Owned by a German company called Albrecht Discounts, ALDI is a discount grocery chain that started in Germany in 1948. Decidedly no frills, the company stocks virtually all house-brand products, all offered at very low prices thanks to exclusive deals with their suppliers, many of which are big-name producers. ALDI has approximately 5,000 stores worldwide and the two Albrecht brothers, who own the company, are some of the riches men in the world.

But getting back to ALDI's business strategy, does this sound like another store that we know of? The same strategy, although executed by the US staff and tailored to their customers' tastes, is the exact same one used by Trader Joe's.

Trader Joe's, although it may be based in Southern California, is actually owned by Albrecht Discounts. The company was purchased back in 1979, long before it hit the cultural mainstream. Since that time, it has been left to turn itself into a very trendy, upscale grocery store by following a similar business plan to ALDI. TJs has low prices and a lot of store-brand products, but a different image that appeals to a different group of consumers.

The California chain, as we all are probably well aware by now, is known for offering gourmet foods with a focus on quailty and convenience, at very low prices, often under its own label. Instead of producing all of the products themselves, they work closely with national or global brands that meet their quality standards to get lower prices for shoppers. One of the reasons that this strategy works so well is that the stores have a wide variety of items, but a very limited choice in each category, so once a product makes it into the store, it will not face much, if any, competition for sales. Many products are packaged to serve two or four, making them ideal for busy families or couples.

If rumors can be believed, the company is planning more than one Atlanta location to follow this first store, as well.

I picked up a box of the Fleur de Sel Caramels from Trader Joe's last week as a holiday treat with the intention of reviewing them, as well as enjoying them. At less than $7 for 14-ounces of one of the hottest candy items of the year, they were a terrific deal and I wondered how well they would stack up to some of the other salted caramels that I'm familiar with.

Individually wrapped, the large candies are very sticky and chewy, exactly the sort of things that your orthodontist would have told you to avoid if you ever had braces. They have a pleasant, but relatively mild (compared to some other salted caramels) saltiness that makes your mouth water as you eat them and tempers the naturally sugary taste of caramel. Buttery and smooth, these are very good caramels, especially at the price.

Cybele, from Candyblog, wrote up her own review of these the other day, so be sure to check hers out for another perspective on their flavor and a fantastic shot of what the caramels look like when unwrapped.

In keeping with the spirit of my last post on Trader Joe's, I noticed something new - and rather surprising - at my local store this weekend. On the fruit display, where four-packs of apples of all kinds are usually stacked, there was a large, open bin of various kinds of apples. There was also a roll of plastic bags and a sign exhorting the benefits of mixing and matching Fujis, Galas and Braeburns, both organic and conventional.

If you're not familiar with TJ's, you're probably thinking that this isn't such a strange thing. After all - in most grocery stores, you can bag your own apples. Trader Joe's has always had their fruit pre-packed, though, and to see all the types of apples loose and mixed together was just... not very Trader Joe's-like!

It took me a minute or two - as opposed to a few seconds - to pick out four organic Fujis. Is the TJ's in your area doing this, too? And, if so, do you prefer this type of display?

I'm beginning to get the impression that writing about Trader Joe's is some sort of fall-back for food writers who don't have any other good ideas. On the surface, this seems like a good idea. There are plenty of good things to say about it and they come out with new things frequently, most of which are worth a mention. Unfortunately, the new things - products, store locations, etc - aren't what seem to attract the press. They seem to enjoy writing about how they are or are not impressed with the store and why it is popular.

Here is yet another article from an east coast paper where the author wondered why Trader Joe's was so popular, tried it and decided that it was a store worth visiting, at least from time to time. The problem with the piece is that the Washington DC area already has several Trader Joe's locations, so the chance that this revelation is actually news to residents, or to anyone else who has shopped at Trader Joe's, is slight.

