Central Market vs. Trader Joes

I've always been a big fan of Whole Foods, Central Market and Trader Joes. Fortunately for me Whole Foods is right down the street from where I live. Unfortunately, CM and TJ are a trek to downtown Ft. Worth. But well, worth the trip. So I was headed to TJ today when I made the exit and thought well there's Central Market. Maybe I should try it instead. Then I thought, I could go to TJ next and compare the two for my first blog post. So here goes....

When I got to the VERY crowded shopping strip mall that CM is located in, I was very surprised by the number of people at 12pm on a Thursday. Guess it's the lunch hour crowd. Once inside, I was a little intimidated by the maze layout of the store. Everywhere you turned it seemed like you were running into someone. In the produce section you can weigh and print your own labels for your produce and veggies. Ok.....why? Is this for convenience or just to be cool and different. Whatever, I jumped on the band wagon and did it. Very easy to use and that's when I found out how expensive their fruit is! Ayi Yi yi. Mind you I do buy 90% organic but still. Yikes, time to move on. So I traveled through the store and just couldn't find anything I wanted. Nor anything that I thought warranted paying more because it's here. Their prices are ridiculous!And anytime I did their were massive lines to wait in. I don't do lines people. And let me just say, I saw a ton of CM employees buzzing around, but not one said hi or asked me if I needed any help. So I got my fruit, chicken k bobs, hummus and said adios CM!

Less then 5 minutes down the road and a smaller shopping strip I walked into Heaven! TJ is so easy to get in and out of. The produce section is very well laid out, never once did I run into anyone and found everything I was looking for. In fact, while I was picking out my salads a very nice TJ employee asked me if I would like to try a Greek chicken sample. I love Greek food, so I said Yes. While trying this scrumpous sample she said isn't it great and it only takes 2 minutes to heat up. Ding, Ding, Ding....my hold up I'm a very busy working mom alarm just went off. 2 minutes?!,  count me in!! So I bought 2 packages!! As I finish strolling through the store I found myself adding a lot of stuff because of the very healthy organic food variety and very affordable prices. You can see in the pictures below.

So in my opinion, for whatever it's worth, the winner is..........clearly Trader Joe's. Amazing and very friendly staff, very well layed out store, great choices and even better prices.

You get way more for your money at Trader Joes!