ColumnJust because it’s from Trader Joe’s doesn’t mean it’s not junk food.

There’s no denying that Trader Joe’s has a cult following. It has made food shopping fun. And not only has it made it fun, it makes people feel good about what they’re buying–proud of the fact that they got something seemingly healthier and better for them than the usual grocery store fare. There are vegetables! There are organic foods at affordable prices! There’s hummus!

Let’s call it the “Trader Joe’s effect,” an effect that seduces the consumer and turns them from a conscious one into a blind one. Because when it comes down to it, just because it came in a Trader Joe’s bag, does not make it good for you.

This is not to say that all food at Trader Joe’s is bad. Certainly, the store has probably gotten more people eating nut butters than any other large chain, they do have a corporate policy against GMOs and you’ll often find that the ingredients list on the pack of packages is much shorter than what you find at your average grocery store.

But it concerns me that Trader Joe’s often gets touted as a health food store. People see the TJ label and immediately think “organic and healthy!” Maybe it’s the organic virgin coconut oil, but the store’s reputation is so strong that consumers fail to peel back the layers.

Recently, the store released its 25 most popular items of 2013. So if people go to Trader Joe’s because they’re getting healthier items cheaper than they would elsewhere, customers must be loving the rice milk and organic canned black beans, right? No. The top three items are more junk food than anything else, and the other items (besides maybe the almond butter) don’t really scream “real, clean food.”

1. Triple Ginger Snaps

2. Speculoos Cookie Butter

3. Joe Joe’s Cookies (All Varieties)

4. Reduced Guilt Chunky Guacamole

5. Charles Shaw Wine (All Varieties)

6. Pumpkin Coffee

7. Mac ‘n Cheese

8. Pumpkin Butter

9. Almond Butter (All Varieties)

10. Pumpkin Pecan Instant Oatmeal

I like a junk food treat as much as the next person. Eating well is all about a little indulgence once in a while. But let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that shopping at a certain store means being able to shop blindly. Gourmet junk food is still junk food.

Eating well is about buying real food, whole ingredients, and the occasional cookie. I can assure you that Joe-Joe’s don’t have a top spot because people just buy them occasionally. If your daily dinner is consisting of Mac ‘n Cheese followed by Triple Ginger Snaps doused in Speculoos Cookie Butter (which as the “crack” of the food world, has its own Facebook page), you probably have some work to do.

And while Trader Joe’s often has a very “green” image, the chain is in the market of selling marked down name brand products, which forces them to be very secretive about where the food comes from and how sustainable the business operations really are.

It’s all a reminder that as consumers, we need to stay informed and continue to be vigilant about what we buy. In an article published in 2010 in Utne Reader, Danielle Maestretti wrote, “The Trader Joe’s brand of milk, for example, claims to be organic—but it won’t disclose which dairies it buys from. Ditto for the soybeans it uses in its brands of soy milk, tofu, and other products. And a recent report found that its store brand of veggie burgers are made using hexane-extracted soy protein.”

So where does all the Trader Joe’s food – junk food and healthy food – come from?

“It is very hard to figure out sourcing with Trader Joe’s. They heavily depend on private label products which are based on secrecy. We have said that private-label organics is an “oxymoron.” Organic consumers want to know “the story behind their food.” They want to know where it was produced, how it was produced, how the animals and workers involved have been treated, etc. None of that is possible with Trader Joe’s. Unlike the majority of all responsible brand marketers in organics they have refused to participate in our research studies and are thus rated very poorly on our scorecards that critique dairy foods, eggs and soy foods (etc.),” Mark Kastel, Director of the Cornucopia Institute told Food Babe.

So, even if those tasty chips are organic, doesn’t mean you can know the story behind them.

A little junk food here and there may not kill you, and I have personally spent many an hour drooling in a Trader Joe’s aisle, but there’s an argument to be made about knowing where your food comes from and what your eating. And that requires conscious consumption, not just blindly pulling items off of a shelf at a store that has a smart and healthy image.

Related on EcoSalon

Behind the Label: Trader Joe’s Secretive Sourcing Practices

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A Penchant for Gourmet Junk Food: Foodie Underground

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Guian Bolisay

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The labels say natural and organic, but how can we know for sure?

It’s rare that a global supermarket chain retains the atmosphere of an intimate neighborhood grocery store. But in the five decades that it has been in operation, Trader Joe’s has managed to do just that, attracting a loyal following of conscious consumers with an extensive array of quality, feel-good, low-priced grocery items.

