If you bring your own shopping bags to Whole Foods or Stop & Shop, you get a nickel back for each one—and those nickels do start to add up. If you bring your own shopping bags to Trader Joe's, you get to enter a weekly raffle to win a bag of groceries. (And if you bring your own shopping bags to Shaw's, you get ... to bring home your groceries in your own bags. C'mon, Shaw's, get with the program!)
I have never heard of anyone who won the Trader Joe's raffle, nor have I ever heard of anyone who's ever heard of anyone winning. On Monday, as I wrote down my name and phone number, I said to the cashier, "Does anyone ever actually win this thing?" and he assured me that there's a weekly winner. When I got home, I complained on Twitter (and Facebook, via a great little app called Selective Twitter) that I'd never heard of anyone winning, and everyone agreed that they hadn't either.
Exactly 24 hours later, I got a phone call from Trader Joe's that I'd won! Coincidence? Luck? Karma? Squeaky wheel? Who knows.
I picked up my bag today. I got all kinds of goodies:
That's a new TJ's bag, Bite-Size Everything Crackers (topped with garlic, onion, sesame, poppy, and caraway seeds), Blue Corn Tortilla Chips, Tomato Basil Marinara Sauce, Organic Lemonade, Microwave Popcorn, Chunky Salsa, Organic Spaghetti, Organic Lollipops (watermelon, pomegranate, orange, lemon, and raspberry), Pumpernickel Pretzel Sticks, and Way-More Chocolate Chip Cookies. Nice haul, eh?
Do you get to pick what you want in the grocery bag, or do they give you a bag that's already filled? (Oh, and congrats!)
Posted by: Elena | June 03, 2009 at 07:05 PM
That sounds yummy--I love those blue corn chips with salsa and a couple of Way More chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Dinner perhaps?
Posted by: Margaret | June 03, 2009 at 08:23 PM
I love all that stuff! Enough to survive at least another weekend. Wow!
Posted by: Nick | June 03, 2009 at 08:56 PM
Very cool! (I just love their stuff! And their 2-buck Chuck!)
Posted by: Tonya | June 03, 2009 at 09:14 PM
I'm so jealous! And my gramma in SF has walked to her Tjs everyday for what is practically forever and entered every time and never won, either.
Posted by: Lori Z. | June 04, 2009 at 02:13 AM
You win everything. You should play the lottery.
PS It took me a year to get through Angle of Respose, and now I have Crossing to Safety on my plate because I promised my sister-in-law who loved it.
Posted by: kate | June 04, 2009 at 01:13 PM
What a fantastic win! I love Trader Joe's!
Posted by: Stephanie | June 05, 2009 at 11:04 PM
That IS funny. Until now, I have never heard of anyone who had heard of anyone that has won. I think they should post a list of the winners.
I shop at TJs A LOT!
Posted by: Risottogirl | June 11, 2009 at 10:07 PM