After far, far too long a time with their slow-loading yet content-less website, Trader Joe's has upgraded to something worth visiting. The site now offers a complete look at the history and values of the privately-owned company, as well as the same information on new locations and copies of their latest "Fearless Flyer" newsletter.

The best thing about the site is that they now have a great display of their new items. Once you select your location from the drop-down menu, a page with pictures and descriptions of some of the new products in your area comes up. I already found that Cheddar with Mango, Chile & Lime is a new type of cheese ("one of the most unique cheeses (ever!)") currently being offered, a product I might not have noticed simply stocked on the shelves. They also have a useful FAQ that answers some questions about labels and nutrition, in addition to clearing up the ever-present concern of whether Trader Joe's products will turn you "into a superhero, a professional athlete or one of the great brainiacs of humankind."

Great job with the website overhaul, TJs. We love having a site that we can use!

A banana chip is a thin, deep-fried slice of banana. Once fried, the slightly sweet chips are crisp (often bordering on rock-hard) and oily. Because they look like fruit, some people mistake these for a healthy snack, but they are far from good for you. A one ounce serving has about 150 calories and 9.5 grams of fat, almost all of it saturated.

On Trader Joe's top 100 list, they included something called banana crisps. I only tried them recently, since nearby Trader Joe's seemed to be perpetually sold out of them. Unlike the traditional deep-fried diet disasters, these chips are baked. They are ultra-thin and akin to an ordinary potato chip in both looks and flavor, and actually make a great substitute for regular potato chips because they don't taste very banana-like at all, though they are slightly sweet rather than salty. Best of all, each one ounce (2/3 cup) serving has only 40 calories and 1 gram of fat.

[Banana crisp image via Trader Joe's Fan, which has a great review of them, too)

100 calorie packs are one of the hottest, fastest-growing market segments today, yet I was a bit surprised to see them at Trader Joe's this weekend. Although TJs is usually up to the minute with their foods and flavors, I haven't seen them give in to packaging trends as they have done here. It does fit in with their desire to make good foods - especially ones that are nearly ready-to-eat, like frozen and refrigerated meals - easily available to their consumers, though.

The only flavor I saw on the shelves was Oatmeal Chocolate Chip, which are an ever so slightly smaller version of their crunchy, mini cookies that are traditionally sold in tubs at the stores. The regular cookies are fantastic and these tasted just like them. In my opinion, they are definitely a cut above a lot of the other 100 calorie pack "cookies" I've tried. I'll still get the tub cookies for munching at home, but I wouldn't think twice about these as a lunch or road-trip option.

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Mint Creams tempted me from their plastic containers, stacked appealingly close to me as I stood in line with my other purchases at Trader Joe's over the weekend. After a moment of hesitation, I gave in a tossed a box into my cart. And I am so glad that I did. These little candies are about an inch in diameter and are slightly domed. They taste like a cross between a junior mint and a York peppermint patty, with a filling that is creamy, but with a little bit of texture to it. The difference between those other candies and these is that the TJs dark chocolate shell is much thicker, providing the perfect compliment to the filling and a noticeable chocolate flavor. They're really good when chilled and end up tasting like a minty, bite-sized ice cream treat, which makes them incredibly refreshing (not to mention that it keeps them from melting) on a hot day.

It looks like Trader Joe's is set to open a store in yet another Joe-less town. Though they have not released the address yet, Trader Joe's has confirmed that they are planning to enter the Pittsburg market. Local speculation and city officials say that the specialty grocer has plans to move into the Wheeler Paint Co. building on Penn Ave in the neighborhood of East Liberty. There are only five TJ's locations in Pennsylvania at the moment, so this should be good news to Pittsburg residents who are fans of the store.

Now that TJ's has store-opening almost down to a science, it's no surprise to hear that the store should be open by the end of the year.

The Manhattan Trader Joe's location has been open for about 7 weeks now and Manhattanites have been acting like kids with a candy store, talking excitedly, lining up to get in, etc. It has been all over the papers, the news and the blogs and, believe it or not, we all know it's there.

