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At its best<\/a>, a trip to Trader Joe\u2019s is an occasion<\/em>. I leave feeling like I\u2019ve been gifted a personalized swag bag (curated and paid for by me, of course) with the season\u2019s greatest hits. Yes, I go there to stock up on multiple jars of peanut butter and a summery salad kit<\/a>, but also for cute desserts<\/a> and highly-anticipated launches<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The one thing I never paid any attention to,\u00a0that is until very recently, is the store\u2019s egg section. Sure, there was that truly wild moment<\/a> when a woman hatched feather babies from actual eggs she\u2019d bought at a Trader Joe\u2019s, but it wasn\u2019t until I stopped by a nearby TJ\u2019s (and Aldi and Costco) to compare the price of eggs<\/a> that I noticed the expansive (egg-spansive?) selection.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n You wouldn\u2019t know it from the website<\/a>, but Trader Joe\u2019s carries a lot<\/em> of different types of eggs. When I visited, I spotted a mix of sizes (large, jumbo), standards (caged, cage-free, free-range, pasture-raised, organic), and colors<\/a> (white, brown) in cardboard cartons. The eggs are all Grade A, which the USDA defines<\/a> as very high-quality eggs, although these eggs were not USDA-certified.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Since then I\u2019ve had unshakeable and at times contradictory feelings about these Eggs. Naturally, I visited a second and third and so-on store to confirm this one location isn\u2019t a \u2026 bad egg. It\u2019s not. I quickly discovered multiple stores carry some combination of the above, and even sell them in styrofoam (!!!) cartons. (If you take away one thing from this, know that styrene<\/a>, an industrial chemical used to make styrofoam, was found in the early 90s<\/a> to absorb through the shells and into the eggs<\/em>. TL;DR: please don\u2019t buy eggs in styrofoam cartons.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n I also spoke with several friends, family, co-workers, and a former TJ\u2019s employee to see if they\u2019d noticed anything spectacular about the eggs at Trader Joe\u2019s, and also to work through my own feelings on the matter. (Therapy is expensive!)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As someone whose job is to religiously listen to the Trader Joe\u2019s podcast<\/a>, which almost always drops on random Monday mornings (during the weeks work is at its busiest), I\u2019ve come to learn a lot<\/em> about how the grocer operates. The stores are notoriously small, about 10,000 to 15,000 square feet<\/a> on average, and especially compared to other national retailers, like say Aldi (18,000 square feet) and Costco (146,000 square feet) \u2014\u00a0both of which, in my experience, carry fewer egg options.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n I\u2019m all for variety \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s the spice of life, after-all, and who doesn\u2019t want to eat well-seasoned food?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n What\u2019s hard to digest, though, is Trader Joe\u2019s promoting the two most opposite ends of the egg-laying spectrum. By selling BOTH eggs laid by hens that are confined to areas smaller than a single sheet of paper<\/a> FOR THEIR ENTIRE LIVES and also hens that \u201chave continuous free access to the outdoors<\/a>\u201d (throughout their usual \u201cgrow-out period\u201d), the grocer is essentially saying it does not matter where our eggs come from<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Like your recently single, slightly drunk friend at 2 a.m., Trader Joe\u2019s has no standards here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n I reached out to Trader Joe\u2019s to see if I could speak with an employee about this mix of eggs. In lieu of a convo, I did receive an email explaining how the grocer selects products:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In general, we believe that customers \u201cvote\u201d on what they love \u2014 and what they want to see more of \u2014 with their dollars. If a product isn\u2019t selling well, we\u2019ll discontinue it to make room for something new that we hope our customers will love \u2014 and the attributes of said new products are determined by customer feedback. In keeping with our efforts to offer outstanding products (excellent quality at great prices to deliver real value) that meet our customers\u2019 needs, we provide our customers with a choice of eggs.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The statement mostly<\/em> checks out: After polling my coworkers to see what type of eggs they buy, the majority (38%) picked \u201cWhatever\u2019s Cheapest,\u201d which often translates to \u201ccaged eggs.\u201d At the time I visited the caged eggs were $1.49 per dozen versus $6.49 for a dozen of organic pasture-raised eggs. (Ironically, no one \u2014 0% \u2014 chose \u201cCaged Eggs\u201d; the second most common response selected was \u201cPasture-Raised\u201d at 30%).\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n So, in a way, Trader Joe\u2019s is just giving us what we want. But! The idea that eggs laid by hens existing under TORTUROUS CONDITIONS could ever be considered \u201coutstanding\u201d or \u201cexcellent quality,\u201d is gross \u2014 no matter how many people buy them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n I\u2019m an Egg Head. Fried<\/a>, scrambled, boiled<\/a>, poached \u2014 you name it, I am here for it. With one ingredient<\/a>, an egg can go from great to life-changing. (I know I am not alone in feeling this way.) Eggs are perfectly portioned meal elevators. My toast<\/a>, tortilla<\/a>, fries<\/a>, rice<\/a>, bowl of noodles<\/a>, you-get-the-idea has never come together more seamlessly and, more importantly, tasted better than when it\u2019s been topped with an egg or two.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As I\u2019ve gotten older and learned more about our food system in general and, specifically, the treatment of animals within that system, I\u2019ve made a conscious decision to spend more money on certain ingredients, like eggs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Trader Joe\u2019s, like many grocers, already has a list of standards<\/a> for its store-brand products. These dictate the types of ingredients we will\/won\u2019t find in any item sold with the Trader Joe\u2019s label on it (things like \u201cartificial flavors\u201d and \u201cartificial preservatives\u201d are a NO and \u201ccolors derived only from naturally available products\u201d are a YES).\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As a perennially glass-half-full kind of person, I\u2019d like to see the grocer add one more promise to this of 10: YES to Certified Humane<\/a> eggs. That means only<\/em> carrying eggs from hens whose standard of care<\/a> (feed, housing, health care, transportation, etc.) have been inspected and certified. Pasture-raised hens, for example, must meet minimum requirements for their space (2.5 acres per 1000 birds) and time spent outdoors (6 hours per day, excluding emergencies).<\/p>\n While we\u2019re at it, let\u2019s make it an even dozen and say YES to Certified Humane standards for all animals.<\/p>\n What are your thoughts on TJ\u2019s egg selection? Tell us about it in the comments.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n