Pot Luck

Fortune does Trader Joe's... (4.00 / 2)

Interesting article -

You'd think Trader Joe's would be eager to trumpet its success, but management is obsessively secretive. There are no signs with the company's name or logo at headquarters in Monrovia, about 25 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Few customers realize the chain is owned by Germany's ultra-private Albrecht family, the people behind the Aldi Nord supermarket empire. (A different branch of the family controls Aldi Süd, parent of the U.S. Aldi grocery chain.) Famous in Germany for not talking to the press, the Albrechts have passed their tightlipped ways on to their U.S. business: Trader Joe's and its CEO, Dan Bane, declined repeated requests to speak to Fortune, and the company has never participated in a major story about its business operations.

Some of that may be because Trader Joe's business tactics are often very much at odds with its image as the funky shop around the corner that sources its wares from local farms and food artisans. Sometimes it does, but big, well-known companies also make many of Trader Joe's products. Those Trader Joe's pita chips? Made by Stacy's, a division of PepsiCo's (PEP, Fortune 500) Frito-Lay. On the East Coast much of its yogurt is supplied by Danone's Stonyfield Farm. And finicky foodies probably don't like to think about how Trader Joe's scale enables the chain to sell a pound of organic lemons for $2.

To get inside the mysterious world of Trader Joe's, Fortune spent two months speaking with former executives, competitors, industry analysts, and suppliers, most of whom asked not to be named. What emerged is a picture of a business at a crossroads: As the company expands into new markets and adds stores -- analysts say the grocer could easily triple its size in the coming years -- it must find a way to maintain its small-store vibe with customers. "They see themselves as a national chain of neighborhood specialty grocery stores," says Mark Mallinger, a Pepperdine University professor who has done research for the company. "It means you want to create an image of mom and pop as you grow." That's no easy task. Just ask Starbucks (SBUX, Fortune 500) CEO Howard Schultz, whose expansion has been a huge success but has come at the expense of credibility with some coffee aficionados. The alternative is to remain a small brand with unflagging devotees, like outdoor clothier Patagonia. If it can get the balance right, Trader Joe's may be one of the few retailers to marry cult appeal with scale. Just don't expect anyone from the company to talk about it.

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

---

by: JayinPortland @ Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 02:03:28 AM UTC

Interesting to note... (4.00 / 2)

...back in NJ, I would have paid a fortune to live near a Trader Joe's or a Whole Foods.  Now, I do live six blocks from a Trader Joe's here in Portland, yet I only tend to go there twice a year or so.  I have a thing for their blister peanuts, which I can't find anywhere else.

I never knew Stacy's chips were PepsiCo.  Would be fascinating to find out who makes the rest of their products.  I've heard (rumor, no proof) nasty stuff about an incident between Trader Joe's and Tualatin, OR-based Pacific Foods, a local (damned good) soup manufacturer.

*unfortunately, NJ was and is sorely lacking in decent grocery options in vast areas across the state, and co-ops and farmers' markets?  Fugghedaboutit, for the most part.  It's getting better these days from what I hear and sometimes see when I visit, but very slowly.

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

---

by: JayinPortland @ Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 02:12:17 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

anti-consumer labeling (4.00 / 2)

"manufactured for" and "distributed by" hide a multitude of sins.

---

by: count @ Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 03:08:44 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Interesting point (4.00 / 2)

and one I'd not considered.

Would you care to elaborate?

"If God were to appear to starving people, he would not dare to appear in any other form than food." - Mahatma Gandhi

---

by: Miep @ Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 03:17:29 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

How can I elaborate? (4.00 / 2)

Sources are hidden. Examine boxes of brand-name cold cereal and hot cereal. I know where Hodgson Mills and Bob's Red Mill products come from because they are proud of them, but I defy you to tell me where Post Toasties or Kellog's Corn Flakes come from, or who makes them. They might come from Canada, or Mexico, or China for all the packages tell you, and the manufacture could be contracted to anybody. None of those recalled egg cartons say in plain language what company produced the eggs, not one. And how about store brands? Sources hidden behind undecipherable codes. On and on.

---

by: count @ Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 03:36:18 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

do you know about egg code dates? (4.00 / 2)

Some egg cartons are lettered with numeric day-of-the-year codes. These are different from expiration dates. If you buy eggs that have them, you can look at different cartons and see that this is what they are doing, and do the math in your head.

The code is not about expiration dates; it's about production dates, packing dates, something like that.

