This is our odds and ends shop.
At Joe's we tend to buy:
Olive oil. Several different brands. I've heard that Trader Joe's brand products are simply other companies with their label. But after our old go-to olive oil raised their price 1 too many times we decided to buy one of each of their brand and taste. The Spanish oil seems to have enough flavor for me (I tend to like stronger oils. My favorite is picual when I'm heading to a specialty store) but keep a decent price.
$3 Chuck. I've heard that this isn't the same stuff that used to win awards. But the shiraz is pretty good and most of the varieties seem work great for cooking. The wife tends to like sweeter wines and I tend to favor either a beer or a gin and seltzer (gave up pop a while back so no tonic for me). So we don't buy Chuck for drinking usually.
Pasta. The pasta selection here is pretty good. They have a variety of shapes depending on what you need and many cost $1/lb.
Those are our Joe staples. Other things that we get include chocolate (damn you impulse shopping!), basil, occasionally cream, and occasionally cheeses (nice cheese selection!).
The store is clean and organized. The staff is friendly and the lines usually move pretty well. There is usually some sample for food (or wine on weekends). And our cats love when we bring home paper bags.
The only bad experience we ever had was when we walked up to someone that was doing a wine tasting. At the time I believe both me and my wife were 29. The lady in charge gave us a dirty look and stared at us for a few seconds. Eventually, she asked if we wanted to taste (this was after we said hello and waited for her to convince us). She carded us (Yay! I didn't look 30!). But the look she gave us made it seem like she "knew" we were underage. She was friendly to the person that came behind us so we must have given her a bad vibe or something. But it was the only bad experience I've had at this location since moving to the valley.