Trading on Trader Joe's Trademark

Three blocks from a Trader Joe's market on 14th Street in Manhattan, a new store is slated to open this week: Trader John's. It looks—inside and out—a lot like the Trader Joe's that is just down the street. Even the sign's typeface is similar.

Trader Joe's, a national chain, has filed a lawsuit against the company that owns the new store, Gristede's Foods, alleging trademark infringement.

"My name is John and I am a trader, so I don't know what their problem is," said the obviously shameless John Catsimatidis, the owner of Gristede's, in an interview with Bloomberg News last week.

Their problem is that Trader John's is a "knock-off food market based on the Trader Joe's store" and is "a blatant attempt to confuse customers and capitalize on Trader Joe's hard-earned goodwill," according to the cease-and-desist letter that Trader Joe's sent to Catsimatidis.

Obviously, this is just a cheap publicity stunt. Look for Catsimatidis to change the name of the store to Gristede's right quick, once everybody has heard about the "controversy."

Catsimatidis is the billionaire CEO and sole owner of Red Apple Group, which has interests in real estate, aviation, oil refining, and, of course, groceries. Gristede's was once the largest grocery chain in New York City, with 75 stores, according to a New York Times article from September 2007 that characterized the chain's prospects as grim.  Now there are 35 of them—thanks to the influx of Whole Foods and Trader Joe's stores in Manhattan. Catsimatidis, though, said then that, thanks to his other businesses, the chain wasn't going anywhere.

But we all know what has happened to the price of oil and real estate since then. In the meantime, Catsimatidis has said that he's thinking of running for mayor. And that might have as much to do with his Trader John's ploy as anything else does.

Trader Joe's included comments from various blogs in its lawsuit. The Gristede's that is now becoming Trader John's was "...one of the filthiest of all the filthy, overpriced Gristedes," one blogger said. (That original comment doesn't come up in a Google search, but it supports the the above-cited New York Times article's more-polite characterization of the chain.)

Another commenter remarked last month on the Serious Eats blog: "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."