Trader Joe’s customer issues warning about shopping there after what happened to her apartment

Photo by@abigailhanania_/TikTok Ken Wolter/ShutterStock

No one wants to buy something that will bring unwelcome guests into their home. Especially if those guests are bugs.

A customer at Trader Joe's mentioned that she bought a box of granola cereal to have on hand for when she wanted a quick snack. But, she later felt sorry about her decision. She mentioned that her building's manager blamed the sudden bug problem in her apartment on the lone box of cereal.

On TikTok, a TikTok user named Abigail (@abigailhanania_) shared her negative experience with the store, which led her to avoid buying from there. Her video has received more than 285,000 views as of Friday.

“This was very upsetting and really, really disgusting for me,” she says in the video.

So what happened was that insects showed up close to her sink and initially didn't cause her to panic, according to her. She mentions that bugs are quite common in older apartments in New York City. Nonetheless, she brought up the issue with her building's superintendent. She recalls him suggesting that the bugs could also have originated from the construction work happening nearby.

However, a pest control professional was summoned to apply insecticide, yet it failed to eradicate the pests. Several months passed before they identified the root cause during an investigation by the exterminator and her landlord. They were examining food storage areas to determine if the pests were residing there, she recalls.

“This is the box of that cereal that I just showed you from Trader Joe’s,” she says. “It’s filled with dirt.”

Abigail presents a picture of the cereal that appears to be packed with dirt. "It looks like it's packed with soil, kind of like you'd use for planting," she explains. "I'm not sure, I've never even tried this cereal before. It's been untouched."

She continues, “So my super then tells me that the bugs are coming out of this box of cereal because it’s filled with dirt, and that they need to drink the water from my sink, that’s why they’re by the sink.”

"In short, I was tricked into purchasing a box of soil from Trader Joe's, which I had no idea about, since I hadn't even opened it, and I was truly repulsed by it," she finished.

Trader Joe’s has issued a few recalls for items carried in its stores in recent years. This includes a pilaf reported to have contained rocks, pieces of plastic in soup dumplings, and tropical fruit allegedly contaminated by listeria.

The cereal featured in the video has not been involved in a recent recall.