Most days there are at least several shoppers making their way to one of the businesses on Monroe Street. But ever since Trader Joe's opened up at 1810 Monroe St., the area has been downright hectic. Parking has become sparse and traffic is flowing a little less smoothly, all because of increased pedestrian activity around the jack-of-all-trades grocery store.

Students can now access a normal-sized grocery within walking distance or a very short bus ride from campus. Trader Joe's isn't a huge discount chain, a small local specialty store or an overpriced 24-hour store. It's most comparable to Whole Foods, except a little smaller and a lot cheaper.

Since it is a national chain, Trader Joe's is able to offer a large variety of products at discounted prices. One of the most popular is the "Two Buck Chuck," the trademarked Charles Shaw wine available in all the common varieties at $2.99 a bottle. The store also has numerous other brands available at normal prices and even offers a small selection of imported and local beers. But don't go looking for any major labels, since Trader Joe's doesn't carry any products from large corporations, peddling its own product instead. Rather than Cheetos, consumers are offered "Trader Joe's Cheesy Puffs," and instead of Hellmann's, it's "Trader Joe's Mayonnaise."

The store has a good range of organic produce priced slightly below what it would cost at the average grocery, like mushrooms at $1.69 per package and a package of Belgian endives for $2.69. Students on the go can appreciate the selection of fresh pre-made items, such as eight-packs of sushi ($3.99 and down) and lunch wraps ($3.69 or less). Trader Joe's offers a plethora of breads as well, including fresh-baked ciabatta and semolina loafs, baguettes and croissants.

Some of the most popular items are the frozen ethnic foods. You can purchase frozen Tex-Mex, Indian, Asian and Italian dishes and appetizers at appetizingly low prices (the Curry Marsala Chicken and veggie rice was a particularly tasty bet at only $3.69).

While Trader Joe's has a large variety of tempting ethnic and organic foods, shopping and checking out all the unfamiliarly packaged foods can be somewhat overwhelming. There's too much of a crowd — even in the middle of a weekday — to really take a close look at all the products and get a feel for which ones deserve to be tried.

The overbearing crowd was especially annoying in front of the cheese section. Everyone seemed to appreciate the several varieties of Gouda, Brie and Mozzarella cheeses available, but no one seemed to notice that out of the dozens of chesses, there was only one from Wisconsin. It was shocking to find that the majority of the cheeses were from Vermont, Massachusetts and California. What kind of Wisconsin grocery store doesn't offer at least five different kinds of cheddar? And although the store offers both organic and regular milk available for $2.69 a gallon (a dollar cheaper than any other store in Madison), it was appalling to discover that all these common dairy products were being imported from Vermont.

Trader Joe's is already pulling in the crowds, as is obvious to any Monroe Street regular. It remains to be seen how a full-sized grocery will affect the small neighborhood in the long run. Either way, Trader Joe's deserves a try, thanks to its entertaining variety of foods and reasonable prices.