So, why ARE Trader Joe's wines so cheap?

[Robin Garr]

More good stuff from W. Blake Gray ...

Why are Trader Joe's wines so cheap?

Short answer: For the same reason that everything else at Trader Joe's is cheap. They're industrial agricultural products that are efficiently made and distributed.

The Internet got excited last week with the "news" from the Huffington Post that there are dead birds in Trader Joe's wines. The Huffington Post, which doesn't pay writers for most of its stories, exists mostly to prove that liberals are as gullible as conservatives. It got smacked down for running potentially libelous material and took the story off its site.

(Just to clarify: There are most likely no dead birds in Trader Joe's wine. There are, however, thousands of dead insects. More on that below.)

http://blog.wblakegray.com/2014/08/why- ... cheap.html

FluffPost is notorious for hysterical anti-science tropes,as well. It's a hotbed of anti-vaxer rants and even delves into amazing nonsense like HOMEOPATHY. (Homeopathy, the ONE WOO TO RULE THEM ALL)

I never saw the appeal of 2 buck chuck. I thought it was awful when I tried it many years ago.

I never saw the appeal of 2 buck chuck. I thought it was awful when I tried it many years ago.

I assume the appeal is given in the first 2 words of Two Buck Chuck.

I never saw the appeal of 2 buck chuck. I thought it was awful when I tried it many years ago.

I assume the appeal is given in the first 2 words of Two Buck Chuck.

Price was certainly a large part of the appeal, but 2BC was also highly variable, so (especially in its early days) some quite decent lots of wine were sold off to Bronco and resold as 2BC. However, one could never know the source of the wine, so different bottles of a 2011 2BC Chardonnay could be wildly different, having come from different lots of purchased wine.

Mark Lipton

well, IS everything at TJ's cheap? has anyone ever done a real comparison? in michigan, only the trader joes wine brands are cheaper. they fill in with real brand name wines that are priced similarly to other stores. and what about the quality of the wine and non wine items? i know that is difficult on non wine products because TJ's has many unique products that it would be hard to find comparisons for. i like their tarte d'alsace. can't find anything to compare it too - at ANY price. one thing we know is that they control the distribution channels. in exchange for being their nearly exclusive distributor, they can probably extract fairly good terms given their volume. one thing i've noticed is that TJ's stocks their own shelves - unlike nearly all other chains that force their suppliers to do it for them. this should put them at a slight disadvantage; but not when you consider the nearly constant restocking problems considering their per store volume.

the original plan was to buy distressed wines from wineries - or at least overstockes - relabeled and sold super cheap. this worked in CA; but not when they expanded to other states. quantities were too small and other states myriad laws made it impractical. so now there are second labels and defunct labels - like charles shaw, black mtn. and others i can't remember, but used to actually sell at wholesale when they were still viable.

they do a huge business here in AA. "underpaid" U of M professors love it there; and of course the students.

They are astutely seeking out European coops and there by getting good value wines from France and Italy. Some of their Bordeaux, Burgundy and Chianti are really good values. You must remember that the French (and I assume the Italians) coops produce about 55% of the countries wines, and they do so in large, marketable quantities, while the quality is only getting better. TJ's is also keenly searching for close-outs and distressed wines. I picked up a couple of bottles of '08 D'Alseme Becker Margaux for under $30 a few months ago. it went quickly (they probably only had 1-2 cases). These people are incredibly savvy merchandisers as you can tell if you have ever been to an Aldi's (another of their chains). And I suspect that they may be using the wines as a "loss-leader" much like some super-markets use milk or eggs. There can't be more than a $1 or less markup on some of their bottles. But like someone has noted, they don't try to compete on the common commercial labels.

I don't know TJ's but it is a brand of the German Aldi privately owned organisation.

Aldi supermarkets are expanding fast and doing very well in UK along with their (German) competitor Lidl and taking market share from the mainstream supermarkets .

Among the many other reasons they are cheaper than mainstream supermarkets is they work on a lower profit margin.

good point about the co-ops. those wines are getting better and better. they've been smart enough apparently to hire recent graduates of the wine schools. these people know how to clean up a place - make sound clean wines - and encourage the growers. convincing the coop to buy new equipment that can be spread out over all the growers also helps. you rarely find Brett or other flaws and often get nice quality to boot.

Tjs has varied wines in stock depending on their locations. They will buy "deals" on a few cases and sell them in their local store located near where the "deals" originated.

Tjs has varied wines in stock depending on their locations. They will buy "deals" on a few cases and sell them in their local store located near where the "deals" originated.

So, does this mean that TJ's wine deals in Massachusetts are likely/often/always a close-out deal from a Massachusetts distributor/wholesaler?

Tjs has varied wines in stock depending on their locations. They will buy "deals" on a few cases and sell them in their local store located near where the "deals" originated.

So, does this mean that TJ's wine deals in Massachusetts are likely/often/always a close-out deal from a Massachusetts distributor/wholesaler?

I really couldn't answer your question with certainty, only really famiiar with what happens in this area. Some smaller production wines that locals have had problems moving at times show up in Napa's TJs. I think it probably works somewhat the same way as Costco which has varied inventory depending on location.

Tjs has varied wines in stock depending on their locations. They will buy "deals" on a few cases and sell them in their local store located near where the "deals" originated.

So, does this mean that TJ's wine deals in Massachusetts are likely/often/always a close-out deal from a Massachusetts distributor/wholesaler?

Most often, yes. If a mass retailer is offered a close-out deal (varies from discontinued brands to end-of-vintage or going out of business) it's either local or hipped in at least truckload quantities.

Used to buy this stuff all the time back in Texas, from a couple of cases to containers. One chain specialized in close outs---and had a caveat emptor policy clearly stated. Might be good; might be crap, but it's cheap so no refunds. You might be surprised how good their sales were.

I once had several cases of old Chateau Margaux that had been heat damaged. I put it on sale with a sign that explained the wine was so bad it was considered un drinkable and the chances of getting a good bottle were almost nil. Priced it at $10', no comebacks.

Sold out in one day. One morning, actually.

I once had several cases of old Chateau Margaux that had been heat damaged

Did you taste it?

I once had several cases of old Chateau Margaux that had been heat damaged

Did you taste it?

Several bottles, from several cases. Irredeemably cooked, as only Texas can cook.

I once had several cases of old Chateau Margaux that had been heat damaged

Did you taste it?

Several bottles, from several cases. Irredeemably cooked, as only Texas can cook.

This reminds me, in an odd way, of my epiphany regarding cooked wine. I was probably in my late 20s or early 30s and had been drinking wine for about a decade at that point (and cellaring wine for nearly that long). I was at a tasting put on by a local distributor and the rep mentioned that a particular wine was heat damaged and maderized. At that point, I realized that the taste that I'd come to associate with all the Italian reds that I'd sampled to that point was in fact the taste of maderization. That probably says as much about the reliability of the transport chain to CA in the 1970s as it does about anything else.

Mark "Slow Learner" Lipton