Trader Joe’s is coming to Union Square this Friday March 17, increasing competition in the area's food marketplace. Whole Foods Market opened a 50,000-square foot expansion store last year and the farmers have set up their stands at the flagship Greenmarket on the square since 1976. The newcomer, a California-based company, has already established a strong following nationwide, offering reasonably-priced high-quality produce and prepared foods (Julia Moskin, New York Times, 8 March 2006). New Yorkers are trembling with anticipation. (Gawker, 22 February 2006)

Competition will be a benefit to consumers, whether they are Trader Joe’s followers or not. "I think there is room for everyone in the neighborhood," a marketing coordinator for Whole Foods, Angela Rakis, said. (Jeremy Smerd, New York Sun, 4 March 2005)

Trader Joe’s approach is to provide global products to informed and enlightened consumers.

Our buyers travel the world searching for new items and we work with a variety of suppliers who make interesting products for us, many of them exclusive to Trader Joe’s. All our private label products have their own "angle," i.e., vegetarian, Kosher, organic or just plain decadent, and all have minimally processed ingredients. (Trader Joe’s Mission)

Criteria for food selection include not only on taste, but also ethical farming, fishing, and agricultural practices. In their message to customers on the Seal Hunt issue, “It’s been reported that some fishermen off Canada’s East coast near Newfoundland kill baby seals in the off-season from fishing. We looked into this, and we think it’s important to tell you that we do not purchase any seafood items from the areas where the killing of seals is taking place.”

Call me a softie, but I do like to know when purchasing fish that I am not indirectly contributing to the slaughter of baby seals. Further, the company’s stance on GM foods warms the heart, especially after weeks of blogging about the venal tactics taken by the food, biotech, and beverage industry.

Our customers can be assured that all products in Trader Joe's private label are sourced from non-genetically modified ingredients. Our efforts began in 2001, when we determined that, given a choice, our customers would prefer to eat foods and beverages made without the use of genetically engineered ingredients. Our process has been to identify any product containing ingredients that could potentially be derived from genetically engineered crops and work with our suppliers to replace offending ingredients with acceptable alternatives. The FDA has not issued a final ruling regarding the labeling of products that either contain or do not contain genetically engineered ingredients. As you may imagine, without governmental determinations of what constitutes "GE free," we, at times, need to make our own judgment calls. Until such time as the government intervenes, that will have to suffice. (Trader Joe's Stance on Genetically Modified Foods, 31 March 2003)

So why now? Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s have expanded all across the country before making their respective entries into New York. Whole Foods co-founder, John Mackey, opened his Austin-based health-food store 28 years ago and has since opened 76 nationwide chains before its New York debut in 2001. After five years and 250 stores, Trader Joe’s has decided to set up shop in the “last frontier” (Chris Smith, New York Magazine, 24 May 2004). New Yorkers aren’t supposed to cook at home and they are apt to hostility towards national chains. Or so food retailers believed. The success and expansion of Whole Foods Market in the city quickly disabused them of this notion. Since then improvements in local supermarkets and existing gourmet stores are noticeable—in display, space, and quality and variety of products. We will be monitoring with interest and optimism Trader Joe’s effect on the food business.