Comments on: Behind The Label: Trader Joe’s Secretive Sourcing Practices https://ecosalon.com/behind-the-label-trader-joes-secretive-sourcing-practices/ Sun, 29 Nov 2015 15:51:01 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.25 By: Rachel https://ecosalon.com/behind-the-label-trader-joes-secretive-sourcing-practices/#comment-56288 Thu, 04 Apr 2013 17:40:14 +0000 http://ecosalon.com/?p=135385#comment-56288 I have some concerns about TJ’s. Is the food Fair Trade, sustainable, organic, & free-range? I may not have a lot of money, but I will vote with what I have.

I believe the coconut oil isn’t Fair Trade. Buying maple syrup for cheap as a New Yorker is shameful. The free-range chicken doesn’t look anything like free-range chicken from small farms; it’s all pumped up. I don’t want to buy cage-free eggs when I can buy local free-range eggs.

]]> By: Elly D. https://ecosalon.com/behind-the-label-trader-joes-secretive-sourcing-practices/#comment-45652 Sun, 23 Sep 2012 22:32:32 +0000 http://ecosalon.com/?p=135385#comment-45652 Nothing is sacred. It’s so disappointing to hear how corporate America likes to put the screws one of their own.

]]> By: Mark Gardiner https://ecosalon.com/behind-the-label-trader-joes-secretive-sourcing-practices/#comment-45114 Thu, 20 Sep 2012 03:52:02 +0000 http://ecosalon.com/?p=135385#comment-45114 You’re right that, in the complete absence of transparency from Trader Joe’s management, the ‘organic’ or GMO-free status of Trader Joe’s-branded products is open to doubt. The truth is that Trader Joe’s is NOT a vertically integrated company — none of their own-brand products are made under Trader Joe’s control, and the famously small head office staff could not possibly supervise or even monitor the hundreds of suppliers shipping products to Trader Joe’s from all over the world.

And yet, the brand manages to sport an incredible halo effect among consumers with a bias towards ‘healthy’, ‘organic’, or GMO-free foods. Even this article blithely states that all Trader Joe’s eggs are cage free. They’re not. (And even the ones that might be technically ‘cage free’ are almost certainly not ‘free range’ which is what consumer mistakenly interpret ‘cage free’ to mean.

How Trader Joe’s built that willing suspension of consumers’ skepticism is the subject of my book “Build a Brand Like Trader Joe’s”. You can get more info on this specific topic on my blog, http://www.TraderJoesSecrets.com

In the short term, though, the truth is that Trader Joe’s merely asks suppliers — few of whom are even growers themselves — to attest to products organic or GMO-free status. The company has consistently refused to support the sort of testing protocols and supervision that would prove the merit of those claims.

Does that make it worse than most rival grocers? No. But it will come under increasing scrutiny as more and more erstwhile fans become suspicious of Joe’s cult of secrecy.

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