Products
Unlike typical grocery stores, which may carry 50,000 items (or SKUs), Trader Joe's stocks about 4,000 items, 80% of which bear one of its own brand names.
Trader Joe's describes itself as "your neighborhood grocery store" or "your unique grocery store". Products sold include gourmet foods, organic foods, vegetarian food, unusual frozen foods, imported foods, domestic and imported wine and beer (where local law permits), "alternative" food items, and staples like bread, cereal, eggs, dairy, coffee, and produce. Non-food items include personal hygiene products, household cleaners, vitamins, pet food, plants, and flowers.
Many of the company's products are environmentally friendly. In October 2007, Trader Joe's began to phase out foods imported from China amid concerns that standards on "organic" products from the country are not as stringent as they should be. Between February 2008 and April 2008, Trader Joe's claimed to phase out single-ingredient products from China due to concerns over tainted goods. However, Trader Joe's does not provide 'Country of Origin' disclosures on most of its private label brands, citing reasons of food source and supplier secrecy.
Trader Joe's maintains low prices by having smaller and plainer stores and carrying a smaller variety of products and getting more turnaround on products they do carry, which enables the purchase of larger quantities of perishable items closer to the expiration date at better prices, knowing that they can be sold within shelf-life limits. Individual products are also discontinued more often than at larger grocery chains, due to increased costs, poor sales, or to free up space for new items.
Trader Joe's sells many items under its own private labels, requiring their sometimes brand-name suppliers not to publicize this business relationship, and offers these products at a significant discount to brand-name equivalents. Their labels are sometimes named in accordance to the ethnicity of the food in question, such as Trader Jose's (Mexican food), Trader Ming's (Chinese food), Baker Josef's (flour and bagels), Trader Giotto's (Italian food), Trader Joe-San (Japanese food), Arabian Joe's (Middle Eastern food), Pilgrim Joe's (New England specialties, like clam chowder), JosephsBrau (beer), Trader Johann's (lip balm), Trader Jacque's (French food and soaps), Joe's Diner (certain frozen entrees), Joe's Kids (children's food), and Trader Darwin's (vitamins and health supplements). By selling almost all of its products under its own label, Trader Joe's "skips the middle man" and buys directly from both local and international small-time vendors.
Trader Joe's is the exclusive retailer of Charles Shaw wine, popularly known as Two Buck Chuck because of its $1.99 price tag in California; in some locales, it sells for more than $3 a bottle due to varying state liquor taxes and transportation costs. Of the wine selection at Trader Joe's, Coloumbe has said, "We built Trader Joe's on wine first, then food. I tasted 100,000 wines, and most weren't wonderful. They were submitted to us by desperate vintners." Along with Charles Shaw, Trader Joe's is known for stocking a very large selection of California and New-World wines.
Through its ownership by Aldi (managed by Aldi Nord; the southern division, Aldi Süd, runs Aldi markets in the United States), products branded with its name have begun to appear in ALDI MARKT (stores administered by Aldi Nord) in Europe.
The company has stated that products with the "Trader Joe's" brand contain no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives, contain no MSG or trans fats, and are sourced from non-genetically modified ingredients. This statement does not apply to products sold without the "Trader Joe's" brand.
Trader Joe's Vitamin Crusade High Potency multivitamin was tested by ConsumerLab.com in their Multivitamin and Multimineral Supplements Review of 38 of the leading multivitamin/multimineral products sold in the U.S. and Canada. Testing included amounts of selected index elements, their ability to disintegrate in solution per United States Pharmacopeia guidelines, lead contamination threshold set in California Proposition 65, and meeting U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) labeling requirements.
In 2011 Consumer Reports rated Trader Joe's "Truffle Brownie" mix the best brownie mix on the market.
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