Look what just landed at Trader Joe's

I did a double take earlier today while shopping at one of my local Trader Joe's.  At first, I honestly thought it was a novelty chocolate! I didn't buy it, even for the low price.  However, Trader Joe's must have seen some sort of market if they went to all this trouble.

P.S. For our European members, Trader Joe's is owned by the same company that owns Aldi but it really is a completely different shopping experience.

Interesting. We have Trader Joe's and Aldi here in Michigan, however I don't think you would ever find that kit at Aldi, lol.

Interesting. We have Trader Joe's and Aldi here in Michigan, however I don't think you would ever find that kit at Aldi, lol.

Neither do I.

We were just in one of the TJs in Tucson the other day and didn't see them, but we probably weren't looking in the area where they would be.

We were just in one of the TJs in Tucson the other day and didn't see them, but we probably weren't looking in the area where they would be.

We were just in the local TJ's this past Sunday and I didn't notice them either but will look next visit.

Very interesting! Although it appears to be some inconsistency from brush to brush, it looks like another Plisson-type knot. If that is the case, this is one heck of a deal when considering that a soap and balm are also included...assuming they are quality software...

Hey guys!
I haven't posted here yet so if there was somewhere I was supposed to post first, I apologize.
On to the topic at hand, when I first heard of the kit in August I was SUPER excited. This looked like a great starter kit in the making. I like to keep at least one inexpensive kit as I tend to convert people to our way of life. Once it arrived (Nov. 18th, I was counting down the days!), I bought it and gave it a go. I wanted to give it the best chance possible so I used my '61 Fatboy with a new Astra SP set on 5 which to me feels like there's no blade but shaves like it does.

Where to begin?... The brush was easily the worst brush I've ever used. It IS synthetic but a plisson-type knot it is not. It is scratchy and shed more than all my other brushes combined! (which is really saying something since I have owned both a VDH boar and a Tweezerman badger) What's more, it barely lathers! Even when, after my shave, I used with my homemade soap which is identical in performance (to me) as Catie's Bubbles.

The soap is softer than Cella (seriously...globs of it fell out of the tub when loading) but simply becomes this soupy proto-lather which drips off my chin and even my Stirling Kong can't lather. It also leaves residue that required scrubbing and harsh cleaners to get out of my sink. To be fair, what "lather" did stay on my face and head (I'm a head shaver) was pretty slick. A quick look at the ingredients tells me that they made a Camel of a soap. (A camel is often said to be a horse made by commitee) By that I mean, they put every "skin friendly" and "natural" ingredient they could find and threw it into what seems to be a decent base soap.

Finally, the ASB. It smells fine. Sure it burns and leaves me red when I use it but what really was the problem to me is that it's in a plastic squeeze bottle which is made of too thick of plastic to squeeze anything out of. Which led me, of course, to screw off the nozzle cap and shake some out.

Tl;dr All in all, I'm super disappointed. Like I said, I found out about this in August since I work at a Trader Joe's and they have been an incredible company to work for. They go out of their way to ensure that we workers are happy and treated fairly and most of their products are REALLY good for a good price. Most are well thought out and well tested.

Super TL;DR - It seriously made me sad.

Thanks APBT.  You just saved me $9.99 plus tax.

Welcome to DFS.

nothing worse than bringing crap products to the market in a store that gets a ton of traffic...certainly a way to keep people shaving with cartridges and foam...

nothing worse than bringing crap products to the market in a store that gets a ton of traffic...certainly a way to keep people shaving with cartridges and foam...

I agree, Andrew. What a great opportunity that would have been and it's lost with bad products, not to mention the damage it does to Trader Joe's good name. Our merchants constantly prove that quality products don't have to be expensive.