The first few months here I hit the Whole Foods on South St. , but my DE trader Joes' friends kept on getting after me and telling me that the Trader Joes on 21st and Market is a dope store, better than the one on Rt. 202. So alas, the last month I've been hitting that store up, even though it is farther, to see if it stacks up against Whole Foods.
Here's the criteria for rating the stores:
1. Ease of riding to and also possibly taking public tranz to.
2. Parking spot for bikes
3. Selection of fine organic foods.
4. Prices
5. Selection of fine ladies
6. Sales Staff
7. Chocolate Selection
The Shootout!!!
1. Ease of riding to and also possibly taking public tranz:
WF is pretty much a straight shot up 11th st. for me, but 11th has trolley tracks which are evil and they like to grab wheels and throw cyclists to the ground, and so I have to ride up to 13th st and then up to South St. Approximate ride time is 5 minutes. Subway isn't too applicable to take as it would take more time walking to the rail-line than actually walking to the store. I probably wouldn't take the bus to WF either. Ride back is just taking 10th st. from South St. all the way back to my st. a nice easy ride.
The ride to TJ's is easily twice as long. I head up 13th and take a left onto Lombard and take Lombard to 20th and then head to Market. Though on non-rush hour times it's wicked fun to instead head up to Walnut as that street always has a bunch of hotties walking any time of the day. The ride to TJ's does get a little dicey at times as I go through the heart of downtown Philly and so I have to flip on the aggressive bike rider hat and fight for space with cabbies. This ride can be more fun though b/c of that. Public tranz would work for TJ's, I could walk to the Broad St. line and take that to Market. Then walk 5 blocks to TJ's. This would entail more walking than a walk to WF's though.
Winner is WF
2. Parking spots for bikes
WF Parking is top notch. There's 2 locations. One setup is right next to their entry way, the other is in the parking garage, which come winter time should be a good spot. Plus not many cyclists know about the parking garage spots and so you will always have space to lock up your bike in any config you want. Also another big + is that the parking spots have video cameras watching. Oh yes and don't forget about the fun ride down the exit ramp out of the parking garage.
The TJ parking has tons of space, but also can be filled with tons of bikes on certain days. If you hit it on a weekend, you will have to get creative with your lock, but anytime during the week, you'll be fine. One perk of TJ parking is that you will always see some sweet people movers locked up, nothing bling, just bikes with a lot of love and purpose built into them. TJ"s parking is also right next to it's entry way, though I don't think there's any video cameras.
Winner is WF, though not by much.
3. Selection of fine organic foods.
WF has phenomenal marketing and display of their foods, both organic and nasty pesticide versions. It's quite a beautiful mosaic of fruit and veggie colors and it gives me an artlike feeling everytime I see it, though it also always makes my ADD go into a tailspin, as there's so much to see and I just don't know where to look first. Their organic selection is quite good (never as good as Newark Co-Op though) and my only big gripe is that they don't totally segregate the organic from the nasty pesticide produce. Someone needs to tell WF that it's ok to segregate the organic from the non, it would make it easier to find what I need. It's not like they are different races of people or something like that. WF does carry a wide variety of organic frozen fruits, which TJ's stopped carrying about a year ago. I can understand not everyone wants to pay $4 for 10 oz of frozen blueberries, but come winter time that's the only way I can still eat organic fruit. I'll pay for it when I want it. WF also has the bulk food dispensing area, similar to the Newark co-op, which TJ's does not have.
TJ's has a store layout which seems to be built for males. There's a definite segregation of organic and pesticide food. There's not an overly abundant selection (for instance, there's only one kind of organic black beans you can buy), there's not much focus on distracting displays, and everything seems to be in a very logical order. TJ's seem to have seen the light and created a store which is the fastest to shop in the whole world. While their selection on everything is a lot less than WF, it's very efficient and it keeps the thinking to a minimum. Think, you walk in wanting organic olive oil. You hit WF and see there are 5 kinds, damn now you have to pick each bottle up and read about them to see which oil may be better. Not at TJ's there's one kind there. Bam!, no thought at all, just pick up the bottle and move on.
Winner is TJ's by a slight margin b/c of ease of shopping. WF's does carry a wider selection, but I don't live to shop, I live to ride my bike and survive by eating good food.
