PrintSerious Eats Cited in Trader Joe's Lawsuit Against Gristedes New Trader John's
From left: Trader Joe's storefront in Union Square. Photograph from ianqui on Flickr; Trader John's on 14th St. between 5th and 6th Ave. Photograph from the Shophound
Just three blocks from the bumpin' Union Square location of Trader Joe's, an eerily similar Trader John's will open this week from the Gristedes gang. Last week, Trader Joe's filed a complaint against Gristedes for such a "blatant attempt to confuse consumers and capitalize on Trader Joe's hard-earned goodwill."
But John Catsimatidis, owner of the Gristede's grocery chain, sees no wrongdoing. ""My name is John. I've been a trader all my life."
After the jump, check out frequent commenter simon cited in the 51-page legal complaint against Trader John's.
Serious Eaters started chatting about the Trader Doppelgänger in December with this Talk thread. Frequent commenter simon had this to say, which according to the New York Post, has been used as evidence in Trader Joe's argument for the cultural rip-off:
LOL, if true that would be hilarious. Reminds me of the Simpsons episode when their TV breaks and they are looking to replace it with a cheap knock off brand, such as Sorny or Panaphonics or Magnetbox.
My loyalty is with the original Joe. Plus, does John even have as many international aliases (Trader Jose, Trader Joe-San, Baker Josef)?
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17 Comments:
sweet, 15 more nanoseconds of fame :)
simon at 3:23PM on 01/12/09
Simon, you're my idol.
juliebugsmama at 3:49PM on 01/12/09
That is some unoriginalness if ive ever seen it
MrChow at 4:03PM on 01/12/09
Awww shucks julie :) Just goes to show, commenting on blogs might not be such a waste of time after all. People are paying attention.
simon at 4:17PM on 01/12/09
sheesh, simon, you're REALLY gonna be a chick-magnet now, as if you needed any help!
hungryinhouston at 4:50PM on 01/12/09
simon, my dear sweet simon. I knew you were headed for the big time! It just make you even Hotter!!
izatryt at 4:58PM on 01/12/09
wait till izzy finds out. ohh laalaa
dearrie at 5:00PM on 01/12/09
The red sign was a bad move. He should have made Trader John's in bigger letters and Gristedes just a wee bit smaller. His own name is his trademark. My thought is since Trader Joe's is a trademark he needs to trademark his own name with the last name included and then change the color of the sign. It will probably be bargained out just like that.
JerzeeTomato at 5:53PM on 01/12/09
my office is down the street from that gristedes. every time i went into it {which was not very often} i would exit the place nursing a clinical depression. same with the one on broadway that's now a loehmann's. i don't know what it is, but gristede's is one thoroughly nasty supermarket.
cybercita at 10:08PM on 01/12/09
I'm green with envy.
redfish at 9:25AM on 01/13/09
Hey, what are your thoughts on the 'fake brand' mall in China, simon? Perhaps you could make a career out of this! ;)
Just don't say anything about my new restaurant idea for a place called MuMufuku or my donut shop Hole Foods.
HeartofGlass at 9:50AM on 01/13/09
hole foods HA i almost squirted diet coke out my nose on that one heartofglass!!!!
love2cook at 10:05AM on 01/13/09
I just noticed "Trader John's" when I was walking across 14th Street, and my first thought (after a cynical snort) literally was, "Oh, wow. The Recession is turning 14th Street back into the trashy low-rent strip that I remember from the late 80's - early '90's. " Then I started humming some music from "Rent" and went on to grab dinner at Mr. Skewer.
bronxbrinergal at 10:16AM on 01/13/09
@Simon: People are indeed paying attention. Clearly, even lawyers are paying attention!
Susquehanna at 12:05PM on 01/13/09
@love2cook--ha! Thanks--but if only 'the real' Whole Foods didn't leave a 'hole' in the paycheck
HeartofGlass at 1:09PM on 01/13/09
"John" is apparently a Gypsy?
He knows exactly what he's doing. Get a life John. Try and come up with one of your own ideas. No one likes a thief.
Soup of The Day at 4:17PM on 01/13/09
The quoted text (paragraph 36) would actually help Gristede's rebut a claim of consumer confusion.
It's still ridiculous though . . .
hsawtelle at 10:52PM on 01/14/09