"upgrade" news and stories

After far, far too long a time with their slow-loading yet content-less website, Trader Joe's has upgraded to something worth visiting. The site now offers a complete look at the history and values of the privately-owned company, as well as the same information on new locations and copies of their latest "Fearless Flyer" newsletter.

The best thing about the site is that they now have a great display of their new items. Once you select your location from the drop-down menu, a page with pictures and descriptions of some of the new products in your area comes up. I already found that Cheddar with Mango, Chile & Lime is a new type of cheese ("one of the most unique cheeses (ever!)") currently being offered, a product I might not have noticed simply stocked on the shelves. They also have a useful FAQ that answers some questions about labels and nutrition, in addition to clearing up the ever-present concern of whether Trader Joe's products will turn you "into a superhero, a professional athlete or one of the great brainiacs of humankind."

Great job with the website overhaul, TJs. We love having a site that we can use!

Source

Back in January, I got a letter from CHOW Magazine, telling me that they were temporarily stopping the publication of their print edition in order to regroup. In the interim, their website, Chow for Now, put together some good content. Today I got a small card in the mail telling me that (a) CHOW has been acquired by CNET Networks, Inc., the same folks responsible for the recent facelift of Chowhound.com, and (b) that the rest of my subscription to CHOW would be fulfilled by a subscription to Intermezzo, a food, wine, home and travel magazine. I've leafed through a few issues of Intermezzo in the past, but was never compelled enough to actually buy a copy. Sigh. So far, I think the new Chowhound site is great, mainly because of the searchable forums with RSS feeds. I'm assuming that sometime soon a blend of Chow and Chowhound will take shape. Chow.com is still pretty much vacant, aside from a place to leave an email address for launch news. With any luck, the type of content that made CHOW such a great publication will begin show up online.