. Subpar might be a nice way to put it, but people say these products are horrendous, horrific, terrible — you get the drill. People complain that the produce wilts or spoils very quickly and that you have to use it on the day of purchase, or else you may need to toss it. 

They say that things like onions, cantaloupe, cucumbers, pre-cut vegetables, and raspberries tend to get moldy quickly, and some are even moldy right in the store. Loyal fans report they still like the grocery chain, but agree that the produce can be a disappointment. Rather than relying on TJ's for your fresh fruit and veggies, you may want to go to a farmers market or other store — unless you want mushy tomatoes, that is. At least that's what some customers do.

Why are Trader Joe's parking lots so chaotic? It's not just an occasional location; we've been to plenty of stores, and virtually all have too-small parking with strange configurations that seem more like a maze. It's so notorious for its abysmal parking that there are entire Reddit threads and TikTok viral skits dedicated to complaining and joking about it. Some say there's hardly any parking and that you have to circle the parking lot multiple times or find a spot on the street instead; and that must make carrying your TJ's haul quite a trek.

Others report potholes in their store parking lots or even humorous signs congratulating them for finding parking (Reads: "Congratulations! You found a parking spot at Trader Joe's). Despite all these issues, as one customer pointed out, people dislike the parking, but not enough to boycott the store entirely. Some locations have larger parking lots or are situated in areas with parking garages, but they're still reportedly hard to navigate and ultra-busy.

There are plenty of TikTok videos where Trader Joe's customers list off products they miss. These videos get thousands of views, likes, and comments, because customers are so loyal to their favorite products, and they're sad to see them go. People say they miss anything from Belgian chocolate pudding to vegan tikka masala spiced popcorn to yogurt stars. A lot of items come with a wave of nostalgia, but plenty of customers mourn recent items, too — we're still bummed about saying goodbye to pancake bread in 2025.

Trader Joe's even has an online contact form for people to leave feedback. "Everything I love gets discontinued. I'm so over it," one Facebook user laments. That's one of the unofficial tips for shopping at the store: Never fall in love with a product, because you never know if it'll be discontinued one day, and whether or not you'll be able to find a decent replacement. That's because the company tends to source from specific suppliers, making it difficult to find the same product elsewhere.

A lot of people complain about the aisles at Trader Joe's. It's not always that the aisles are small; in fact, they are wide enough to fit at least a couple of shopping carts side by side, but some say they'd like them to be even wider. Others share, though, their stores have narrow aisles. However, as TJ's regulars, we can compare shopping in the store to driving and not following the rules of the road: The aisles are like stop-and-go traffic, with people coming to a dead stop in the middle of the aisle and leaving their cart unattended, brake-checking, swerving, and turning in random directions, going against the flow of traffic, and potentially running into you.

There's a whole thread that revolves around this question posed by a Redditor: "Is there a scientific explanation behind why Trader Joe's shoppers are always so... lacking in spatial awareness?" People complain about chaos and cramped aisles, but also say it has to do with how TJ's organizes itself. The frozen foods, for example, require a person to stop and peer into the freezer to see what's available. Others call out that you might not know what something is and have to stop to read the label, or that the employees are posted in inconvenient spots as they restock. No matter the reason, it can be incredibly difficult to navigate the aisles of Trader Joe's.

Discontinued items are products that Trader Joe's completely pulls from the shelves and no longer sells; however, customers also complain about items going out of stock, sometimes for extended periods. This can be especially cumbersome if you come to the store seeking specific items for a recipe or rely on Trader Joe's products, resulting in a stressful shopping trip. People complain that they look for items, but they're not there, or that the shelves look bare and out of stock on any given day if they don't go before rush hour. 

Unfortunately, part of the problem is other customers buying excessive amounts of product. Some complain they've seen customers buy 20 of one product or return multiple days in a row to wipe out a product's stock. On the flip side, customers say they buy in bulk because they may live far from a TJ's store. Sometimes you might just see a gap where an item usually is; other times, the crew members flip the sign or remove it to indicate it's not in stock. If you're lucky, your store may have a sign noting that something's just out of stock and that it will return shortly. At least that's a hopeful indicator.

If you've been to more than one Trader Joe's, you may have noticed that the stores don't look identical. Therefore, finding what you need is not intuitive, and you might have to search to locate the aisles and products you want. For example, one person complained that crackers are in the freezer aisle, and we've noticed this too. Chocolates and candies are located above the frozen pastas; some prepared refrigerated foods are located near the entrance, while others are by the dairy. Sometimes the seafood is located next to other seafood, but randomly, they might put a portion of the items in an end cap freezer. 

Generally, people think the layout is pretty lousy overall. Another shares that they went to a second location when the gouda they were looking for was out of stock, only to find that the floor plans were totally different. Apparently, this can vary based on the store's size, how old the location is, or other factors. Navigating Trader Joe's is tricky, and at this point, you just have to accept that no TJ's will look exactly alike.

People frequently gripe about Trader Joe's abundance of plastic packaging. They say that most of the produce (organic produce, too) is wrapped in plastic, cardboard, or simply has more packaging than necessary. "Want some broccoli? Plastic. Need brussel sprouts? Plastic and cardboard. Need a jalapeño? Here take 20, and a plastic bag to boot. They even coat each individual cucumber in a condom of plastic!" one Redditor mentions. Households that actively work to reduce their waste say that they don't shop at TJ's as much for that very reason. It doesn't stop in the produce aisle, either. People also report that items like tea come individually wrapped, or that cookies come in a cardboard box, a plastic tray, and a plastic wrapper. 

They also note that it's not just wasteful, but it's also frustrating, because it adds extra steps to their unloading — they have to remove and dispose of all the packaging, making things more inconvenient. Even though TJ's notes that many things can be recycled, most just go to the landfill. According to Global Plastics Outlook: Economic Drivers, Environmental Impacts and Policy Options, a report by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, only 9% of plastics are actually recycled globally.

For the most part, many customers are satisfied that Trader Joe's doesn't offer self-checkout, and can even leave the store in a better mood, because of the friendly interactions. But still, some patrons wish a self-checkout option existed. Employees are known for being chatty at checkout, and some shoppers say they don't particularly like that experience, which is why self-checkout sounds like a good idea. One TikTok even jokes about the checkout experience, captioning that self-checkout would be great for introverts; it garnered thousands of comments from customers, including people who say the checkout feels like they're being interrogated or that they leave feeling socially drained. 

But it's not just about the interactions. Some say they typically like self-checkout so they can get out of the store quicker, especially if they only have a couple of items. This comes into play if you're behind a long line of people whose carts are completely full. Well, people will have to stay mad, because executives say that they won't add self-checkout to the stores.

Although Trader Joe's has some whimsical packaging, people also say it comes with problems. They don't exactly know what they're getting, and therefore, there's a TJ's learning curve, especially for new customers. "Why does a grocery store need a learning curve?" one person getting interviewed on the popular SubwayTakes videos asks about Trader Joe's, calling out that you don't really know what things are and might even have to do some additional research via Reddit to decipher what to get. 

Comments agree that they don't quite know what they're going to get by packaging alone. For example, Joe-Joe's is a line of sandwich cookies, while Joe's O's is a cereal akin to Cheerios, and Jingle Jangle and Springle Jangle are different seasonal versions of the same general chocolates and candies. Products often have strange names, so you don't know off the bat what it is. In an episode of the Inside Trader Joe's podcast, an official TJ's podcast, the hosts share that items sometimes have funky names as a way to tell a story or a joke. Still, you have to spend time clogging up the aisles to read and figure things out, which is also apparently annoying to customers.