With 14 Trader Joe’s stores in the Portland-Vancouver area and more than 600 nationwide, the quirky California chain has built an almost cult-like following on social media and in person. Fans of the brand even broke out in dance to the song “Celebration” in front of the Gresham store in the days before it opened last fall.
A big driver of that devotion is the wide selection of Trader Joe’s brand products that fill the store, some unique and some nearly identical to national brands.
That makes it exceptionally difficult to compare how the store’s prices stack up to other major grocery chains. But The Oregonian/OregonLive set out to try…