No Bread and Milk?

I had the day off for Election Day and went around 9am. Not super crowded. Store has a great flow. They had all my favorites. Will be back for sure.

It’s open?? That was fast

I wonder if that's just the daily cycle of things: I see that at the Foxboro store, too, when I am up there.

Plus also, it's new, and folks are curious!

But if that persists past the first month, it would change the way I plan trips there.

I've heard from people who work there that if you go right after they open it's a ghost town for a while. Only works if you have morning availability but that way it's nice a stocked up too!

I've lived across the country. The majority of people do not take the responsibility of driving a 2 ton vehicle seriously. Most drivers suck, just the density of PVD and other cities with poor infrastructure accentuate that issue (read, EVERY New England city).

Grid based cities can be better, but NYC is a nightmare too. Until cell phones are eliminated from the driving equation, and major penalties are issued to the worst offenders (think you'd drive like a total ass clown if your car got impounded for it?) We'll just have to live with it

It was around 6:30 PM

There are bad drivers everywhere, they are just bad in different ways. Providence drivers are bad. As a rule of thumb, you see some totally insane shit once every 5 minutes while on the road. But once you learn to predict the stupid shit they are going to do, you acclimate. Spent a lot of time driving in the DC area, Maryland drivers are far more insane and unpredictable imo

was about to post the same thing.

Feel like they just pass everyone cause they feel bad or something like it’s not the point like people have kids in their cars

Go fuck yourself.

Nami if you have the budget (super expensive).

Very true. TJ’s is more like a once a month for me, not every week.

It's right down the street from me, so I'm ecstatic to have affordable groceries (and flowers!) nearby!!

Trader Joe's isn't really supposed to be a place where you get all your grocery shopping done. It's supposed to supplement a larger grocery store. It's also very geared toward giving you ideas. So if you're sitting at home thinking, "What do I want to eat this week?" and you make a grocery list, you probably won't be able to buy everything at Trader Joe's. But if you just show up with no idea what you're going to eat this week, you're supposed to think, "Oh, that would be great, I'm going to do that."

I second Ran Zan for authenticity, simplicity and freshness. Haruki is a solid second bet.

In general I think there is a monotony of convenience.

15 years ago when Trader Joe's was first coming anywhere close to RI it was pretty exciting because if you were a fan you didn't have to drive to Needham or Framingham to go. But in a way needing to make that trip made it feel worth more and be special in some way, and then you would have some Trader Joe's specific stuff in your pantry that you think fondly of because you are holding it for six months until your next trip or whatever.

With it just being there, it can pale in comparison to your regular old grocery store, though for footprint, I actually do think it is possible to make it a one stop regular grocery but requires some compromise - if you like fresh fish you are almost completely out of luck. If you have brand specific tastes, like in potato chips or yogurt, you are out of luck.

I'm wondering if this same thing would happen with other popular bigger box stores people are craving like a local Costco or IKEA or whatever else.

It's because the walk lights at that intersection do not work. The light is green, but it still says do not walk. So even though you're right in the middle of a dense city, you're forced to scurry across the street like a rat. I often walk from near the Hot Club to Wickenden, and it's so goddamn stressful and dangerous.

Went on Saturday to pick up a couple things. It was beyond busy, and people just STOP in the middle of the aisle with no spatial awareness or concern for other people. It was like construction on 95 every aisle, a complete clusterfuck.

After unsuccessfully trying to find what I was looking for due to shelves that looked like communist era Soviet times (picked clean) I left, marveled at how unaware people are of their surroundings.

TL/DR don't go on a Saturday 😂

Went the day after it opened and it wasn’t crowded at all. Parking was easy. This location is an “average-sized” TJ. The one in Warwick feels a bit bigger? But great location - once the construction is done around that area it will be even better.

I’m not bothered by the curation part. Having 1 instead of 20 items is fine. My issue was I can’t reliably find one thing in a category sometimes. The produce selection leaves a lot to be desired, for example. I still go to TJ’s and find good things, I just have to plan to go to another store afterwards to get the rest, that’s all.

Of course, it's great to have a Trader Joe's but the parking under the covered area is crazy cramped. There are going to be a ton of accidents there.

Something can be a cliche and still be true

I don't go to Trader Joes often as it really isn't a grocery store in the sense that I can walk in with a list and walk out with everything. Same is true for Aldi. I go on occasion for their snacks and neat frozen meals. They have a good cheese selection also.

Whether it was for Trader Joe's, this development in general, or a complaint of some kind, RIDOT (or maybe the city but this is an RIDOT designed intersection) changed the timing and order of the light a couple of weeks ago and gave a big nearly unused chunk of time to traffic coming off of Benefit. It may unintentional and be a broken sensor or something that triggers the light but I went from not really noticing the time I spend at this intersection (staying straight on Wickenden/Point) to it making me annoyed every trip.

That said, 5-10 minutes seems pretty extreme unless you are only commuting at the exact peak hour and have to commute through the parking lot. Unless you are blaming Trader Joe's for 195 traffic that has existed since it was on the old route. Or you have a penchant for drama because you got annoyed one day. Which is cool I do it too. But I came through this (coming back from weird as shit November beach day on Saturday) at peak shopping hour and had no real problem getting off at 195. Maybe it's the lunch crowd? Though, I grabbed lunch at TJ's yesterday and didn't really observe this, and had lunch at Geoff's on South Main Friday and neither day did the intersection seem any worse than normal.

On Friday night it did look bad, but I think the construction crew mistakenly closed (or hadn't yet opened) the sidewalk so everyone was walking in the road where the safety fence already encroaches. Or people are just dumb and missed the sidewalk and decided walking in the road was the best option rather than figuring out the alternative.