Trader Joe's marks 50th anniversary with virtual time capsule, special tastings

The always crowded parking lot at Trader Joe’s in Sycamore Township has been frustrating motorists for just about 13 years now, but the Los Angeles-based grocery chain is now celebrating a half-century of overly friendly cashiers.

Friday marks its 50th anniversary, and the chain is celebrating with a virtual Instagram time capsule where about 1,000 of its cultlike followers submitted answers to the question “How do Trader Joe’s products fit into my life today?”

“We intended to declare a top winner, but after adding it all up, we were reminded again how generous and generally great our customers are. Inspired by your generosity, we’ve decided to award each of our finalists the same prize of $500 in TJ’s gift cards,” Trader Joe’s wrote on its Instagram account.

In honor of the milestone, Refinery29 put together a slideshow of the store’s top 50 items. Check it out here.

 

: Finalists, clockwise from top-left: @shezzaffs, @doug.kyle, @millie_the_nugget, @jessicanicolebartlett, @alissajolene • We received nearly 1k photos answering the question: How does Trader Joe’s fit into my life today? (Check #50yearsofTJscontest—they're still coming in!) After choosing FIVE Finalists, we posted them last week, and our feed overflowed with Likes. We intended to declare a top winner... but after adding it all up, we were reminded again how generous and generally GREAT our Customers are. Inspired by your generosity, we’ve decided to award EACH of our Finalists the same prize of $500 in TJ’s gift cards… #Youreonly50once, right? … Come visit your neighborhood Trader Joe's this weekend and help us celebrate 50 years with lots of fun for the whole family!

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Aug 18, 2017 at 5:00pm PDT