Caving to xenophobia, Trader Joe’s announced that it will purge its shelves of all single-ingredient Chinese products by January 1. Will consumers be any safer?
No. The company readily admits that the move is largely symbolic.
“We feel confident that all of our products from China meet the same high quality standards that we set for all of our products,” the statement read. “However, our customers have voiced their concerns about products from this region and we have listened.“We will continue to source products from other regions until our customers feel as confident as we do about the quality and safety of Chinese products.”
The Chinese Poison Train rarely fells single-ingredient products, preferring to instead grace constituent ingredients like wheat gluten. Though the announcement – the first of its kind among major retailers – will not make consumers any safer, it is the most pernicious indication yet of consumers skepticism towards foreign goods.
Whole Foods has no plans to implement a similar ban.
Trader Joe’s just says no to China [Chicago Sun-Times]
(Photo: Getty Images)
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While I am concerned about products originating in China, I recognize this to be a knee-jerk reaction to recent events. Having said that, I’m more concerned about spinach from California than I am about Chinese spinach given the track record on the former is demonstrably poorer than the latter.
Has anybody read this article from the NY Times about pollution:
[www.nytimes.com] (just click on the link)
I agree with Jeff3545 that spinach from California has a questionable record as well; however, there is almost no regulation in China, the air and water are far more toxic and there is almost no way to track sources of contamination.
THIS IS NOT XENOPHOBIA–look at the following:
1. Pet food recall due to malamine
2. toothpaste recall (with all those deaths in Panama)
3. Veggie booty recall (tainted seasoning from China)
4. Monkfish imported from China actually poisonous puffer fish
5. farmed seafood tainted with drugs from China (I think it was catfish and bass?)
This is just off the top of my head. China is a great country with great people. However, the level of safety in manufacturing is out of control. Corruption there is rife and, I am sorry, I think it is smart to avoid all products from China until they improve their safety records and clean up their water, air and their act.
I work customer-service for a mid-sized home decor company. Our customers call from all over the world. Our products are made in Thailand and China, which I cheerfully tell our customers when they ask.
I have been screamed at, preached at, called names and hung up on for being part of a company which imports from China in particular or overseas at all, and I respect anyone’s decision to refrain from buying any product for any reason. No retailer should have to stock anything, and no consumer should have to buy anything. This is basic!
But just as basic is the fact that no American consumer can possibly “avoid all products from China”. You cannot wake up in the morning and move through your bedroom, your bathroom, your kitchen – or, I daresay, your yurt – without encountering a product that is in whole or in part Chinese in origin.
Try it! Count up the products you rely on that you could never afford if they were made domestically. (You’re welcome to use an abacus.)
@ultimaluz: Does the abacus count as one of the products?
Seriously, I agree with what you say about not being able to avoid imports. But this situation is aggravated by consumers being cheap (most times out of necessity as they aren’t being paid sh*t) and companies being greeeeedy (we can make those widgets cheaper in Mexico/China/India/etc.).
So it’s impossible to make this challenge (avoid imports) as we do not have the choice to begin with.
You cannot find a ‘domestic’ TV, stereo, automobile etc.etc. to make the comparison!!
Let me get in a shameless jibe at wallyworld as well
@suburbancowboy: I was reading yesterday (Time Magazine, I think) that Chinese labor costs are 4% US labor costs; that is, if you had to pay a US farm laborer $1 to pick a bushel of apples, you’d pay a Chinese farm laborer 4 cents for the same bushel.
Also container ship shipping is dead cheap (though slowish).
@TWinter: I understand (some of) the economics, but my brain refuses to deal with the fact that we both export and import, say, chicken. Dur?
I don’t buy anything that’s not labeled with country-of-origin, although at the supermarket my main concern is South American in-skin fruits, since most South American countries allow waaaaaaaaaay more and scarier pesticides than the U.S. The sooner Bush gets around to implementing those rules, the more stuff I’ll be willing to buy!
how many times do we have to say it, consumerist? this is not xenophobia!
The right term would be Sinophobia, not Xenophobia.
