What It Really Takes To Get A Product On Trader Joe's Shelves

Trader Joe's products are good for good reason. Whether you have a list of products you always buy when you step into the store or have discovered favorite snacks to carry along to picnics, what lands on the shelves is often a result of a calculated, strategic effort. This is also part of the reason why Trader Joe's isn't afraid to discontinue certain products, as they know they have a batch of new, delicious items ready to replace any duds that aren't quickly moving off of the store's displays.

In order to make the cut, Trader Joe's products undergo a rigorous testing process. A tasting panel is responsible for sampling items that have been created by the team so that store-brand products live up to the hype. Category leaders search for tips to share with team chefs who then use the information to create their own in-house recipes. Once a recipe is perfected, it is presented to the testing panel for feedback and approval.

This new product tasting group is made up of Trader Joe's crew members. There are no vendors or outside parties involved, and the crew members are not the category managers or any of the people developing items. Instead, the panelists can be from the customer relations team, management, or the marketing department. An important factor of this group is that each member is also a Trader Joe's customer, so they know what it is like to shop for groceries and carry items home to eat.

The group's voting process is democratic, and proposed products need at least a 70% positive response to move forward. These tasting panels are held in private so that no one — vendors or suppliers — can influence votes. The tasting panel is quite verbal about the products, and it can take a few separate meetings before products make their way through the panel's rigorous sampling and onto the shelves. The group is opinionated, but that is the point. A series of questions can be asked during the tasting process, including concerns about packaging and price points. One item may revisit the panel a half dozen times before it is perfected. If you want to taste for yourself an example of the finished result of this meticulous process, the now famous Mandarin Orange Chicken once made its way through the panel. When it works, it works, and Trader Joe's knows it.