Trader Joe's says NO to China

[lame54]

http://articles.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/i...
Trader Joe's just says no to China
Chicago Sun-Times, Oct 20, 2007 by Stephanie Zimmermann
Trader Joe's, the hip, wholesome food store with 15 locations in the Chicago area, said Friday it will phase out foods imported from China amid concerns that standards on "organic" products from the country aren't as stringent as they should be.

Alison Mochizuki, spokeswoman for the Monrovia, Calif.-based grocer, e-mailed a statement saying the grocer will phase out single- ingredient products from mainland China by Jan. 1.

"We feel confident that all of our products from China meet the same high quality standards that we set for all of our products," the statement read. "However, our customers have voiced their concerns about products from this region and we have listened...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-55615656651797...

[Angela Shelley]

1. A good example of "Your Consumer Power"

read more at

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2446068

[tsuki]

2. When I showed my store that the pine nuts were from China, they

were removed from the shelf.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. Huh.

So the products are perfectly safe, they're just beinning them because they're Chinese?

Ain't that sinophobia?

[Clark2008]

6. I think the purpose is, ultimately, to bring back manufacturing

to this country.

In other words, if corporations get the clue that no one is buying their lousy products made at slave labor wages, they may have to cut the CFO's bonus a smidge and pay some US workers to produce the product or lose TONS of profit.

At least, that's why I don't buy foreign products if I can help it. :shrug:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. That's a perfectly good reason to buy American, or local.

But I'd wish they'd simply argue that, instead of fearmongering over this recall thing.

[AngryAmish]

19. Trader Joe's is not American, it is German

Aldi family owns it. They are just doing what their customers want.

[femrap]

23. Any link that shows Aldi owns Trader Joe's? nt

[lame54]

24. The same German family does own Aldi and Trader Joe's...

but both are operated independently of each other and the family does not have hands-on involvement with day to day operations
don't have a link but i do work for TJ's

[AngryAmish]

30. wikipedia (yeah, I know) but its true

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trader_Joe's>

Aldi family is really private - one of them got kidnapped by Red Army Faction or some other German communist group in the 70s and was treated badly. Privately held means no stock data.

[lame54]

33. No stocks allows the company to run as they wish...

they treat their employees well - good to great pay - great benefits - great retirement
they don't run on credit - they pay all their bills up front - that's why so many companies love to deal with them
and they do what they can to keep their prices low without the shitty exploiting means that the walmart and their wannabes use

if they issued stock they would be required by law to do what they could to bring their profits up

[AngryAmish]

34. Don't have to sell me

I'm going there today. Food is tasty there. The bread is good, by far the best supermarket bread I have had. Meat - not so much. I like the frozen food, especially when I was single. Cheap wine is nice.

One thing I don't like is the enforced cheerfulness of the employees, but I'm a curmudgeon.

[IronLionZion]

36. Business Week

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_17/b3880016.htm

[femrap]

39. Thx....

I always wondered about Trader Joe's because it seemed so non-american business plan. No greed and good service! Also explains the number of foodstuffs from Europe which are YUMMY.

It's my favorite place to shop.

[IronLionZion]

43. It is American, it started in California

Aldi's bought it recently, but the business plan is very much American. We're just not used to greedy corporations doing the right thing like caring about employee benefits or quality of their products. They treat their employees VERY well and pay much higher than minimum wage. It seems to be working for them as it's a very profitable enterprise and their stores are always crowded.

I bought some wine from there recently that I haven't tried before. The cashier told me if I didn't like it, I could bring back the empty bottle and the receipt for a full refund! It was good but I wouldn't have returned it anyway.

Believe it or not, there are others out there. Giant Eagle in western PA is run by some lesbians and they hire mentally challenged and physically challenged folks and give benefits after working there for some time. Eat n Park restaurant in western PA gives benefits to their part time employees from the day they start.

[femrap]

45. OK...I didn't think a German

company had started Trader Joe's, but stranger things have happened. I wonder why Trader Joe's sold all or some of the company to that German family. I'll go do some research.

American corporations in general have really gone downhill with their goal now being 'Pay more and get less.' Maybe Marx was right...capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction. When ronnie reagan started Deregulation, I said that Greed had to be regulated. Look at what has happened.

Long live Trader Joe's!

[lame54]

7. It should have been done years ago...

for their human rights violations alone

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. So we should also boycott U.S. products?

[lame54]

12. no - but maybe other peaceful countries should

[SoCalDem]

8. Finding the "ones that are perfectly safe" .. that's the challenge

Want to read in the paper about the contamination of a product you have been paying EXTRA for, and feeding to your kids for MONTHS??

Nothing is a "sure thing", but going that extra step to at least TRY and be as safe as possible, is a good thing..