Carey, it’s really disingenuous to lump people who refuse to buy Chinese goods into one group. Sure, some have xenophobic or racist motivations for doing so; others simply watch the news and are making informed decisions about the products they buy. The world isn’t black and white.
however, no reasonable person would categorically condemn imports worth almost $1 trillion as poison.
Surely you realize that this is a strawman argument; nobody’s saying that all Chinese products are dangerous. In fact, TJ’s statement said the exact opposite. However, a small number of a very wide variety of products have been shown to be extremely dangerous. You can call me a racist for being leery about purchasing Chinese-made toothpaste, but I can just as easily call you uninformed.
I get that there’s a lot of liberal guilt associated with the Chinese Poison Train. But these facts aren’t arguable, and it’s idiotic to go LALALA XENOPHOBIA I CAN’T HEAR YOU when the blog you write for stands as a testament to the very problem you’re denying exists.
@Darren666: Don’t you mean Sinophobia?
For a man who seems so intent on the ‘correct’ usage of terms, you’re rather misinformed.
@Doctor_Cos – good points about cost and consumers looking for cheaper goods.
However, I think that this equation is going to change. With the continuing declines in value of the dollar relative to other currencies, imported items are going to become significantly more expensive going forward.
If Ben Bernanke (head of the Federal Reserve continues to lower interest rates in an attempt to starve off a recession while the rest of the world holds steady or increases their interest rates, then the dollar will continue to drop in value. Some pundits are saying the dollar will be worth 50% less in the next 2 years.
If the dollar does continue its decline, then many imported items will be much more expensive (think foods, toys, cars, etc.). More expensive goods will also lead to more inflation. Bernanke is between the rock and the hard place and the USA economy is in for a rough ride going forward.
Let us not forget that the Chinese are sucking up all of the oil we should be getting thanks to Clinton opening up China to free trade with us. Their economic growth rate is 12% compared to our paltry 3%. They are growing very fast and using more oil as a result. Maybe they are tainting the goods they produce for us on purpose to poison us so they can have even more oil.
People who think we go to war for oil haven’t seen anything yet once China gets their 1 Billion man army on the march to “take” oil for themselves.
This is my xenophobic comment for the day.
I’m late reading this and haven’t been through all the comments. Just here to say that as a Trader Joe’s shopper I have no trouble at all with this, for two reasons:
1) If you believe that the same country that exported toothpaste with antifreeze in it can handle quality control for organic produce, then let me tell you about this bridge…
2) To quote Michael Moore (not something I do very often, but hey) on the trade deficit, the first rule of holes is, stop digging. Trade hasn’t been good to us: the structural unemployment and economic collapse of entire US states more than outweighs the benefits of $5 tshirts. And don’t give me the Tom Friedman line that all we need is to invest in retraining: if you believe that, I’ve got this bridge… I realize that certain treaties are bending us over, and so is the fact that China owns so much of our debt, but surely we can unbend enough to stop substandard food and other products from coming into the country.
1. Damn there are quite a few wacko racists on Consumerist. If I were Chinese I’d be so offended right now with some of the comments here.
2. Damn there are a lot of jumped up language police on Consumerist. If I were a language student I’d be amused at the literalists insisting that one has to hate ALL foreign things to be a xenophobe. See: a British law against “expressions of racism or xenophobia”. So I guess it’s only racism if I hate ALL races, too, eh?
3. TJ’s is responding to legitimate concerns by banning a subset of products which have NOT been shown to cause harm, as a preventative measure against losing business.
Irrational? sure.
Immoral? nope, they can do what they like.
Xenophobic? Well, yes. The xenophobic customers have spoken and the squeaky wheels get the grease. The free market at its finest. But don’t blame TJs, Consumerist. Take a good hard look at all your own “Poison Train” posts.
It’s worse than disingenuous (that’s how it’s spelled, by the way) – it’s the height of hypocrisy.
I’m not convinced that banning items from a particular country, when safety concerns about said products are widely discussed, qualifies as xenophobia. I’m not comofrtable with such words are bandied about solely because one of the partipants in an issue happens to be from a different country. There’s a lot more at play here than just “we hate fur’ners”.
