Episode 100: The 17th Annual Customer Choice Awards

I know, right? The Golden Globes kicked it off. Next up are the sag awards on March 1st. You know, I could win that for all the sagging. Wait a minute.

You forgot the most important awards of all.

I didn't forget they are today. Welcome to the 17th annual Trader Joe's customer choice so large. This is exciting, but I don't think we need to hype it now. Will the Chilean line-flavored

rolled corn tortilla chips repeat as overall favourite product? No, they won't, but there's a reason for that. Will explain. Will Timothy Shalame win best actor.

Wrong awards show Matt. All right, then. Let's go inside Trader Joe's. I'm Tara Miller, director of awards and phrases and clauses. And I'm Matt Sloan, the culture and innovation guy.

An occasional announcer at Trader Joe.

“Matt, I really think you missed your calling.”

You know, whatever that calling was, I think it went to voice. Every year, we ask our customers to vote in 10 categories of Trader Joe's products. Plus, they're overall favourite. And the tabulations are in. And later a truly self-indulgent moment,

this podcast will win an award of its own. I can tell you're looking forward to that. Well, you know me. I love self-indulgence.

First up, the new category.

And by that, we mean new products. That's exactly right. New products are something we really pride ourselves on. Having great new products for you to find on every visit to your neighborhood Trader Joe's. It's got to be the catch-up flavored lattice potato chips.

Or maybe the, maybe the hot honey popcorn. Those are really good guesses. They came in at number five and number four. How about the garlic butter potato chips? Number three.

This is almost like we planned this. What was number two? Number two, sour strawberry belts. Those are hard to beat. The number one favorite new product in our 17th annual customer choice awards is.

What is it? Protein pancakes.

This is made with a recipe that includes cottage cheese and egg whites and eggs and oat flour.

They actually happen to be gluten free. If that's interesting. And you can eat them right out of the package. Heat them up in a microwave if you want 20 grams of protein in the four pancake package. And everyone's England on protein for this.

“Did they win the breakfast and the brunch category?”

Actually no, but since you mentioned that category. Oh, well done. Trader Joe's fully artist. Love that rooster crow. Yeah rooster crow, you know, he was great.

He really should win for his performance in the movie. I think you're talking about Russell Crow. Again, wrong award show. Trader Joe's customers favorite breakfast and brunch product is hash browns. Everyone it seems.

Customers love these hash browns were constantly chasing after this. They are so good. They're delicious. They're easy to make. They sit in your freezer till you're ready to make them.

And you're good to go. Other top boat getters were chocolate croissants. Dutch griddle cakes, almond croissants. And yes, the protein pancakes. Again, okay, but hold on hash browns have been a repeat winner in breakfast and brunch.

So we should explain what exactly happens when a product repeats year after year after year. I'm happy you asked about that Matt.

“If a product has won its respective category five times.”

It doesn't have to be five times in a row, but a total of five times. Okay. That product enters the Hall of Fame. This year, teeny tiny avocados and spiced cider are going into the Hall of Fame. And when you enter the Hall of Fame, you're no longer eligible to receive votes in that category.

We tell customers this every year so they hopefully don't vote for that product. For example, Mandarin Orange Chicken all-time greatest Hall of Fame product. It's no longer eligible for voting. We'd like to expose as many products as possible to get people whipped to new things. So if it was the same show every year that could get a little old.

You mentioned the chili lime flavored rolled corn tortilla chips as a potential winner. And I said they didn't win, but there's a good reason for that. It's because they're in the Hall of Fame. They won their category five years. And at that point, they are eternally going to be celebrated in the Hall of Fame forever.

They have, if you go to TraderJose.com and you search for Hall of Fame, every product that's in the Hall of Fame has its own little statue or symbol. That's the Hall of Fame. Let's get back to this year's winners. Well, we've done breakfast and brunch.

Now it's time for lunch and dinner. The customer favorite for lunch and dinner is buttered chicken with Bosmati Rice. That's a really reliable, excellent, easy, entree. Love it. Other good choices in that category.

It's really hard to choose here. But numbers two through five in that category are steamed, pork, and ginger, soup dumplings. Okay. Chicken Tikka Masala. By that, we honestly don't know if customers meant the one in the freezer case.

Or the refrigerated one because they're both delicious.

Butternut squash mac and cheese, which we know is only available seasonally. It's not a year-round product. And steamed chicken soup dumplings. Wow, soup dumplings. Soup dumplings for the win in both flavors.

They both made the top five lunch and dinner. Amazing.

“Have you ever made a whole meal out of a package of soup dumplings?”

I have. I have dog. Yeah, I've made that a whole meal and maybe I shouldn't admit to it. But eaten all six in a package just by myself. Really good.

It's a good dinner. You suddenly, I'm hungry. I know, right? And thirsty. Hey, let's announce our winner in the beverage category.

