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am in the TJ's defender camp here and this issue has been needlessly scandalized on Chow and now here on S/E. It's a bit silly. The topic is really interesting and discussion-worthy, though. A lot of people want to know who is manufacturing TJ's products.

So, how was there finger-crossing? Tell me if I'm missing something, but if TJ's sells products directly from the same (or slightly different) production line as name-brand products (i.e. from a manufacturer), the product still only traveled from a manufacturer to TJ's. Further, TJ's assembles and labels their products, right? No wholesaler or retailer seems to be in the mix. No middleman.

I'm disappointed that Chow asserted that TJ's is or may be "in collusion" with name-brand product manufacturers. "Collusion" suggests unlawful fraud or dishonesty. So far from the truth.

Again, noteworthy issues, but why not keep it on the up-n-up?

I always say this; I love TJ's if you think they did anything not to your liking keep shopping at Whole Foods and leave MORE FOR ME!
Nothing I hate worse than getting to TJ's and not finding what I want.
I was there yesterday and everything I wanted was there. YAY!!!
The TJ's brand is no worse than any other grocery store they contract out to get their label on a house brand. Cheaper too.
It is a no-brainer.

If you read the TJs sales flyer, they make it clear that they work with manufacturers and food producers to buy up large quantities of stock. This is the biggest "duh" story. Did someone think it's a secret? Did you really believe that TJs had thousands of farms spread across the world, and was producing all of its own products, including the base ingredients? :yawn: Oh, BTW, I have a bridge to see you if you're interested.

For the sake of good journalism, where did Chow get the stat that 80% are probably produced by a third party, and why are you repeating it? Nothing in their article bears out that stat? Though I'd estimate the number's actually closer to 100%.

Funny, on my last trip to TJ's, I spotted 'their' frozen spinach pie--which is nearly identical to the one I purchase at Costco--and that's what surprised me--it was the exact same packaging (a dark green cardboard container)! Didn't even attempt to make it appear different.

Not really a surprise at all. I've always assumed their Goddess dressing was the same as Annie's. And it's pretty widely known among beer geeks that Gordon Biersch brews some of their beers. Even their yearly Vintage Ale bares the Unibroue logo (maker of La Fin du Monde, among others).

Food manufacturing today is much more centralized than most people realize. Remember how surprised people were with the pet food recall? That so many brands were coming from the same manufacturing plant? The same thing applies to our (human) food.

My dad was in the food business. Trader Joe's whole business model is to contract with third parties--and squeeze them hard on price.

*edit: why is this even a post.

@heidia: My dad was not in the food business. Can you clarify what you mean by "squeeze them hard on price"? It sounds unpleasant and perhaps even unethical. If you're getting at Fair Trade issues, there could be something there. I don't know.

As a former employee of one of those contract manufacturers, I saw first hand how Trader Joe's worked. They bought one cheese spread from us with their brand name in addition to one product with one of our own brands. Their approach was to buy a bunch of product at once in cartons with a large number of units to keep costs down.

And if anyone is worried that this somehow compromises their quality, I have this story. The product we made for them was without preservative (potassium sorbate) but we also made versions of the same product for others that included preservatives. Try as we might to keep their product separate, one batch had some trivial carryover of the preservative at a level that was below an effective level but was detected by their quality team. As they should have, they rejected that load but they went the step further of ending our contract because of that one slip.

They were a tough customer when it came to anything quality related.

I'm confused. Why is this scandalous? Are there people out there who think that stores actually manufacturer and/or package the products they sell under their own label? Seriously? Wow. I honestly thought that everyone (literally) knew that "private label" products were produced by the same companies who make the name-brand stuff. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the issue that makes this so scandalous?

The real problem with TJs is their MO of getting customers hooked on a brand-name product, then reinventing it as a private label product. That wouldn't be so bad, except the price usually does not go down after private labeling (as one might expect), while the product size usually does decrease, so you actually end up paying more per unit than you did when it was name-brand. Also, they like to reformulate, often resulting in a version inferior to the one you got hooked on in the first place.

@heidia: No apology necessary. Not such a big deal. Just expressing my confusion and displeasure with all the daggers thrown at TJ's recently.

BREAKING NEWS - Ralph's, Von's, Costco, Safeway all found to be using third parties to produce store brand name items!!!

/sigh

This is idiotic. The packaging is usually an obvious tip-off of what product the TJ brand is a twin of - I'm pretty sure they do that on purpose.

Glad to hear they are a tough customer on quality control - thx jfultz.