But how exactly is Trader Joe’s able to offer such seemingly gourmet foods at such a markdown? The company is notoriously opaque about its sourcing practices, claiming that it wants to protect itself and its suppliers from competitors. But without any information about Trader Joe’s practices, can we really trust the “healthy” and “organic” products we purchase from there?

In its early days, maybe. In 1958, Joe Coulombe opened the first incarnation of Trader Joe’s, then called Pronto Markets, in Pasadena, California, after returning from a trip to the Caribbean – hence the South Seas branding. Joe wanted to bring the exotic flavors from his travels to the corner supermarket, and his first stores were stocked with then-unknown ethnic food, California wines, and convenience items. Within ten years, TJ’s had expanded to 20 locations.

Coulombe’s venture attracted the attention of Theo Albrecht, the German entrepreneur who owns Aldi, one of the world’s largest discount supermarket chains. The Albrechts purchased Trader Joe’s in 1979, growing it from a small California business to a multi-million dollar chain, now with more than 365 locations.

The Good

Though Trader Joe’s doesn’t call itself a health food store, it stocks a wide array of natural and organic foods, from organic virgin coconut oil to gluten-free pancake mix. TJ’s states that all of its private-label products, which comprise an estimated 80 percent of inventory, contain non-GMO ingredients, no MSG, no added trans-fats, and no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. All Trader Joe’s-brand eggs come from cage-free hens, and ground beef is guaranteed to be “pink slime” free.

These conscience-friendly items are available at near-Walmart prices, a fact that both confounds and thrills many conscious consumers. One explanation lies in Trader Joe’s streamlined operations. According to Fortune magazine, Trader Joe’s purchases all of its products directly from manufacturers, which then ship straight to TJ’s distribution centers. Contracts are simple, which eliminates the need for corporate middlemen. Says Fortune:

Trader Joe’s is a supplier’s dream account: It pays on time and doesn’t mess with extra charges for advertising, couponing, or slotting fees that traditional supermarkets charge suppliers to get their products onto the shelves. ‘It’s all transparent – no BS,’ says a former executive.

Since Trader Joe’s purchases such large quantities, it is able to fetch lower wholesale prices for its products – a discount that is then passed on to the customer. Trader Joe’s also carries less product variety than competitors – 4,000 SKUs, as compared to 50,000 at most grocery stores – and products are retired if they’re not able to “earn their shelf space” in sales.

The Bad

Many of Trader Joe’s private label items are the same products you’ll find at other supermarkets, just with different packaging and prices. According to Fortune, TJ’s Pita Chips are manufactured by Stacy’s Pita Chip Company, which is managed by Frito-Lay and owned by PepsiCo. Trader Joe’s yogurt is produced by Stonyfield Organic (a Groupe Danone company), while its popular Indian Fare instant meals are made by Tasty Bite, a Mumbai-based manufacturer that also supplies Whole Foods.

Though these bits of information have leaked out to the public, Trader Joe’s is generally secretive about its product sourcing, claiming that it wants to protect both itself from the competition, and its suppliers from other supermarkets that may demand the same cut-rate pricing. While this rationale makes business sense, it means that in most cases, shoppers have no idea where their purchases come from, or whether they are truly safe, healthy, and ethically-produced.

A prime example of a Trader Joe’s product with suspicious origins is its famous Charles Shaw wine, also known as “Two Buck Chuck.” According to Business 2.0, the Charles Shaw line is produced by California-based Bronco Wine Company, the nation’s fourth-largest wine producer. Bronco also manufactures wine for budget labels Estrella, Forest Glen, ForestVille, Montpellier, and Silver Ridge, and its owner, Charles Franzia, descends from the family behind Franzia boxed wines.

While Charles Shaw bottles advertise a Napa Valley origin, most of Bronco’s grapes are actually grown in California’s San Joaquin Valley, which is known to produce lower quality wines. According to Inside Scoop SF, these grapes are then supplemented with additives like Mega Purple (a syrupy, concentrated, 68-percent-sugar concoction that is used to add body and flavor to “deficient” wines) and wood chips (which are thrown into wine barrels to mimic the taste of oak aging). The result, according to wine expert Jon Bonné, is “industrial wine that is the equivalent of a Big Mac or Velveeta.”

The San Joaquin Valley is also known for its unethical factory farming practices and large concentration of migrant workers. These issues came to a head in 2008, when an undocumented pregnant teenage worker died from heat stroke while picking grapes on a Bronco-owned farm, after working more than nine hours in hundred-degree temperatures. The death led to protests and petition efforts from the United Farmworkers National Union, calling for supervisor arrests and jail time. Bronco’s labor contractor, Merced Farm Labor, escaped relatively unscathed, but has been fined multiple times for violating workplace safety rules.

