Thursday, January 05, 2006

About The Blog (And A Little Legal Disclaimer Too)

I just wanted to take a moment to say I'm not affiliated with Trader Joe's at all. Really I'm just doing this blog because (in no particular order)
  • there's nothing that good on TV, even though I just upgraded my cable to add Showtime and Starz (yes I do have a DVR but DVRs don't solve the problem of the fact that there's nothing on)
  • It's about time I jumped on this whole blog bandwagon. There was this guy at my work in 2000 that was posting stories and pictures about his vacations on his web log. I mocked him endlessly. I bet he's making millions from his stupid travel blog.
  • A Trader Joes just opened up in West Hartford, where my parents live. I tried to explain to them how magical Trader Joes was, but I think a blog is a much better way to go into great detail that probably they aren't even interested in.
  • Me and my friends always talk about how much we love Trader Joes. I just thought it was time to let the world know about our weird passion.
  • I tried to do a blog on TV shows that people should watch or a blog about Target or a blog about beauty products that I love but none of those really took off.
  • I like the idea of sharing my "Heating Up Cooking Concept (TM)" with everyone. Keep watching this blog for a video of my upcoming cooking show "Heating Up Food From TJs" if I can convince Paul to be my camera man.
Okay but back to the main point of this post, that I'm not affiliated with Trader Joe's. I really really really hope they don't get mad at me for doing this blog, I guess the only thing they could get mad at is that I'm publishing pictures of their food and their package copy (help me out here Aunt Marlene)? Well they shouldn't get mad because this is free publicity right?

So go visit www.traderjoes.com so that they don't get mad at me. Plus you can learn more about their produts, find locations near you and download a copy of the latest Fearless Flyer.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey! I don't think a fantastic professional scrapbooker such as yourself should call my obsession weird. I'm just saying :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi kid,
As you say, there is no such thing as bad publicity; besides, since all their stuff is for sale to the public, there should be no issues about publishing any of the copy on any item that is already out there in the public domain. Have fun with it.
Aunt Marlene

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed your blog. Apparently you weren't exaggerating when you said work was slow....
The plastic vs. canvas bag dilemna is more easily resolved when you have a dog- the plastic bags can be reused as doggy doody bags. I know - way too much information.

Kartik said...

I have so many things to say about this post, it is kind of unreal. Ok,

1) Yes, the handles do break on those paper bags, which seriously makes me wonder why they put them on there in the first place. Did they do like zero testing to see if this would be a good idea or not?

2) I also take my lunch to work in plastic bags, and just this weekend I realized that I will never be able to eat enough lunches to use all the bags, so I wrapped up 95% of them and recycled them at Safeway (is speaking of Safeway blasphemy on this blog?).

3) Ok, the problems with the canvas bags are several-fold: a) You have to pay for a bag, which is replacing something that is otherwise free, b) If you forget to bring the bag, then you feel all annoyed because you are getting regular bags after you paid for the canvas bag, c) If you leave the bag in your car, you clutter up your car and it is a steep and slippery slope until you are leaving all sorts of crap in your car all the time and when people get in you have to say, "Oh sorry, just dump that stuff on the floor. I really need to clean up in here," d) The canvas bags are going to get totally gross over time and that grosses me out (and if you wash them, then not only have you paid for a bag, but you are paying to wash it).

4) What is a bleach pen? It sounds powerful, but also dangerous.

5) I have a friend who just moved to SF and because she only has a dorm-sized refrigerator, she gave me that crap line about how she was going to be all Euro and just buy a couple things every day, but you know what? It's a real pain in the ass to go to the grocery store everyday, and Europeans work shorter hours and therefore have more time to go to the grocery store, and I love going to the grocery store and spending $200 once a month so I don't have to go every day and buy some lame-ass baguette and milk that has been homogenized to the point that it doesn't even have to be refrigerated. And since when did you start to think that Europeans are wonderful?

6) Cancel Showtime and Starz. All anybody needs in life is HBO and Comedy Central. Though I do really love The Office and I would probably pay for Showtime or Starz if it were on either of those channels.

7) I believe that co-worker's site disappeared shortly after you stopped working at that company, but I do totally commend you for mentioning it here because it did provide hours of mockery and amusement.

8) This is my very first blog posting. Can you believe that? And on a TJ's web site, when I don't even shop there.

Unknown said...

kartik - thanks for the detailed post see answers below:

1) goddamn they needed to do some focus group testing on those stupid paper bags.

2) wow good for you, I usually end up throwing them away in my recycling bin, which half the time gets put in the regular trash.

3) I understand the worries about forgetting them and I have to admit I've done that a couple of times. But not enough to get annoyed. And I've also let go of being annoyed by all the clutter in my trunk, basically my trunk just carts around crap that I actually need on a weekly basis (tennis equipment, swimming stuff, bottled water, laundry detergent and TJs canvas bags). I guess the canvas bags are going to get gross over time, but no real food is touching them, so they aren't that gross. Remember, I don't even wash my fruit, so why would I wash my canvas bags? I'm sure I'm slowly killing Paul and I.

4) Here's a link to the bleach pen:
http://tinyurl.com/b4aex
It doesn't really work but I still like to occasionally use it in my kitchen on the gross grout.

5) I'm sorry if I gave the impression that Europeans are awesome. They are so not awesome. But I really really really hate carrying a million grocery bags up the stairs and I'm fine going to TJs twice a week, if it means I don't have to carry ten million grocery bags up the stairs. Did I mention that I hate carrying grocery bags up the stairs?

6) Showtime and Starz are so going away.

7) I can't wait to start the mocking again of Todd's Web Log.

8) There is no excuse for not going to Trader Joes, especially since you live in California.
Link to TJs locations in Northern Cali: http://tinyurl.com/autal

And yes I might start a new blog soon called "I Heart Tiny URL"