With the holidays upon us, Trader Joe’s is getting into the spirit. And a new viral video features TikTok user Ashley (@ashtabuddha) revealing a “Trader Joe’s Thanksgiving surprise.”
While walking out of her Trader Joe’s, she urged viewers not to remove their cards in the chip reader after the transaction had been approved. Why? “Because the machine gobbles at you,” she said. However, this doesn’t apply to Apple Pay. “Do it! It’s worth your time,” she concluded the video.
Ashley reiterated this in the caption, “Run to your nearest Trader Joe’s now!”
The Daily Dot reached out to Ashley via TikTok comment and Trader Joe’s via media contact form. The video amassed over 810,000 views and customers and self-described Trader Joe’s workers confirmed this in the comments.
“My local Trader Joe’s changes it up for a lot of holidays or wvents,” one viewer wrote.
“It startled me yesterday,” a second shared.
“It worked! Employee said not every machine does it,” a third commented.
“As an employee: at first, I’m like GOBBLES! then after an hour of CE I’m like.. gobbles,” a fourth remarked.
“As a tjs crew member I can confirm but omg I hear it all day,” a fifth said.
Moreover, this was a topic of discussion on Reddit. Five years ago, user r/houston revealed a card reader with the transaction approved with turkey gobbling sounds in a 5-second clip. “Trader Joe’s replaced annoying credit card machine beep with Turkey Gobbling,” they wrote. In addition, another user CasualConversation shared their thoughts on the festive card reader.
“Until Thanksgiving the card reader will gobble at you when your credit card is approved. It gave me a chuckle and the crew member said that it never fails to make even the grumpiest person smile. I like Trader Joe’s,” they said.
@ashtabuddha Run to your nearest Trader Joes now! #thanksgiving #traderjoes #turkey #gobblegobble ♬ original sound – Ashley
A former Trader Joe’s worker chimed in too: “I work at TJs and the employees find this stuff hilarious. When 8 registers are all gobbling at once, it’s a beautiful thing. They did something similar for Halloween and the machines played a spooky organ song.”
And that’s the thing: Shoppers can expect the gag to roll-on during the holiday season.
