Trader Joe's no-pictures policy

by Sarah Gilbert, Posted Jan 15th 2006 @ 5:49PM

at trader joes, its no pictures, please
It makes sense, right? I'm a food writer, and I spend an inordinate amount of time at my local Trader Joe's - it's only a few blocks away and, when my kids are restless or I just need one final ingredient for my dinner, I'll run over there with the boys in the stroller. I have my camera with me everywhere I go, and I've been known to snap a photo or two.

It hadn't occurred to me to be secretive until the whole dust-up over DC Foodie's camera phone pictures of his meal, but I suppose I have been. Because on Wednesday I was shopping for ingredients for the gardiane (neither Trader Joe's nor New Seasons had beef stew meat, btw), and as usual I had my camera. I decided to take a few photos of the organic cereal, thinking how much I could have used that as an illustration for my post. I continued snapping a few photos here and there, and pulled out my camera at the checkstand. The checker looked panicked.

"What are you taking pictures of?" she asked, holding her hand up like I was the paparazzi and she was J. Lo.

"What I'm buying?" I said, nervously.

"Because we aren't supposed to allow cameras in here! And no, I don't know why," she said.

I can think of a couple of reasons... maybe, Trader Joe's doesn't want the competition recording their processes, or prices, or maybe their contracts with suppliers (who often remain anonymous for fear of diluting their more expensive brands available elsewhere) preclude photographs. Who knows.

I can only imagine, though, in this age of camera phones and tiny digital cameras and the constant madhouse feel of Trader Joe's, they have a hard time enforcing their policy. Have you taken photos in TJs? And have you been asked (in the nicest possible way) to cease and desist?

Filed Under: Stores & Shopping, Food Gadgets
Tags: cameras, cameras in trader joes, CamerasInTraderJoes, Gadgets, groceries, grocery stores, GroceryStores, market, markets, photo policies, photo policy, photography, PhotoPolicies, PhotoPolicy, photos, pictures, pictures in markets, PicturesInMarkets, stores-and-shopping, taking pictures, TakingPictures, trader joe's, trader joes, TraderJoe's, TraderJoes, west coast

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-15-2006 @7:28PM LiquidAg said... I actually just ran into this interesting article... seems pertinent.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/andrewkantor/2005-12-29-camera-laws_x.htm
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1-15-2006 @10:42PM Alex said... I was taking pictures of my friend at trader joes, and one of the guard/store managers walked upto me and told me to stop taking pictures, and he pointed to a sign on the wall. pretty damn weird if you ask me.
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1-15-2006 @11:14PM Ed said... Most grocery stores, in my experience, have a no-photography policy. Why, I'm not sure, but it's definitely not specific to Trader Joe's.

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1-15-2006 @11:20PM chris said... I'm a photojournalist and I run into this problem alll the time. It doesn't stop me, though. The best way to leave without any pictures is to ask. Its usually not the people at the checkouts who are upset about it though, typically the managers, so, this is strange. don't stop taking photos.

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1-16-2006 @12:51AM David said... I work at Safeway for a while, and one day three people came in for a drum, a saxophone, and a video camera. They marched around the bakery for half a minute before the manager and security guard got there. Stopped the musicians and chased down the camera man. There were going to hold them there until the cops showed up unless they gave up the tape. The handed it over.

As far as competitors spying on Trader Joe's, yeah, they do. While working at Safeway their terrible corporate satellite feed had a bit about gourmet and organic stored eating into their market share. Complete with video that was obviously shot by a camera hidden in a shopping cart. TJs, Wild Oats, and a few others were featured. Safeway's new organics push is probably a reaction to those stores.

I can see why TJs might not like you snapping pictures. You never know who might be a spook.
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1-16-2006 @12:52AM David said... That should be past tence. I don't work for Safeway anymore.
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1-16-2006 @8:28AM Punisher2k said... I'm betting it has to do with pricing and price fluctuation. There is nothing like that box of cereal being 1.50 before the sale, and then once it's 10% off the base price is 1.75. The last thing they want is a record of it.
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1-16-2006 @4:39PM Andrew said... This actually happened to me and a few of my friends in high school. We had to do a video for our economics class and we decided to shoot part of it in a grocery store. we had about five managers tell us to stop. so we had to be quick and discrete about it. It was strange until we told our teacher about it. Apparently, its so that we dont record their prices. strange.
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1-16-2006 @6:39PM Userless said... Enough of the Trader Joe's hype. A lot of us don't even know what that is.
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1-17-2006 @1:36PM cybele said... I've taken plenty of photos at Trader Joe's and I've never been hassled. I can understand an employee at the checkout not wanting to be photographed though, I mean, I wouldn't like it if folks paraded through my office and took photos of me and then put them up on blogs.

I'm usually pretty respectful about keeping identifiable shots of individuals out of my photos in public when they're not the subject of the entry whether it's from a store, farmers market or whalewatching trip.

Most of the photos I take I don't end up posting anyway, they're just to help me remember what their inventory is at a particular time so that I don't have to take notes. But having worked in retail before, I understand the competitive world and how displays, prices and brands are fiercely protected. I also understand that Trader Joe's gets special deals for some of the high-end brands that they carry with the understanding that they will not be promoted anywhere else but the store itself (not on the website or fearless flyer). Allowing photography and dissemination of that stuff on the internet may put those deals in jeopardy.
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