4. Price$
Prices at WF are straight up higher than TJ's, it take only about 1 minute to find that out. I've seen a few things which are the sames prices at WF and TJ's, but I've noticed that for many things you can expect to pay 10% more for the same thing at WF. It seems you pay for WF's wider selection.
Winner is TJ's by at least 10%
5. Selection of fine ladies
This by far has taken the majority of the my time and effort during this indepth research project. Each store has it's fair share, though I have noticed a distinct difference in the stores' selections of fine ladies. WF's seem to bring out the hottest mothers in Philly, typically they are in their 30's and look like they probably drove one of the benz's or beemer's up in the parking garage. WF's ladies' also look more corporate and self conscious about their appearance (you know, like the chics who put on all their makeup before they go workout). These ladies also look a bit more high end than the TJ's variety.
The ladies of TJ's seem to have that crunchier feel to them, probably b/c it's close proximety to University City (Drexel and UPenn), though also it could be b/c TJ's has that counter culture thing going. For some reason, it also feels more diverse at TJ's, the ladies shopping there aren't all white, there's a wider variety of ages, and socio-economic status too. I've also found that TJ's also has a greater quantity of ladies at any time of the day, though again, it could be b/c the closeness of the schools.
Winner is..............a tie. Heck, all the ladies are beautiful to me and there is always an abundance at both stores. Though if you are single TJ's does have an edge over WF's.
6. Sales Staff
WF's always seems to have the most chill workstaff. Plus their manager was very helpful one day when $30 of grocery's some how cost me over $50. I've learned my lesson now and I promise I'm not going to flirt with the cute checkout girls. Whenever I do, they seem to double bill me. I guess I'm too sexy and they get distracted or something like that. Oh yes, and there's one WF checkout girl who always sees me and flashes a brilliant smile and a little wave. I'm still trying to remember what I said to her to have her be so friendly to me.
TJ's staff at it's Philly store must be hitting lines of coke in the back as they always have more pep in their step than Carl Lewis. I dig their service as it's speedy, but I do miss that personal touch, though it could just be the difference in location from the DE rt. 202 store and the Philly location. The rt. 202 store knew my name and would even notice when I hadn't been there in 3 days. I have a feeling this TJ store will never notice such a thing.
Winner is WF. Who can't beat a cute girl who goes out of her way to say hi to you everytime you are in the store?
7. Coco Selection
I used 3 criteria in rating this: Price, Quantity and Quality.
WF's coco selection doesn't impress me, it's definitely not set up for the addicts, it's more geared to the coniseur. Good selection of higher quality coco, but the quantity/price ration always ends up being a smaller number than almost any coco at TJ's.
TJ's has $1.49/ 14 oz of chocolate chips, that's crap chips typically at a price that low, but not at TJ's. The chips are dynamite. Then when you want to step it up to organic/gourment coco, they got it going on. They used to carry Terra Nostra, but then it seems Terra Nostra now makes the coco, but TJ's puts their name on it. Best damn organic chocolate I've ever had. The 57% coco bar is yummy the 72% bar is rocket fuel.
TJ's wins by a big chocolate induced high!
Overall conclusions and additional reserach notes.
Both stores will continue to be visited by me as neither store offers a complete shopping heaven, though both do their jobs well. TJ's stores are efficient and inexpensive, while WF offer a complete shopping experience, though it is more tedious and expensive. Both stores also have fine ladies in every isle and so until the day arrives where I have a fine shopping companion, I'll have to keep all the isle's open for shopping.
Oh yes, and I did also check out the Shoprite in the Snyder Plaza. Phukk'n sucks. It may be a little cheaper, but time is money and that store takes too much time. Plus they only carry pesticide food. There's a reason why WFMI (that's WF's ticker) has quadroupled in 2 years and why Safeway, Albertsons and the other grocery chains are struggling. The stores are way too big and take too much time to shop.
Also I doubt everyone saw the article on TJ's in Forbes a few weeks ago, but incase you didn't know, TJ's is not publically traded in the US. It's owned by a European conglomerate after the founder sold the business a few years ago. Luckily for us though, he still runs the company.
Hopefully he'll see the light and open a TJ in South Philly. We need to share some healthier food with the general population down here.
Whole Foods Market http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/list_PA.html
Trader Joes http://www.traderjoes.com/locations/map/634.asp
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