What do you get when you have a store that likes to like its food more than it likes its profits? Is it a store like Trader Joe’s?

This sounds crazy, but you feel like the company likes food even more than they like money,” said Marcy Benfiglio, who lives near the branch in Larchmont, N.Y. “You don’t feel that at the supermarket.

-NYTimes: For Trader Joe’s: A New York Taste Test

Nobody would want to say that the Trader Joe’s isn’t looking at its bank balance when it decided to move upmarket and quirky rather than chasing the Twinkies and Ding-Dongs to the bottom of the quality food-chain. They get loyal foodie customers who are often more forgiving for not stocking Coke and big-brand products than others may be. But you have now got a lot of competition in the area. In the UK, chains like Waitrose and M&S are fighting for the top of the price bracket while in the US groups like Wholefoods Markets are competing to get the ‘healthy’ customers who are more likely to have quality taste and also a greater profit margin. Those major brand-name products may sell by the pallet-load but the profit margins are slim compared to own-brand products that sing their own praises. If you’ve got Wholefoods fruit being praised around all of your friends, that marketing is much better value than the big-ticket advertising at sports matches and festivals that major brands go in for. Who survives and prospers will be one of the most interesting business competitions since the computer makers scrapped it out in the mid-90s.

NYTimes: For Trader Joe’s: A New York Taste Test

Popularity: unranked [?]