RSS FeedHowto: Find Groceries – West End Trader Joe’s
Welcome to part three of our four part series where we look at the nearest accessible chain grocery stores. The store “du jour” is the West End Trader Joe’s (Store #653) at 1101 25th Street, NW, the intersection of 25th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. By car, you need to take a crosstown street such as K or I or Constitution and then cut north of Pennsylvania Avenue on 25th Street. The garage entrance is on the right as you head north on 25th Street. By Metro, you could get off at Foggy Bottom-GWU (Orange-Blue Lines) but then you have to hoof it for four blocks. By bus, however, both the Penn Ave Line (30, 32, 34 and 36 [PDF]) and the DC Circulator (Yellow line) pass right by and drop you off at the corner. The DC incarnation of this Cali based chain is open 9 am to 9 pm daily and is just under 2 miles from the core of Chinatown.
Plusses: Well balanced variety of foods, low prices on TJ branded items, fun shopping environment, fun flyers (such as their 2007 Summer Guide [PDF]), beer and wine available.
Minuses: Limited number of parking spots, long lines on weekends (but they move quickly), no familiar big consumer product brands sold (for example, nothing from Procter and Gamble)
Community Influence: Youthful clientele – lots of GWU students.
For off peak visits, this blogger likes this store…a lot. Despite a small footprint, they have a slice of everything including fruits, veggies, dairy, breads, meats, seafood, frozen foods, bathroom essentials, beer and wine. You won’t find any big corporate brand products stocked here that you find at Giant or Safeway; I have to get my Tide laundry soap elsewhere. The Jimmy Buffet dressed staff are always friendly and helpful and when all eleven cashiers are checking people out, the long single file line moves along quickly. I waited for 11 minutes and couldn’t imagine the line being any longer. If you go here during peak hours, you will have to wait for a parking spot in the garage. At 3 pm on a Sunday, there were five cars queued to park and at 3 minutes each, that’s 15 minutes of wait time. Fortunately, there was a street spot available on L Street which I snagged. Getting there by bus, bike or Metro are other good options and of the four stores we are reviewing, this store is arguably the safest to visit. If you’re a beer and wine person, then it’s also a reasonable choice. Two Buck Chuck (plus the better wine brands) and Magic Hat brew abounds in the beer and wine section. Sometimes there are so many people in the store, it is difficult to move around, but, the moderate prices and the consistently good food quality make this a repeat choice.
Next month’s store review: Logan Circle Whole Foods
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Comments
Pentagon Row Harris Teeter still has a better selection/price equation than Tjoes, Whole Paycheck, or Un-Safeway. Metro accessible and open 24-hours. Worth the cab fare and the self-checkout is worth the price of admission. They must be doing pretty good since they’re putting ANOTHER one up a mile down Route 1 next door to the Shoppers Food Warehouse.
I’ve perfected the fastest route to TJ’s from our side of the city:
1. Mass Ave heading west. This lets you go under Thomas Circle and skip all those lights.
2. At Scott Circle, get on Rhode Island Ave.
3. At the Connecticut intersection, merge onto M st. M is one way here and absolutely flies.
4. Left on 25th st, and left again into TJ’s parking garage.
Incidentally this is the fastest way to Gtown as well. Shouldn’t take an longer than 10 min even in traffic once you know which lanes to be in. In light traffic K might be faster buy its a crapshoot
I have no life
You are right about the crowds during peak hours. I went here once on a Saturday afternoon and felt like I was grocery shopping and trying to navigate my cart around Times Square it was so packed. The checkout wait time was also 20 minutes. While the TJ’s had some unique items, the stress of the experience was not worth it.
My favorite plan for shopping at TJ’s is this:
1. Put on running gear.
2. Jog along Pennsylvania Ave all the way to 25th street (the most direct route door to door)
2. Take metro or Circulator home with my groceries.
No car. Healthy exercise. Cheap wine. All good 
In addition to lots of GW students, the lines are often full of alcoholics, er, wine enthusiasts, with carts full of their value priced wines.
I hope these folks aren’t driving.
The quality of TJs is vastly superior to HT. HT is a standard grocery store which is cleaner and better lit than many of its competitors, but mostly stocks the same stuff as Safeway, Giant, Food Lion, etc…
TJ may not have everything a grocery shopper may want, but it has a lot, most of it very good quality and reasonably priced. They need to open an ‘East End’ store.
It took awhile to convince me to use TJ’s, but once I did, I was pleasantly surprised.
The values are excellent and I am amazed at the high quality of the frozen foods (I am not a frozen food fan, but they have changed my ways).
Yes, the lines can be long on Sundays, as they are at any grocery store in the area, including Harris Teeter.
It seems that Tj’s not only have the friendliest checkers, but also some of the friendliest customers I have encountered anywhere (and I have lived in just about every state in the union).
The lines seem to move quickly and I always find myself chatting with someone in line.
They have generous free samples that have enticed me to try out a product that I may have missed.
Like any other store, I do not find everything here. But then, when I lived in Tampa, where a grocery seemed to be on every corner, I still had to shop at more than one store.
Who cares if someone is buying lots of wine? They do the same at Calvert Woodley. It is an inexpensive way to sample different wines.
Every store should use these “Disney style” lines..one line filtered out to several friendly checkers…very efficient.
The walk to the metro isn’t bad if you’re using those cloth grocery sacks they sell for 99 cents – the handles are long enough to swing over your shoulder, plus you have the satisfaction of being an environmentally friendly shopper.
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I actually find the Old Town Tjoes to be closer time-wise. I can get there in under 15. Thats pushing it to get to Foggy Bottom. Usually takes me 20 plus plus the traffic is horrible over there.
TJoes does have the best pre-made frozen foods though – their microwaveable meals and frozen pizzas and such are quite good