They have good prices on some things. They are better in overall prices than Whole Foods, in my experience.
Trader Joe's even beats Woodman's on some organic foods.
I don't see Trader Joe's as a luxury store for people looking to blow money. They are not good on all prices, though, so only someone with extra money or no time to spare would do all shopping there.

There is a whole socioeconomic side to retail that is touched on here... You have different classes of retail, from the high dollar to the deep discount. Go to the "cheap" part of town and see how many high dollar supermarkets are there VS the local, ethnnic, or discount grocers. Then reverse that test - how many truly deep discount grocers do you see in affluent neighborhoods?

The rub is this - if an "economically higher" market goes into an "economically lower" neighborhood, it brings the property value and prosperity of the area up. For a "community leaderdhip group" like the aforementioned PAALF this is a disaster, because their opressed soldiers in their war are not as opressed, and their power to control "their group" is diminished.

+1 for "oppressed soldiers".

No, Extortion Racket is Apropos... Having lived in a city controlled by kindred spirits to this Portland Group (Oakland, CA), it's amazing the depths they will go to to keep the opressed people opressed, to keep them voliatle and angry at the "entitled classes" while those in control skim off the money and guard their golden gooseegg with the ferocity of a bengal tiger protecting its cubs, while telling everyone how they were part of the "downtrodden masses" themselves and they were looking out for their best interests.

When you live in a city like that, it is an educational experience just how dangerous the moocher class can be... and how accurately Ayn nailed it when she wrote about exploiting the source of power to death, then fighting over the scraps and dregs.

Any wonder why we left for our Valhalla? ;-)

good for them. they are expensive but offer unique choices which I like. Also, you can get good deals on wine

They are and they vote. See Detroit.

I think "Protection Racket" is when you pay someone to stay in business. The best term I can think of would be "Extorting a bribe.) They wanted Trader Joe's to pay them a bribe to let them build.. Extortion may not be the correct word, but they sure wanted a bride to go away.

I believe the common term for it is "protection racket."

Maybe. They're trying to guilt and milk a higher end business. Nice try looters.