I just can't eat premade salads. Not even if i make it myself. I dont know why. It always tastes old to me. If I go to a salad bar and make one to go I HAVE to eat it within an hour or I cant eat it at all. I imagine the premade salads at many grocery stores are left to sit for days. Gag.

Amylou, they're usually really good.

Every time we pick up salads at our closest McDonald's, they are super fresh, crunchy, and packed full of all kinds of colorful lettuces. Even the tomatoes are good. Go figure!

I'm picky about salads, too, especially the pre-packed ones.

I love TJ, but rarely buy any of their produce or salads, as I've found they're usually on the verge of going bad. They will cheerfully give you your money back on anything you're not happy with, or at least that's how our local one operates.

Trader Joes produce is variable. Sometimes good, sometimes not. I credit them for popularizing arugula and that particular product is always quite good.

I've also seen that they only give you a few days ahead for the expiration date on prepared salads. The same is true at Safeway and other regular grocery stores. Salad greens/lettuces even in head form don't last long so cut it up, put into a salad, it's not like it suddenly can have a 7 day shelf life.

Rhizo, the replacement salad from Wendy's was so fresh and good. It was the I think Harvest salad. So fresh and the chicken was nice and hot. It was so good.

As Bookwoman mentioned, you can take the salad back and TJ's will refund your money. I bought a bag of romaine hearts last summer and it was black and gross in the middle where the spoilage wasn't visible from the outside of the package. They cheerfully refunded my money. I look at the prepared salads carefully when I buy them because sometimes they are on the verge of going bad.

Yes, I know they will refund you but am I really going to hang on to a bad salad for 3 days, so that when I'm off I can drive all the way back to the city and get a small refund? Nope.

Kath, you don't have to take it back. Save your receipt and take it with you next time. You can also call them (your local store) and perhaps they have other suggestions for how to handle it.

I'm rarely happy with TJ's produce and only buy it there if I'm going to use it right away or if they have a good price on a special so it's fresher...otherwise I do better in a regular grocery store.

DH bought the 3 sticks of romaine at Aldi last week. I went to make the salad, and the romaine was brown and slimy. It was May 10, and the date on the romaine was April 22. How the heck was that even on the shelf?

We've been having trouble finding nice lettuce (romaine, iceburg, butter) lately, no matter which store. I went to Aldi, Wegmans and Tops this week and never did purchase any)

I love TJ for a lot but not produce. I also have to drive 35 minutes for it so only go when in the area. Please let them know. They are a good company and need to know that you won’t buy the product if it is not great

I have never returned to TJ but with my local store (a chain) I have called and they said just tell us next time...I had gotten a 6 dollar item, they gave a 25 solar gift card which I was able to give to a family at my church who really needed it. I will shout out to Weis in the NE.

I buy TJ's salad's sometimes, but usually not the ones with much lettuce. The other day, I got a GREAT salad from there, a jicama, papaya salad. Also has some green cabbage and a slightly spicy dressing. Yum! It says it is 3 servings and that's about what I got out of it, over 3 days. I even added the whole packet of dressing the first day and the jicama and cabbage stayed crunchy until I ate it the last day. Highly recommend.

I also am not crazy about most of their produce, except they have great organic Persian Cucumbers and really good organic sweet red peppers, both the mini bells and the full size. They are always better than the grocery store's because they don't mist them with water. I buy their organic cherry tomatoes in the winter. They aren't like summer tomatoes, but are passable in a salad for me.