Also, do you know about test floating eggs for freshness?

Egg lays on its side, flat: maybe a week or so old. Tips a bit, maybe two weeks. Stands up, three weeks.

Floats; this is a stale egg.  

"If God were to appear to starving people, he would not dare to appear in any other form than food." - Mahatma Gandhi

---

by: Miep @ Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 04:37:21 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

count's noted this before... (4.00 / 2)

...and since then, I've noticed many products (mostly breakfast cereals), when I look them up online or on my occasional sojourn to the Safeway down the block (strictly for research purposes ;)), sometimes simply state "distributed by", without any further elaboration.

Which, when you think about it, pretty much tells you exactly zero about the product's provenance, doesn't it?  But in many cases, that apparently meets current labeling standards.

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

---

by: JayinPortland @ Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 03:40:06 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I have, for years (4.00 / 2)

been poring at stuff printed on packaged goods, for all the good it does me.

Back in the 80's, I used to shop with my first boyfriend. We were both into this. We'd stop and look and read and make decisions, as we went.

One day, some woman came up behind us (and we were NOT blocking the aisle) and muttered about us "jamming the aisle with our damned science stuff!"

We thought that was pretty freaking hilarious.

Little did we know.


"If God were to appear to starving people, he would not dare to appear in any other form than food." - Mahatma Gandhi

---

by: Miep @ Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 04:40:32 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I mean, beyond what's noted in the article that (4.00 / 2)

Jay so helpfully pointed out (crossblogged that, Jay, thanks!).

Your comment got me wondering about the scope of such an insight, though.

Eeek.

"If God were to appear to starving people, he would not dare to appear in any other form than food." - Mahatma Gandhi

---

by: Miep @ Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 03:18:55 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

figures (4.00 / 2)

"If God were to appear to starving people, he would not dare to appear in any other form than food." - Mahatma Gandhi

---

by: Miep @ Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 02:36:24 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

More Drought-Tolerant Fun (4.00 / 2)

Plant scientists move closer to making any crop drought-tolerant

Science Codex, today

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Drought-tolerant crops have moved closer to becoming reality.

A collaborative team of scientists has made a significant advance on the discovery last year by the University of California, Riverside's Sean Cutler of pyrabactin, a synthetic chemical that mimics a naturally produced stress hormone in plants to help them cope with drought conditions.

Led by researchers at The Medical College of Wisconsin, the scientists report in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (online) on Aug. 22 that by understanding how pyrabactin works, other more effective chemicals for bringing drought-resistance to plants can be developed more readily.

Growing drought-tolerant crops inching forward

Science Blog, today

A collaborative team of scientists led by researchers at The Medical College of Wisconsin, in Milwaukee, has used the tools of structural biology to understand how a synthetic chemical mimics abscisic acid (ABA), a key stress hormone that helps plants cope with adverse environmental conditions such as drought. The results are published online in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology in advance of print publication later.

For years scientists have searched for practical ways to use ABA signaling to improve drought tolerance in agriculture. Unfortunately, the synthetic form of ABA used commercially is light sensitive and expensive. The new study builds on the earlier discovery by scientists at University of California, Riverside of pyrabactin, a synthetic chemical that mimics ABA. However, unlike ABA, pyrabactin activates only a few of the 14 ABA receptors in the plant needed for effective drought tolerance.

"By better understanding how pyrabactin works, we can develop new chemicals to enable plants to resist drought. These same chemicals that signal the response to drought may also contribute to increasing crop yields," says Francis Peterson, Ph.D., lead author and assistant professor of biochemistry at the Medical College.

Large potential for drought tolerant maize in Africa

Carbon-Based

Physorg: As climate change intensifies drought conditions in Africa and sparks fears of a new cycle of crippling food shortages, a study released today finds widespread adoption of recently developed drought-tolerant varieties of maize could boost harvests in 13 African countries by 10 to 34 percent and generate up to US$1.5 billion in benefits for producers and consumers.

"We need to move deliberately, but with urgency, to get these new varieties from the breeders to the farmers, because their potential to avert crises is considerable," said Roberto La Rovere, a socio-economist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (known by its Spanish acronym CIMMYT) and lead author of the study, which was produced in partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

"Our analysis shows that with high rates of adoption, more than four million producers and consumers would see their poverty level drop significantly by 2016," he added.

"If God were to appear to starving people, he would not dare to appear in any other form than food." - Mahatma Gandhi

---

by: Miep @ Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 04:57:42 AM UTC