I'm a little confused about this one. I think it's because we've combined some products for tabulation, score-keeping purposes. Right. It's simple, really.

We counted the three ciders together and all the apple juices together

and the three sparkling lemonade together. And we combine the votes for the two-changering juices. I think the Trader Joe's drummer is getting a blister. Yeah. I want to explain this a little bit because it sounds kind of messy.

And it's my confusion. The customer choice of words voting happens on a form that you fill out. For each category, there is a blank space for you to put your favorite product. Sometimes we have multiple products with similar or almost identical names. If a customer puts in apple cider, we're not a hundred percent sure which apple cider

they're talking about. It could be the sparkling cider. It could be a honeycracker cider. It could be the spice cider. It could just be straight up apple cider.

It could be any of the above. It could be all of the above. It could be one very specific one for you, which one one. Hey, the apple cider is one. That includes the 64-ounce apple cider.

Our spice cider and Trader Joe's honeycracker apple cider. Sorry, apple juice. Siders took the day. But apple juices were number two. Mm-hmm.

Triple ginger brew did well. So did all those sparkling lemonade that I love. And the tangerine juice. Whew. Is it time for produce?

It is always time for produce.

Good. The customer choice of word for produce goes to. Oh, there's so cute. Teenage tiny avocados. Number two is gone bananas.

Wait. That's what? The frozen product? I guess people like their bananas with chocolate.

“What's interesting is, like, we say what's your favorite produce product?”

Right. Bananas are produce. These just happen to be in the freezer case and covered with chocolate. So as a winner in the produce category, it is kind of bananas. But there you have it.

Hey, the customers of your own votes, right? Going through the list to the top five. Blueberries, honeycrusp apples, and Persian cucumbers. Wait a minute, I have a bit of a gripe here. If we combined all the apple juices together and apples cider together, why didn't we combine all apples?

Matt, people voted specifically for honeycrusp apples here. So there was specificity in the vote. If people had just put apples, then that's a different tally. But honeycrusp apples are so popular that they rise to the top all by themselves. Okay, okay.

I'm not trying to cause trouble. I just take these awards very seriously. Well, I think you need a snack. Yeah, I might be a little angry. I'm going to give you the four runners up in the snack category.

Let's see if you can guess the winner. Process of elimination? Yep. Number five, worlds puffiest, white cheddar corn puffs. Okay.

Number four, patio potato chips. Yeah, they're pretty good in the living room too. Number three, horse radish and chive, rich cup potato chips. Number two, organic, elote corn chip jippers. Okay.

If we know that number one is not the chilly and lime flavored rolled corn tortilla chips. Because they're now in the hall of fame. Hmm.

“Could number one in the snack category be garlic butter potato chips?”

Very good guess. It's right here on this piece of paper in front of me. See, it's right there. Okay. Well, you cheated.

What's next? Are you ready for the appetizers category? What's the difference between snacks and appetizers? What is the difference? Users begin your dinner, snacks spoil your dinner, spoken like a true mom.

The customer choice award for favorite appetizer is spinach and artichoke dip. You know, I get it. I love it. But I love some of the other appetizers that got a lot of votes too. Me too.

The jalapeno and cream cheese wantons. They're amazing. The vegetable bird's nest. We've had those for like two decades. You know, I think they were saved by the advent and prevalence of air friars.

I maybe, right? But they're so good and they've been good for that entire time that they've lived in our freezer case. I love that product. Also the Parmesan pastry pups. A classic.

Those have been around for nearly as long I think as the vegetable bird's nest. Rounding things out here is the Greek spanacopita. And I want to call this out. We call that Greek spanacopita and not just spanacopita because it's actually from Greece. Spanacopita also won for most syllables in a performance.

Next up. Say cheese. Cheese. You know, it's my favorite category. I have a long list of favorites, but among them the English cheddar with caramelized onions.

The Sarasoke to scano cheese spread.

Those are actually the runner-ups. Why is it runners-up? Runners-up. Yeah, it's in the script. It's.

Oh, yeah. What a great delivery. Thank you. I did the far away look and everything. I did it.

It's in the running. None of the less. Along with one other runner-up. The cheese shopping bag. Well, but you can't eat that.

You cannot eat that. You see in that cheese bag because your team designed the cheese bag. Yeah. It's pretty cool. It's very cool.

It's pretty cool.

It's like the cheese experience on it.

It's right because cheese isn't an experience. It is an experience. The customer choice award for favorite cheese is goat cheese. Which one? All of them.

Some of them.

“I think we're in an apple cider situation.”

Yeah. I think that people said goat cheese. They didn't specify. Oh, so goat cheese and a cheese bag. There you go.

And you could get goat cheese and put it in a cheese bag. Let's move on to other products. You can't eat. How about that? Great.

Some of the products you can't eat fall into the bath body and home category. It's a category we kind of just created for the customer choice awards. Well, you know, they certainly think deserve an award.

They deserve their own category because customers love these products.

