Another look at Trader Joe’s. 12 February 2008 11:48 pm
Posted by Tracy in : consumerism, news , trackbackI know, I know, I wrote about looking at TJ’s last week, but I can’t resist. A few hours ago, my mom emailed me this article: US store chain cuts sales of food from China. The very long story short is that Trader Joe’s has announced that they’re going to stop selling some foods from China, in particular “single-ingredient items” like garlic and spinach — by the way, I think I’m in love with the phrase “single ingredient item,” which I spotted in both the LA Times and what the USA Today article about this “Guess what TJ’s is up to now?” story. Yay single-ingredient food items! Yay for a catchy phrase that describes what my grocery shopping is almost all about! But I digress.
In case you were wondering what to make of all this excitement, I found a useful perspective by reading a bit in Austin American-Statesman about how Whole Foods isn’t per se banning Chinese products because of course all their products are way too awesome to worry about ever, and they were way too righteous to buy much stuff from China anyway, unlike that nasty cheap discount store with the nerve to hop on the highly profitable organic foods bandwagon….
Okay, I may be reading a little too much into that last article, but seriously, here’s the scoop on all these stories. First of all, all stores change what they sell all the time, mostly for boring reasons like what’s available, and what does and doesn’t sell. (Ask me about my awesome collection of price tags from discontinued products I took off the shelves at the Sundance cheese department!) Okay, Trader Joe’s mixes and matches what they sell a little more often than other more standard-model grocery stores, because their distribution system is a little more “what’s cheap” and a little less “what’s reliable.” Still, who knows if anyone would have noticed fewer Chinese products if it hadn’t gotten made into a news story? Woo! That said, TJ’s is discontinuing some but not all of their products from China, and then only the obviously 100% Chinese ones, not, say, processed foods with some Chinese ingredients. Apparently they didn’t get a lot of customer comments about the processed foods — maybe because nobody ever knows what’s in processed foods, let alone wants to think about it! The real take-home lesson here is: processed foods are scary. Duh.
Quick and snarky conclusion: I am not impressed by this “news” — but I want to read the press release that got this covered in multiple media outlets because that there is some good spin.
Bonus snark: Speaking of good spin, the Austin article takes the spin to a new level, hijacking the Trader Joe’s publicity move for a story about their local favorite:
There isn’t a Trader Joe’s in Austin, but the 300-store grocery chain is considered a big competitor to Austin-based Whole Foods because of its large organic offerings.
Time to publish whatever the Whole Foods representative has to say about this issue! And ta-dah! Once again, the newspaper page is filled.
(Why, yes, I do seem to be more cynical about the media than usual even. I’m not sure what’s been more aggravating: my school research project on food and gender in TV commercials during sports shows, or all the stupid U.S. presidential election coverage, especially when the Oregon primary isn’t for months yet. Gah.)
Comments»
I think Trader Joe’s is very, very careful about their image. And they’re from California, and they’ve been doing it longer. It’s sort of like Barnes and Noble whereas Whole Foods is Borders. The one will chase the other, and will be slower on the uptake with “sensitivity” and other popularity thingies.
Dunno if I’ve mentioned in my lj, but I’d make a killer advertising executive. I’ve known this for a very long time. Damn my silly conscience, I would rather wear my monkey suit and be Makin Copeez.