Well, not all of us. Alex Kuczynski, of the New York Times, wasn't going to let the opening - already old news - go by without tossing yet another 2¢ into the paper. She missed the grand opening and only recently was able to check out the store. This would be fine - great, even - if she picked up on new products or a new trend. Unfortunately, she didn't and we were treated to an account of the fact that bought almonds, the cheese crunchies, spinach artichoke dip, double cream brie and cheap wine. Congrats, Alex. You figured out that Trader Joe's has good products at good prices.

Now, please, tell us something that we didn't already know.

In the market, sometimes you win and sometime you lose when you are picking out a new product to try. The Strawberry Yogurt O's from Trader Joe's, unfortunately, fall into that later category. I am a big fan of their other O's, both the plain and the honey-nut. They are light and flavorful and the honey variety has a fantastic honey taste. These, on the other hand, are small and dense, with little to remind the eater of the delicious taste of the other O's cereals. Instead of tasting vaguely oaty, they taste like whole wheat flour.

Their release can be attributed to the popularity of other yogurt-flavored cereals, but these don't have as much to recommend them. Other brands are very sweet, a fact that is often the primary criticism of them. The Strawberry O's themselves are not very sweet at all, any sugar overpowered by the wheat flavor. The yogurt covered freeze-dried strawberries, on the other hand, are incredibly sweet, with a hint of salt underneath and the non-yogurt covered berries were tart, making a strange contrast to the rest of the cereal.

Will I buy them again? No, but there is potential in these. All Trader Joe's has to do is add the yogurt flavoring to their standard O's and ditch the whole wheat ones.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

Whenever someone mentioned edible flowers to me, whether as part of a dish or used as a garnish, I nodded politely and did not think much of it. I considered edible flowers to be among the items that one can only find at a store with hard-to-find specialty ingredients - ingredients that I would probably never use, let alone actually need. This week, however, I spotted bags of hibiscus flowers at Trader Joe's.

Sold alongside the other dried fruits, the hibiscus flowers are dried and lightly sweetened. Apart from their beautiful dark fuchsiacolor, they taste pretty good. Slightly sweet and chewy, like fruit leather, they have a bit of a vegetal undertone that is not present in most dried fruits. I think that they'd make an attractive garnish for cakes and even a nice, unusual addition to a spring-time salad. They are not, however, something that I would eat by the handful.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

I was skeptical about frozen oatmeal. I often reheat leftovers, which I store in the fridge, when I make a big batch, but I never tried to freeze it. When I saw the single servings of steel cut oatmeal in the Trader Joe’s freezer section the first time, I walked right by. After all, why should I buy it when I can make it at home? A few trips to Trader Joe’s later and I reconsidered. It takes some time to cook steel cut oats, and perhaps a frozen version – provided that it tastes good – would be just the thing for weekday mornings. I picked up a box and brought it home. I’m glad I did because I was right about it being the perfect thing for a weekday breakfast. It cooks up exactly according to directions and hardly takes any more time than a frozen waffle takes to reheat, with the added benefit of being much healthier. The oatmeal tastes great, if a tiny bit sweet. The oats were tender and the portion size is just right. I added some dried fruit to mine halfway through the cooking time. It got me through until lunch, with a latte in between meals. I’ll buy it again, though I might try freezing my own small portions in the meantime.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

As of 9am, the Trader Joe's at 142 East 14th Street in Manhattan is officially open. It is located in the Palladium building, which according to Tracking Trader Joe's is also a college dorm. The TJs covers between 12,000 and 15,000 square feet and is divided into two stores, one of which sells only wine and liquors, while the main store sells beer. Now New Yorkers can see what everyone has been raving about - get down to Union Square and check out the store!

Store hours are 9am-10pm daily. The wine store will be open from 9am-10 pm Monday-Saturday and 12pm-9pm Sunday.

[Image Tracking Trader Joe's]