Trader Joe's is a popular specialty grocery store with a dozen outlets in the greater New York, and hundreds more around the country. You can buy vegan nuts, seeds, berries, bars and everything else from Smoked Chicken Apple Chardonnay Sausage to Tom Yum Cashews.
Yesterday, I dropped into our local Trader Joe's to investigate. I spoke with the manager:
Me: What products do you carry that contain chia seeds? Do you carry whole or ground chia seeds?
Trader Joe's Store Manager: Chia seeds? What are they?
Me: Chia seeds are a rediscovered crop, used like flax seeds (we were standing next to the flax tortilla chips at the time.) They don't go rancid or have to be ground. Blah blah, etc.
Me: FYI, Wild By Nature, your competitor, carries chia seeds.
Trader Joe's Store Manager: Sounds interesting. But we got burned with Acai berries. Anyway, there's no demand for them yet. You're the first person to ask.
Is it only the Long Island stores that are so far behind the times? But no, I searched the entire Trader Joe's website for "seeds" and found pumpkin seeds and chocolate covered sunflower seeds, but no chia seeds. (When I searched the site for "chia" I found nothing!!) Other bloggers have reported trouble finding chia seeds at Trader Joe's in Cape Cod and elsewhere.
So Joe! Get with the program!!
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