I saw a documentary on one of my PBS channels a while back..about a small community who "bought shares" of local farmer who was about to go under and sell out.. The community subsidizes him and even helps him on his farm, in exchange for truly organic produce & meats.

They have pooled money and even bought extra land to keep it as pasture, and to keep greedy developers from "enlarging" their town..

[melody]

14. That's the key to future stability -- encourage local development and strengthen it

It's all going to be local from now on.

[atreides1]

10. That's not what they said

"We feel confident that all of our products from China meet the same high quality standards that we set for all of our products,"

There is a difference in saying it's safe and we feel confident.

Leaves some room for doubt

[SoCalDem]

15. They "said" that to prevent people from suing them for stuff they USED to sell

and to protect themselves from suits from the downstream-grocers who bought the stuff they removed from their stores (they did not just throw it away)

:rofl:

[lame54]

17. they never made it on any china re-call lists

when the dog food scare happened they pulled their dog-food and had it independently tested to assure the quality - there was never anything wrong with it but they wanted to assure their customers of that

[lame54]

28. They don't see "stuff" to other grocers down the line...

If a product is pulled due to a health issue they destroy it
if it was pulled for other than a health issue, e.g. packing, weight, etc., it is donated

[Critters2]

4. I wonder if they'll do the same at their Aldi stores.

I was there over the weekend with a friend. We were both appalled to see canned peaches labeled "product of China". We ended up buying cleaning and paper supplies. Went somewhere else for food.

[shanti]

5. AWESOME!

kudos to my favorite store for keeping it real! :loveya:

[YOY]

13. Cool. Love that store.

and may I reccomend their Brie? Damn good tripple cream brie. Canadian and French, but I think they may have American as well.

Yummers!

[kestrel91316]

16. I was a TJs last night, and I carefully checked each item i bought

to make sure it was US origin. The only one I caved on was the smoked herring - from Canada.

I passed on Turkish dried apricots in favor of US. I passed on imported Greek-style yogurt (from Greece) in favor of US origin Greek-style yogurt.

What have we come to that we need to import from halfway around the world a type of yogurt we are perfectly capable of making right here??

[Critters2]

18. I asked the same thing when I learned we were importing wheat

gluten from China to be used in a dog food factory in KANSAS!!! I'm fairly certain one could find wheat in Kansas without looking too hard.

[Javaman]

20. Hot damn! Now if only whole foods would do the same. all of their frozen stuff is from china. nt

[LeftyMom]

21. Fat chance. Whole Foods is the WalMart of organic food.

Virulently anti-union, too.

[AngryAmish]

22. More importantly their bread really sucks

[Javaman]

25. You are aware that former member of the wal-mart board now sit on

whole foods board, right?

you can trace the change in whole foods from being a force for good, to a force for evil the day they were brought on board.

[DaveJ]

26. So was one of our candidates...

n/t

[lame54]

27. It wasn't this guy...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2442457

[Gormy Cuss]

38. I'm not sure. They love making a show of their reaction to customer feedback.

If they think it would increase their bottom line they'd source more products from countries other than China. It's all about money, after all.

[Stephanie]

29. oh jeez, are you kidding me?

so disappointed...

[xxqqqzme]

31. I started going back to Trader Joes during the last grocery

strike here in CA. I never went back to chain stores after the strike was settled. I was in an Albertson's before turkey day and ended up buying less than half of what was on my list. Excessive packaging; no free range eggs; no hormone free dairy products; low grade cheese; way too high priced kalamata olives...all this I can get @ TJ and at lower prices. Plus to make my world famous mashed potato rolls, I like to use King Arthur unbleached flour. Can find it only @ TJs.

At a DFA meeting a few months back, a union rep, in anticipation of another grocery strike, said Trader Joes as well as Stater Bros, were good alternatives, as far as the union was concerned, to the chains.

[emlev]

32. Anybody inspired to get to work on TJ's for only Fair Trade Chocolate?

Check Global Exchange's cocoa page with action suggestions

[IronLionZion]

35. My love of TJ's is as powerful as my hate for Aldi's

Aldi's uses a lot of Chinese-made stuff, and their stuff even looks dangerous. Yuck. I got some non-food items once but I would never go again.

TJ's is cool and fairly affordable if you can find a way to get over to the high-income suburbs where they are located. I like a lot of their frozen stuff and wines.

[LTR]

37. I have not run into any problems with Aldi

The stuff's insanely cheap, but the quality is as good as any item at a regular store. In fact, I'd rate some of it higher in quality than the stuff at the other stores. I also give them high marks for the occasional off-the-wall stuff they carry.

[LostinVA]

40. We LOVE TJ's!!!

[onehandle]

41. Great! I'll let the manager of our local store know I approve.

And pick up some 'two buck chuck.'

[lame54]

42. Speaking of Two-Buck Chuck...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JE8cVV6NGxM

[Highway61]

44. Finally

a store with integrity