Trader Joe's

The closest food purveyor I've had for the past few years has been Trader Joe's. If you've been there, you know they're usually small locations with a lot of store-brand products (they are actually good products, not those bunny-cereal generic ones at Safeway), these products tend to be slightly off the regular path and change fairly often (which is my theory of why they give out samples all day, every day).

I usually walk in the store and, unless I'm extremely pressed for time (read: I have three minutes to purchase something), I go straight to the samples counter. They usually give out fun stuff, sometimes really weird stuff, but usually they'll get you to try something new and buy it. Once, they even offered to open a package of mango mochi ice cream just so I could try it (it worked, I love them). They have coffee every day, and sometimes english or irish breakfast tea (tasty!). That's why this video made me laugh:



A list of associated By The Ways:
- The sugar that won't pour is the Turbinado sugar, it's wetter than regular sugar, more like wet coarse sand. It's a bad idea to put it in diner sugar containers.
- I've been to their store for days straight at a time, usually just an excuse to get a tiny cup of tasty (free) coffee and a cookie (ooooh peppermint joe-joes). And yes, they do have the same sample five days in a row.
- The song is a version of a duet that Maria Creuza sang. It's a childhood song, it makes me think of people visiting the house and dressing up and sitting with the adults having serious conversations and then being told to go play something. :).

I really like this video.