'Pirate Joe' smuggles fancy foods into Canada
6Here’s a video about a guy who brings in Trader Joe’s goods from the US and stocks an entire store with their goods in Canada.
http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37721795
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I would just eat locally and have the rare luxury I traveled for. But I gotta admire this guy’s energy.
Love this… free market capitalism at it’s finest!
I’m hesitant to drive 30 minutes to trader Joe’s… I can’t imagine paying extra for stuff that’s been smuggled in.
Yup. They’ve been fighting him for quite a while now.
@curtise I especially like the fact that when they are fighting TJ over this practice they go from Pirate Joe’s to Irate Joe’s by pulling the “P” off the sign!
Trader Joe’s Pot Stickers are good, but they’re not pay 40% more for them good.
@LaVikinga I didn’t know TJs sold pot… much less stickers advertising it! Must be an Oregon or Colorado thing…
@chienfou It’s cleverly hidden mixed in with the ground chicken and pork. Probably explains why the packages frequently go on sale for $4.20.
@LaVikinga I see what you did there
/giphy 4:20 smoke
@chienfou that’s better (had to add smoke to get something useful)
@chienfou :::coughcoughwinkcough:::
@LaVikinga it’s always 4:20 somewhere
/image cheech blunt
This is old news. Pirate Joe’s even has its own Wikipedia page. However, every time I think of Pirate Joe’s, I think that Trader Joe’s is missing a big opportunity to open stores in Canada. If you can’t beat 'em, join 'em, eh?
@gglockner … eh… hunh, hunh… you said eh… (spoken like a true ‘canadien’)
@gglockner
According to the video, the man behind the ‘pirate’ says he would love TJs to open so he could move on to something else… mehbe one day…eh?
I am doing the same thing on a much smaller scale. It’s my last night in Austin and I just got back to my hotel with a trunkload of goodies from TJ’s. I’ll be smuggling them back to Louisiana and selling them all to the couple that lives in my house. The markup is a wash, but maybe I can turn a profit if I write off my mileage.
I went for cookie butter and dolmas. I wound up with so much more in my cart.
We have at least two Trader Joes near us. I’ve never been able to get to like them because I associate them with the truly crappy Aldi stores we also have not far away.
The Germans can keep their crappy stores. And apparently they don’t like Canada or Canadians who like their food.
I find it ironic that they chose not to do business in Canada or with Canadians representing Canada… and yet they feel the need to “protect their brand”… In Canada???
http://freakonomics.com/2009/02/19/do-you-know-who-owns-trader-joes/
Other than the crappy food stuffs in Aldi, a big negative association for us? Child assault.
One way Aldi is cheap - they don’t hire anybody to bring carts back to the store in the parking lot. You must deposit a quarter in the machine to “check out” a cart in the store. That’s right, they expect customers to check their carts back in at the store to get their quarter back.
Anyway, so on a trial visit we’re there checking out when my 10 year old (at the time) son spots a lony cart by the door and figures that’s an easy quarter in his pocket. As he’s pushing it toward the checkin machine, our check out person sprints for the cart, physically knocking my son aside!?! What the hell? I guess they don’t pay their employees squat either. We left our food and never went back.