The snacks found in the aisles of my local Trader Joe’s were my solace in high school. No matter how bad my day was, I could pop over and grab powerberries, chocolate covered berries that had antioxidants advertised to boost your day, and feel okay. As the Trader Joe’s was right across the street from our high school, my friends and I went there during any free period of the day. We would leave ceramics class to pick up some dark chocolate mint creams to eat before we blew glass, or threw pots. I would bring my best friend salted butterscotch caramels, little balls that could brighten anyone’s day.
Any of these desserts would provide the perfect gift for a friend, teacher, or parent. Trader Joe’s supplied the perfect packaging, cute and so pleasing to the eye that you had to buy it, at the perfect price, as I never felt I was spending too much there. Even as I grew up, graduated from high school and went to college, I still found so much joy in roaming through the aisles there and picking up powerberries, or frozen taquitos, or fruit.
And on one of my days shopping there, a particularly cold day, I saw a woman meet a man after she spilled some of her groceries. As the romantic I am, I wonder what happened. Trader Joe’s: a place to find love inside and out, is what I’ve chosen to believe.
Read “Missed Connections” by B.J. Novak to read this love story, which is what inspired me to write my love letter to Trader Joe’s. https://www.npr.org/2014/01/21/256606027/exclusive-first-read-and-listen-b-j-novaks-one-more-thing