Interesting. In Los Angeles and Seattle, at least, the staff at TJ's are stable and friendly. They remember you. It looks like they pay substantially better than Safeway or Albertson's. The trick to Trader Joe's coffee is to buy beans, and buy the expensive ones. And, based on where you're at, you might still fail. They used to have Santa Fe Coffee Co beans but now they only have ground; that was a heartbreaker. As it is, their beans do me fine most of the time. Not great but better than Starbucks, as good as Coffee Bean.
Actually that pay isn't really all that bad. More than I made at my high school job (more than a decade ago, but probably still higher in real dollars). Maybe I had bad luck with the coffee. I tried two varieties out of the many they sell before I called it quits.