Well, sorta. Slate has a piece on Trader Joe's, a great place to shop. But beware: Two-Buck Chuck is not drinkable, and it is proletarian wine at proletarian prices. In fact, it is repulsive to the palate.

Trader Joe's--we don't call it TJ's here--is definitely a nifty and unique place to shop. I like the selection of ready-made meals: salads, veggies, chicken meals, etc., for when the wallet is just a little fatter than the time clock. I especially like Trader's boxed soup--far better than canned, and cheap to boot. The Trader Joe's here attracts the Birkenstock, environmentalist, Marxist, egalitarian types. The parking lot reeks of Honda Civics with Greenpeace, NPR, or vegan bumper stickers. There are more beaded necklaces per capita in that place than there was in Haight-Ashbury in all of '67.