Trader Joe's: The Wal-Mart of grocery stores

What does it mean when "organic" garlic bulbs, "organic" frozen broccoli florets, and "organic" black beans in the can come from a country where we have no FDA inspections? What does organic mean in this instance? No one within the jurisdiction of the FDA has used pesticides in the production of these products?

More to the point: why does someone in California need to have her garlic imported from China? It's one of the state's main crops; it's no less expensive to purchase two bulbs at $1.99 at TJ's then it would be to buy it at another grocery store. At a standard farmer's market, it goes for .75-1.25/bulb, depending on size. This means of course that TJ's pays Chinese agricultural businesses (large or small? who knows) on roughly the same pay scale that Mattel is using for its toys. All those TJ-label products are coming from China or some other emerging market and marked up exponentially. Note that TJ's is owned by the German company Aldi, which is known as 'the German Wal-Mart' for good reason.

Americans demand cheap goods and they insist that they be cheap, ergo the shelves full of plastic shower rings, plastic toys, and all else besides. But we're getting no deal on our groceries from TJ's and there are real environmental, social, and economic costs to their business practices. Moreover, we might think we're avoiding corporatism in some form by shopping at TJ's but it is in fact a big box like all the others. It's akin not only to Wal-Mart but also to Home Depot. We think we're getting a deal because the physical store is relatively plain with somewhat of a warehouse feel. But that apparent simplicity, like the faux-cool of the dominant motif -- the island, the palm trees, the Hawaiian shirts the employees will still ocassionally wear -- masks corporate business practices like any other. Plus I'd rather get my cereal from the midwest; why have it shipped from China, where the wheat gluten might still be poisoned and the workers are not unionized?

TJ's: it's no less expensive than any other grocery store and most of its goods are imported from China. What is the appeal for the bourgeois consumer? Aren't they, we, trained to shop smart, to be green, to consume responsibly?