Oh how I love Trader Joe's

I just returned from a trip to Trader Joe's in Ardmore. When baby Doodle and I arrived he was quite hungry and I knew he wouldn't sit still while I loaded the cart with delicious food for later. I grabbed a basket of nectarines and asked a TJ's employee if she had a knife to open the netting around the fruit. She quickly went off to grab one. She freed an unripe nectarine from the netting and asked if I wanted her to wash it, to which I replied, "that would be great, thanks."

I didn't see the canned tuna that TJ's usually has so I asked a guy who was restocking the frozen foods if they still sold it. He said that they did and that it was in the next aisle over. I said I could find it, but he insisted on escorting me there himself. Where the blue and red tuna cans usually sit was a line of olive green and black cans with tuna packed in oil. He made a convincing case as to why it's not that bad for you -- it's packed in olive oil which has the good kind of fat and cholestoral. I declined to get any since it's for my in-laws this weekend and they're pretty picky about food, especially my father-in-law.

After shopping for a while we went to the check out where the nice young man (I sound like my grandmother) made small talk with baby Doodle and asked if he likes balloons. He does, but he was already, without saying an actual real word, asking the gentleman behind us to get the one that had flown to the ceiling for him. He obliged and BD had his balloon, which he kept tightly between his thumb and forefinger all the way home.

Upon noticing that I had brought my own canvas bags to use for the groceries the nice young man asked if I wanted a raffle ticket. Apparently when you bring your own bags you get to enter a raffle in which the prize is free TJ food. I'll take it!

I've been a patron of Trader Joe's for about eight years now, but I had such a pleasant experience today that I thought I'd give them a shout out. I hope we get one in Manayunk some day.