Traitor Joes? 
I’ve been waiting 20 years to make that stupid pun! 
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I am pretty much the same. They have stuff that is good + cheap: nuts, cheese, coffee, cereal, a few other things. They have stuff that is cheap but not good: I think their pasta sauce is pretty bad, and I don’t buy baked goods or produce there because they can’t seem to keep it fresh and it is either bad out of package or goes bad fast. I buy wine there because they do seem to find stuff that isn’t commonly sold elsewhere and I have seldom gotten anything that was really bad (I don’t usually buy their house label wine such as “two buck Chuck” but even for that, I have to say I have had worse).
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The Eater web site is fucking stupid click bait horseshit.
What kind of imbicile is shocked by this article?
This part here is one of the main reasons I go there and have since pretty much the beginning -
““Trader Joe’s loves to have exclusive relationships with suppliers,” Gardiner says. In many cases, Trader Joe’s may be the primary or even sole private label selling a manufacturer’s food, “so there are some truly unique products,” Gardiner says.”
Also, it’s sized nice for the weekly basics runs, they have a large amount of organics now, it’s well run (unlike Vons in southern CA), has the best cheese selection of any big retailer and they treat their employees well.
One thing - Charles Shaw wine is complete shit, of course.
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Why would I not want to know that? I mean, I already did, and I still love TJs.
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20 months ago, I got a tip from a friend who lives on the isle of Arran in Scotland that the local cheese maker was supplying cheese to Trader Joe’s for a limited time. She told me that it was delicious cheese and I should go stock up. I bought a couple packs of it, and it was outstanding. I went back and bought a couple more, and then after that, the stock was depleted, and it has never returned. It was labeled “Trader Joe’s Isle of Arran Extra Mature Scottish Cheddar Cheese.”
My point, I guess, it that Trader Joe’s still finds unique things from different suppliers around the world, but that Pirate’s Booty isn’t one of them.
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Trader Joe’s is just the American name for Aldi Nord, really. Aldi Süd has the rights to the Aldi name in the USA, so Aldi Nord simply made Trader Joe into its national store name.
As for the buying practice, well, it’s standard for Aldi Nord, Aldi Süd and Lidl. The trade-off they offer suppliers is security: less profit per unit, therefore a guaranteed number of units. The suppliers are happy to not have their name associated with the cheap product, but also happy to move stuff that would otherwise just sit on shelves. Not really a surprise at all, as the eco friendly part was hat an illusion they never bothered to dispel but did not actually promote.
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The article mentions that, for the items they examined, TJ’s was 30% cheaper than the branded equivalents at another grocery.
Myself, I’ve known their store-branded stuff was outsourced ever since I noticed that some of their frozen meals were identical in ingredients to stuff from Amy’s Kitchen. And I’m fine with that, same food, better prices, eclectic selection and nicer atmosphere.
I just wish Aldi would step up their game a little bit. They want to be a low-rent TJ’s (probably because they are owned by the estranged brother of the guy who owns TJ’s parent company). And they are vastly improved over where they were 20 years ago (the local ALDI used to have flies in the meat department during the summers, it was a dump). But, subjectively, they’re not quite there yet.
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Bonus for the employees - they take the opened package to the backroom and share the rest among the employees. Win - win.
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Unless it’s like (black) licorice or something… 
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The vast majority of my grocery shopping is at TJ’s. I know where everything is, they open check out lanes to keep things moving (unlike Safeway, which I avoid at all costs), and I know that I’m not going to get a bad product (but pretty sure I’m not going to get a great one). Of course it’s outsourced and not raised by free-range unicorns – but even when things have been tighter, I’ve been able to build pretty good meals around the house. Sure, I hit WF and CVS and a few other places to fill in stuff I can’t get at TJs, but it was north of 75% of last year’s grocery spending and I’m a fan.
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I guess I’m not sure why this is news, much less bad news. Trader Joe’s contracts with existing suppliers and factories to make the food it sells. Some stuff is really good and reasonably priced. Some stuff not so much.
Could someone explain why they feel betrayed in this scenario?
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who buys bananas wrapped in cellophane on a styrofoam bed ?
that is just not right.
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They probably do that to make shipping easier, automated handling and that sort of thing.
I’ve never seen that at Trader Joe’s.
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Not surprised at all. I know a manager of a food-processing plant in the mid-west and they have contracts to produce all kinds of food from different companies. Same plant pumping out tyson foods is also making cliff bars. I also have it on good authority that the same exact beer is sold as several different shitty brands– no difference whatsoever (besides region).
Trader Joes is not a magical store, but there are good reasons to shop for some stuff there: I like their pizza dough for instance.
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Personally, I find it annoying to go into a traditional grocery store and find FIFTEEN BRANDS OF EVERY SINGLE ITEM. Essentially, I’ve outsourced the selection process to Trader Joe’s, and I’m quite happy with the arrangement.
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I think it’s less news than fodder for another exaggerated, tempting post title. (And it worked – here we all are!)
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A fair number of liquors come from smaller distilleries in similar fashion. Friend of mine who was a distributor told me once if a brand produced vodka, gin, whiskey, bourbon, brandy, etc. then they probably don’t make any of their own stuff and repackage it from small distilleries.
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For the buying and labeling practice: They’ve done that over here for decades. No one is surprised.
Aldi (Nord and Süd) products regularly rank in the upper third of “Best of” customer reviews in Germany, even when compared to regular supermarkets.
Recent example:
I’d say there are legitimate reasons to be suspicious of GMO products, even if there is a lot of paranoid hyperbole surrounding them.
I’m not one to say “OMG GUNNA KILL YUR KIDS!!” but we also don’t really know what the long-term effects will be on humans or the ecosystem, and if there are detrimental long term effects it will be difficult to fix. The comparison to invasive species is applicable if not exact, but I would also point to leaded gasoline as an example of how something marketed as a beneficial product ends up causing trouble in the long run.
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