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Trader Joe's is the closest to Amazon in this regard. They introduce new products as the name brand, the best sellers are cloned and then replaced with the stor
by Cerium 5y ago
Trader Joe's is the closest to Amazon in this regard. They introduce new products as the name brand, the best sellers are cloned and then replaced with the store brands.
- dec0dedab0de 5y agoAldi is similar, which is kind of interesting because Trader Joes is one of the Aldis. I always wonder how they get away with blatant trademark infringement. They come up with similar product design for the purpose of confusing consumers. I assume they have deals with most of the name brand products, or their parent companies.
- arrosenberg 5y agoI don't know about Trader Joe's specifically, but a lot of "Store Brands" are made in the same place as the name brand. It's just a giant game of price discrimination.
- rurp 5y agoThis is very true. I worked at Traders many years ago and at least back then the store brands were often made by the same name brand company.
- Stratoscope 5y agoAgreed. I never worked there but have shopped there for many years, along with the other usual places like Whole Foods and Safeway. A game I used to play was "spot the TJ's store brand item under its own name at another store." One example is TJ's French Village plain nonfat yogurt, which is very obviously Nancy's yogurt from Springfield Creamery in Oregon. Same exact taste and texture in the same packaging. (Nancy's used to come in clear plastic tubs like TJ's. A few years ago they switched to opaque white for their name brand, but it's still the same product.) Another is some of the frozen Indian foods, which Whole Foods carries under the manufacturer's brand name.
- dreamcompiler 5y agoFrom what I've read, TJ's doesn't infringe. They simply pay the original manufacturer to make a run of the product with TJ's label on it.
- mindslight 5y agoPart of the agreement seems to be that the manufacturer goes out of their way to make a worse version for TJ's. Honestly they should be taken to task for flooding the market with fake competition, but that applies to the majority of brands in these days of megaconsolidation.
- Stratoscope 5y agoI don't think that is the case. As I noted in a sibling comment, many of TJ's store brands are identical to the name brand. Buy a tub of the French Village yogurt I mentioned, and also buy the same Nancy's yogurt at Whole Foods, and you won't find any difference between the two.
- N1H1L 5y agoCostco does too - Kirkland is their own brand. Same with Kroger's - Private Reserve
- what_ever 5y agoI think Kirkland is just Costco making a bulk deal with one of the manufacturers and slapping Kirkland brand on it.
- lotsofpulp 5y agoIt’s the same with the other retailers. They do not own their own factories.
- dhosek 5y agoSame with Trader Joe's store brands, or at least that was the case in the past as I recall reading in The Fearless Flyer.
- TchoBeer 5y agoI think Trader Joes does that too?
- mindslight 5y agoBut Trader Joe's doesn't sell anything that is name brand? The whole store is store brand.
- jandrese 5y agoThey stock plenty of third party Wine in my area, although the beer is all Trader Joe labeled. There are a handful of other things that aren't Trader Joe store brand or completely generic (yet?). Not that it would matter here, the law in question sets the market cap miles above where Trader Joe's is.
- mindslight 5y agoI had forgotten about the beer/wine, as the one I've been going to doesn't have that section. With the alcohol oligopoly it makes sense they can't make house brands so easily.
- dhosek 5y agoThere are a handful of non TJs brand items. Not many, but some.
- mullingitover 5y agoThey absolutely sell other brands, my local TJs has a huge stack of White Claw in the beer aisle.