I agree, it is very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

"And thus, the big brands are willing to operate under Trader Joe's cloak of secrecy, under which the "vendor shall not publicize its business relationship with TJ's in any manner."

So they have no confirmation on who really makes the TJ's products and are simply going by a taste test of selected items. Each product could be made by any number of companies and the consumer has no way of knowing the real source. But we knew that already.

But I like the TJ prices!

Not sure I understand what the big deal is here. Big Corp makes the lower-cost storebrands that markets sell under their own brandnames, as well.

What the article doesn't bother to mention is, what are TJ's SPECIFICATIONS for its own products? TJ products are reviewed and approved by employee-only taste panels. A number of their products are in fact TJ-only products that the panels approve of and think will sell well.

I might add, in case someone thinks I'm biased in their favor: I hardly ever go to our nearby TJ stores, and rarely buy anything from them. I do, however, follow business news assiduously and the WSJournal ran an article on them a couple of years ago.

This was a big deal because not being a public company, they don't have to report their financials to the SEC. Being privately held by a large German corp., they have the luxury of being run precisely as when they were a smaller regional chain of 10 stores. Theo Albrecht was brilliant in retaining TJ's original management team, and his business trust runs TJ the same way he did - totally hands-off. Very rare in the corporate world!

I have a real problem believing someone was NOT paid off for writing that article. This is as irresponsible as many political campaign ads. Make a comment to imply something that is totally unfounded to profit from it. "Well we didn't SAY that ____ made this, we asked 'what if'..." or some other such nonsense.

Show me proof that General Mills makes their cereal. Why didn't you test it against Malt-O-Meal's version? Or any of the other generic brands? Hmm, couldn't be that you wanted people to think that General Mills made it could it??? Gee, it's the same shape... doesn't look the same... doesn't taste the same... MUST BE MADE BY THEM!!!

Totally irresponsible. And the problem is people buy that type of misinformation as being credible.

Maybe they "went behind the shelf" to find out who made it, but they didn't have even crumbs of facts to back up their implications. And all that they actually produced was mouse sh*t for findings behind that shelf.

If I were General Mills, I'd sue their butts off. Even if I was actually selling the rejects to TJs! And I'd be proud to tell people that I sell my garbage to this company and they resell it to the consumer! I'd call it "recycling".

And occasionally you can find a Trader Joe's product at Aldi.Last Christmas Aldi carried the Dark Chocolate Covered Mint Joe Joes at over a dollar less than Trader Joe's.
It was very evident that they have the same parent company when I saw Trader Joe's brand trail mix advertised in a German Aldi ad.

Quite frankly, I don't care who makes Tj's products. They have their own standards, which I believe is extremely high quality and if someone like GM is producing their products, maybe GM will figure out something about what consumers want (separate from the products they already produce). If GM was making things that met the needs of all consumers, their wouldn't be a market for TJ's. The prices, the quality, the uniqueness of what they sell. As much as I try to support local producers, buy all I can at the farmers markets, eat almost 100% organically, etc. I find TJ's products that are imported from Europe that I love. I know EU standards are much higher than USA standards for food products. Organic isn't necessarily what I need in European products because many of the pesticides and other toxic methods of farming in the US is prohibited in Europe. So I will buy non-organic products from European countries that I can't get in the US - or can get for a much lower price.

I do 80% of my shopping at my food coop and farmer's markets - and I trust how they have vetted producers. Maybe 15% of my shopping at TJ's and 5% at a grocery store or Costco.

I'm eating a bowl of Joe's O's right now and they're definitely different than they were 6-12 months back. The O's themselves are more consistently sized and it seems to be a bit less toasted than the previous version.

At $1.99 for a 15 oz. box, they're a pretty good deal.