Post #385424 by bigbrotiki on Sun, Jun 8, 2008 1:20 AM

In an effort to promote more visual documentation on Tiki Central, a while back I went around and photographed the various Trader Joe's in the L.A. neighborhoods I frequent: I shop in Burbank and Toluca Lake because of my Naomi, and in Eagle Rock because of my son Diego's school. Ironically my own T.J's in Silverlake has not one Tiki face in it.

The Burbank Trader Joe's has the some of the better nouveaux Tiki touches of all of them. Here's the entrance:

Here's their plastic bamboo bag recycling can. It would make a good ice ice bucket for outdoor Tiki parties:

The cash registers have some well done flat sculpt Tiki signs above them:

Here's quite an elaborate painting explaining the concept of the helmsperson:

And here are some cartoony signs that were done by a sign painter that also did some for the Toluca Lake store:

While maybe not the best Tiki renderings, the Toluca Lake store gets an A for its elaborate entrance installation:

The Tiki torches have flickering lights. Here's a sign in the Toluca store aptly describing the frustrations when we T.J. shoppers cannot find our favorite food item:

These guys are done pretty stylized, I like'em:

...though I am not partial to heroic renderings of trailblazing hummers:

Here's another artsy sign, with a Party City Tiki border in the background:

The Toluca Lake store even has Tiki detail in it price tags:

The Eagle Rock store unfortunately gets the least favorable review in terms of Tiki design execution ( but it is great to shop in because it is never crowded! :) ). While the interior signs are OK:

...the exterior murals are just frightfully off, in color AND design:

...a parrot Tiki?

This guy was a play on the summer shopping bag Tiki:

All in all it is quite astonishing how Tiki has appeared in my daily world in places where it has never been before. I am glad that my favorite grocery chain's theme-ing coincides with my favorite hobby. Now if they only could stick to their low prices...