"Trader Joe's with John Hodgman and David Rees" is Episode 258 of Doughboys, hosted by Mike Mitchell and Nick Wiger. "Trader Joe's with John Hodgman and David Rees" was released on July 2, 2020.
"Tomorrow..." - @doughboyspod
Synopsis[]
The creators and stars of Dicktown on FXX, John Hodgman and David Rees, join the 'boys to kick of Friendly Green Grocer Mitch's Grocery Store Month and review California-founded Trader Joe's. Plus, another edition of Family Food.
Nick's intro[]
On July 17, 1955, Walt Disney opened his eponymous Disneyland in Anaheim, California - a city-sized theme park that would forever alter the amusement industry the same way he did for animation.
Back on opening day, decades before Disney Parks fandom became an entire identify for weird, childless adults, the park's footprint was smaller, the intellectual property in use consisted entirely of recycled public-domain children's stories, and the rides were simpler and fewer: nausea-inducing spinulator The Mad Tea Party, drunk-driving morality play Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, and a water adventure that navigated through a maze of non-native tropical fauna called the Jungle Cruise.
Disneyland Jungle Cruise
Taking its inspiration from the John Huston film, The African Queen, and stocked with animatronic exotic animals and a narration script of cornball jokes, the Jungle Cruise was an early hit with park-goers, and endures today with some revisions to trim its problematic-by-contemporary-standards content.
And it's a ride on the Jungle Cruise that inspired another Southern California entrepreneur, Joe Coulombe, to borrow the already-borrowed tiki aesthetic for his own business: a specialty food store founded in 1967 in Pasadena.
At first, a gourmet grocer offering mostly international delicacies, the trend-conscious Coulombe adapted to the changing tastes of his California customers and was an early seller of the then health-food novelty, granola, which also introduced the store's own brand.
By the '90s, Coloumbe's concept had morphed into a more conventional full-service grocery store and expanded nationwide into the early 2000s, becoming known for its budget-friendly wine varietals named Two Buck Chuck. With over 13 billion in annual sales as of 2019, today this grocery chain staffed by workers in aloha shirts has inspired the same customer loyalty that exists in the pin-collecting annual passholders who spend the bulk of their leisure time at Disneyland.
This week on Doughboys, we being our month-long review of supermarket eats, Friendly Green Grocer Mitch's Grocery Store Month, with Trader Joe's.
Friendly Green Grocer Mitch's Grocery Store Month[]
For this month-long look at grocery stores, The Doughboys take these aspects into consideration:
- How's it looking? (overall impression/name/mascot/etc.)
- Parking
- Produce
- Original Snacks
- Frozen Snacks
- Room Temperature Snacks
- Check-out
- Hoity-Toityness
- Bagging and carts
- Price
The scoring is not the usual five forks, but out of ten carts. A basket is half a cart.
An average of 8/10 will get into the Green Grocer Mitch's Freezer Club (the equivalent of the Golden Plate Club).
Cart rating[]
| guest / host | ordered | rating |
|---|---|---|
| Nick Wiger |
|
7 carts and 1 basket |
| Mike Mitchell |
|
7 carts and 1 basket |
| John Hodgman |
|
7 carts and 1 basket |
| David Rees |
|
8 carts |
Mitch's starred items are items he bought and took home, but did not try for the show. The other three did not list their entire orders, but what's listed are the items they mentioned.
To convert the carts into forks for comparison sake, this averaged 7.625 carts out of 10, the equivalent to 3.81 out of 5.
Family Food[]
Family Food
In Family Food, Nick finds a food-related survey, and Mitch and the guest guess the results. Three wrong answers eliminates you, though here, they sped it up and two strikes ended it.
For this episode, Nick has a list of the six biggest grocers in North America, and the others take turns guessing what they are.
| Mitch's guesses | John's guesses | David's guesses |
|---|---|---|
| Ralph's (#2) | Stop & Shop (#4) | Wal-Mart (#1) |
| Albertsons (#3) |
Mitch wins! The remaining two on the list were Publix and H-E-B.
Roast Spoonman[]
Jimmy Buffett
| “ | Jimmy Buffet | ” |
–Jasmine from Vancouver | ||
Quotes[]
| “ | If Marvel is listening, I'd love to take over the role of Groot. | ” |
–Mike Mitchell | ||
| “ | Mitch is rubbing his eyes in frustration but it looks like a panda bear crying. | ” |
–John Hodgman | ||
| “ | I think the Mac & Cheese Bites are one of the sensual highlights of my time in quarantine. | ” |
–David Rees | ||
| “ | Nick: If you work at Trader Joe's, thank you for your service. John: If you work at Ralph's, FUCK YOU. |
” |
–Judge John Hodgman | ||
The Feedbag[]
| “ | What kind of foods aren't in gas stations that you wish were in gas stations? Also, I got a new cat, what should I name it? | ” |
–Andy from Ohio | ||
Related Episodes[]
| Friendly Green Grocer Month | Trader Joe's episodes | John Hodgman episodes | David Rees episodes |
|---|---|---|---|
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Photos (via @doughboyspod)[]
