Why You Can't Shop at Trader Joe's Online

Dec 05, 2023

The grocery store chain explained its reasons on a recent episode of its podcast.

Jelisa Castrodale has been a staff writer with Food & Wine since 2019.

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Last summer a new grocery delivery service quietly launched on Manhattan's Upper West Side and almost immediately it was the hottest thing going. It became impossible to book a time slot and the site accumulated a lengthy wait-list before shutting down entirely. Why the hype? Because for a $9.99-per-order delivery fee, TJ-Delivery.com would deliver up to $150 worth of groceries from Trader Joe's to anyone who lived between 59th and 110th Street.

If you’re a regular Instacart or Shipt user, you know that you can't shop Trader Joe's from an app, and the store doesn't offer its own online ordering, or even curbside pickup (even as many retailers moved in that direction during the Covid-19 pandemic). On the FAQ section of its website, Trader Joe's explains that it wants to remain a brick-and-mortar store because physically shopping at one of its stores is part of the overall experience.

"We set up our stores with care, finding just the right Crew and creating a rewarding shopping experience, full of discovery and welcome," the website reads. "After considering the options, we're still just big ‘ole fans of the neighborhood grocery store where we can say hello when you're looking around wondering ‘what's for dinner?’"

Trader Joe's further explained its "no delivery" stance on a recent episode of its in-house podcast, "Inside Trader Joe's." Co-hosts Tara Miller and Matt Sloan emphasized that the company's stores are as much a part of its brand as its actual products are. On top of that, establishing a delivery service would require a network of delivery trucks and warehouses — which would cost money and could force Trader Joe's to increase its prices.

"All of those other things that retailers have started doing in the last couple of decades add costs," Miller said. "Somewhere in the chain there are costs involved with ordering things online, shipping things to your door, with trucks and warehouses that are dedicated to not servicing a store location, which services a lot of people, but servicing individual homes where products get delivered."

In addition, Miller and Sloan said that a big part of shopping at Trader Joe's is just wandering up and down the aisles, picking up new-to-you products, and interacting with the other customers and TJ's crew members that you’re squeezing past.

"That experience would not be the same if you were trying to order something from a website that just showed you the products you already know about," Miller said. "Walking through the store and meeting up with a crew member who talks to you about a product that just arrived this week in the store. You might not know about that product when you are shopping virtually as opposed to in a physical space, you tend to have blinders on and you see the products you are already looking for."

So basically, no, you’re (probably) never going to be able to have a jar of TJ's Sriracha Sprinkle Seasoning Blend or Ube Mochi Pancake Mix delivery to your door — but if you hadn't walked into a Trader Joe's, you might not have heard of those things in the first place.