The Questionable

On its website, Trader Joe’s states that

Curiosity is a virtue. We value the inquisitive mind and enjoy the opportunity to satiate it (as well as the tummy that accompanies it).

However, TJ’s secretive practices and lack of transparency don’t lend to an easy inquisition. The company’s FAQ page lists cute responses to questions like “Why do you guys wear those Hawaiian shirts?” (“Because we’re traders on the culinary seas, searching the world over for cool items to bring home to our customers”) and “What do the bells mean at my local Trader Joe’s?” (“Those blustery PA systems just didn’t feel right to us, so we came up with a simple system to communicate – island style”).

But as for the tough questions on product origins, labor practices, supply chains, and just how it’s possible to manufacture a decent-tasting Cabernet Sauvignon for under $2, Trader Joe’s is notably silent. Perhaps it’s because of the competition, as they say. But perhaps it’s also because the stories behind TJ’s products resemble that behind Two Buck Chuck: questionable labor practices, sugary additives, and poor quality ingredients.

Trader Joe’s friendly atmosphere and yee-haw branding make us want to trust them. But until the company becomes more open about the way that it operates, it’s impossible to know for sure if Trader Joe’s is the more socially responsible supermarket choice.

SEE ALSO:

Behind the Label: Whole Foods’ 365 Everyday Value

Behind the Label: Investigating FreshDirect’s Local Commitment

Behind the Label: The Kashi Controversy

Behind the Label: McDonald’s See What We’re Made Of Campaign

Behind the Label: Chipotle, Food With Integrity

Check out all Behind the Label columns here.

Images: trekkyandy, Kables

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There’s something simple about Saturday mornings. The weekly formula that includes tea, NPR and a ride downtown to go to farmers’ market. The weekly morning excursion is a shopping experience cut down to the basic essentials: run through the mental list of what I need, track down the stand that sells it, take one walk around the stands just to people watch, and then get back on my bike and ride home. There’s no list required. Just a hassle-free and low stress outing that not only ensures that I eat well for the next few days, but also happens to be one of my favorite parts of the week. Unlike trekking the the grocery store, farmers’ market outings never feel like a chore.

But why? Is it just the fact that I’m assured organic, local produce, handed to me by the farmer that grew it? That certainly plays a role. But when I take time to think about it, it’s because I’m not overwhelmed. I know what I want, and I know where to get it. And if I don’t know what I want, I’m subject to an onslaught of flashy, shiny marketing to get me to buy a product. Broccoli is broccoli, apples are apples, and goat cheese is straight up, 100 percent goat cheese. No preservatives, no additives, no fancy packaging, just plain old regular food.

Fortune recently published a story giving an in-depth look at one of the hottest food stores of our time: Trader Joe’s. We all know how popular this California-based grocer has become, in fact its rise to fame is fascinating, but how many of us take time to think about why we like it? One of the reasons is the same reason that I’m personally drawn to farmers’ market: simplicity.

Your average grocery store carries 50,000 items, while Trader Joe’s only has 4,000. To the untrained eye, that looks like limited selection – something that our Western brains have been trained to avoid. In our consumer culture, we’ve long been taught that bigger is better. But our brains know better. “People are worried they’ll regret the choice they made,” Barry Schwartz, a Swarthmore professor and author of The Paradox of Choice, is quoted in the article. “People don’t want to feel they made a mistake.” Turns out that people have actually been proven to enjoy purchases more when there are less options to choose from.

Which brings us back to the foodie movement: size does matter, and in a world of conscious gourmands, less is more. Shopping at big-box stores might sound appealing because no matter what we need, it’s probably there, but ultimately this initial appeal is an illusion. Numerous choices are a byproduct of a system run by cheap fossil fuels. Want 10 kinds of rice noodles imported from Southeast Asia? No problem! In the mood for ice cream? Make sure you’re ready to choose from the multitude of options, many of which have ingredients whose number practically exceeds the number of pints in the store freezer.

Food shopping in the form of farmers’ markets, CSAs and other smaller, localized operations may “limit” what we’re able to put on the dinner table – you won’t be cooking up winter squash in May – but we know what we’re getting is healthy and our brains are happy that we avoid launching into a never-ending path of dinner options, which in turn actually isn’t so limiting after all.

In fact, it’s liberating.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground. Each week, Anna will be taking a look at something new and different that’s taking place in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to culinary avant garde.

Image: iboy_daniel

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