Okay. This year's winner as the customer favorite in bath body and home is Brazil. Not body butter. This is not a surprise, right? It's really not a surprise.

It's a perennial favorite. It started off as a super, super limited item. Every year we've increased how much of it we have in the store. And customers really love it. But other popular products in the store that got a lot of votes.

And rounded out the top five were our ultra moisturizing hand cream. A classic. And then the daily facial sunscreen that SPF 40 that's a huge hit.

“The coconut body butter, which I think but have been like the first big hit body butter that we have.”

Yeah, yeah, it was. It's still a major big popular product. And then rounding out the top five is the Cedar Balsam candle, which again is only available during the winter holiday season. Yeah. And it's a big favorite every year.

I don't mean to be difficult. But I'm wondering is it the smaller silver 10 version or the larger silverish almost mercury glass style container. So I'm going to go back and say, yet again, I think this is another apple cider situation. Or I could say it's a goat cheese situation. People said Cedar Balsam candle.

It could be either of those things. I love that scent no matter how you deliver it to me. As long as it's a candle. That might be it. That might be it.

Almost. One more category and then we'll reveal this year's overall winner. And then don't forget our self-indulgent award for our podcast. I won't forget. But right now it's time for our customers favorite sweet treats.

Now they must have had a hard time choosing this one. Yeah, I would imagine they had to try lots of them just to figure out their favorite in the moment. I'm thinking kind of like the almond cringle pastry or chocolate hold the cone mini ice cream cones. Not to be confused with the chocolate chip hold the cone mini ice cream cones or the mint chip ice cream. Not to be confused.

That is the rest of the top five. Here's number one. Okay. Sublime ice cream sandwiches. Delicious.

All the time. Every single time. They won last year also. I have a feeling about that. I was going to ask.

They won the year before that also. But I don't believe they're Hall of Fame eligible yet. They started to smell like one night. I think they're getting close. But I don't believe they've won five years.

Congratulations. Sublime ice cream sandwiches. Okay, Matt. I'm ready. Are you ready?

I was as they say born, ready. It is time to unveil this year's overall winner. In the 17th annual Trader Joe's customer choice awards.

“You know, I think we're going to need a bigger drum roll for this one.”

Our customers overall favorite for 2026 is what steamed pork and ginger soup dumplings. Well, the prediction markets will weigh weight off. Have you eaten these dumplings recently? I have eaten these dumplings. So we talked about these dumplings earlier in this episode.

Because they showed up as number two in the lunch and dinner category. And they're fantastic. You don't have to do much. You cut off a corner of the outer package. And you pop them in the microwave for less than a minute for the whole package and they're done.

And they're perfect. The broth inside rich, consistently flavorful. I mean, it's really not a surprise that these are customers' favorite. Let's mention the other top favorites in the overall category. Okay, also making the cut, butternut squash mac and cheese.

Steamed chicken soup dumplings with a counter part to the pork dumplings sourdough bread. It kind of sounds like a cider situation to me. And butter chicken with boss-moddy rice. What a great showing for the frozen category.

This whole customer choice awards experience.

You see that our customers really have passion for the products that they love. Across categories, across the store. And honestly, across this awards show. You know, that got me thinking a little bit about, "So why don't we even do these awards?"

“I mean, if customers were that consistent, why have an awards show?”

Oh, it's to keep my department really busy right after the holidays.

So you know, maybe that and our crew members get to make a lot of product recommendations all the time.

And this is an opportunity. It's a really our chance to hear from you customers directly. What's on your mind? What's on your favorite list? And we hope that everyone else will check out your favorites. They are your favorites for a reason.

Very well said. And hey, that's our podcast.

“Yeah, but wait a minute. We still have an hour award.”

All right.

And now the moment we've all, well, the moment I've been waiting for.

Congratulations to this podcast because this is the 100th episode. Crazy. And that's not even counting our ICYMI mini episodes or our mini wine club episodes. Now, I know what you're thinking. That this is the most self-intelgent thing we've ever done.

That and that after a hundred episodes, we are out of ideas for podcasts topics and that there will be no more. Contrarium unfair. We have been brainstorming. And there are no bad ideas in a brain storm.

Here are a few of the episodes you can look forward to in our next 100. How does Trader Joe's shrink avocado's?

“Why you forget to bring your shopping bag in from the car?”

Or why you think that you're just here for one thing and you don't need a bag? Really bad ideas for Trader Joe's greeting cards. Like, congratulations, you found a parking spot. Or, thinking of you, your favorite product has been discontinued. Tips from Tetris on how to fill your freezer.

Shows that empty the fastest. What your choice of nuts reveals about your personality? And finding the courage to try a new dip when you already have two that you love. You won't want to miss episodes like these. Better hit that free subscribe or follow button.

It is free and worth every penny. Until next time, thanks for listening. And thanks for listening. To all 100 episodes. If someone has, they should get an award.