Photo from candy store Papabubble’s opening night party via Flickr/DBTH Local · Candy, costumes and decorations for Halloween [NY Mag] · Dozens of people going to court against Salander-O’Reilly Galleries [NY Times] · A store that gives at-risk youth business training [NY Mag]…
So when we, as consumers, vote with our wallets – as the Consumerist tells us to do as the core of the whole site’s message – this is a good thing.
But when a place like Trader Joe’s responds to that consumer voice by refusing to stock certain items… that’s xenophobia?
Give me a fuckin’ break. I am seriously losing faith in what comes out of this website, because it is becoming more and more obvious that the Consumerist is more interested in grabbing headlines and, in effect, hits on the page, instead of supporting and advocating consumer choice.
What the hell??
After umpteen articles on “The Chinese Poison Train” you accuse Trader Joes of xenophobia for not taking any chances?
I personaly do not want to ingest ANYTHING made in China and will try to shop at Trader Joes whenever I can.
Is it xenophobic to not want to purchase products imported from a country with a repressive political regime that jails dissenters?
Xenophobia?
“The fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners.”
What?
Yeah, not so much.
It’s called rational discretion.
Chinese products, especially of late, have proven to be problematic, making people sick. I don’t know why any food producer or distributer would continue to risk their customer loyalty by continuing to work with chinese manufacturers.
When someone buys chinese flip flops at Walmart that leave chemical burns on their feet, people get mad at walmart.
When someone buys cat food from petco that kills their cat, people remember that Petco killed their cat.
This isn’t xenophobia at all. There is a huge difference between protecting your customers and being afraid of foreign nationals.
The fact is that more than any other nation, chinese exports have resulted in more illnesses, deaths, and lead poisoning that exports from any other nation.
So why NOT stop buying their products?
A healthy, living Trader Joes customer is always more valuable than a dead or sick one.
And why is it that everytime anyone reacts to something involving a foreign nation, people are quick to label it xenophobia?
I don’t like the way illegal immigrants are putting a strain on our economy. I like mexicans. I work with Mexican americans. But I don’t like people who come here illegally. That isn’t xenophobia, it’s reality.
If 90% of the recalls in the last 2 years come from China, why keep importing their defective crap?
@fejjnagaf: spoken like a true xenophobe. kidding!
In the spirit of xenophobia, what do all of these white supremacists (see photo above) want with Chinese food anyway??
I wish more US companies would stop buying MADE IN CHINA, Seriously, why DO we keep buying their defective crap??
I read the article as saying they couldn’t be sure that the items from China were “organic”, not that they were poisoned or defective.
While this isn’t xenophobia this isn’t good for consumers either. They are only banning single-ingredient products from China. Pet food is not a single-ingredient item. Toothpaste is not a single-ingredient item.
They’re only doing enough to make people feel better without actually making their customers safer.
What I find sad is that it has even worked on Consumerist commentors, people I would have thought would know better anyway, even though it says right at the bottom of the article (emphasis mine):
I would hope that this kind of thing happens more and in more markets. I have nothing against importing products but when importing comes at the cost of our own economy I start to take notice. If it cost a dollar more to buy US produce isn’t it worth it knowing you are helping your fellow countrymen live. We are in the shitter economically not only because of war but because almost nothing of global value is being produced here. We have become a consumer country in the global economy buying everything from outside when we can be making it ourselves all so the CFO and CEO of every company claiming to be a Proud American Company can make some more cash. We need some kind of policy whereby companies can only claim to be american if 50% or more of what they produce is produced in the USA. No more bullshit about American built if you build it in mexico and assemble it in texas. Canada is starting to kick our asses economically. CANADA.
They make tons more then we do and they don’t seem to be suffering for it. The fact that our ( USA ) money is now on the same level as their money should be speaking volumes to what making your own goods wherever possible means. Import only that which you cannot make yourself. Sure we will all pay more but when your health and your country’s economy are on the line I say stop saying you are proud to BE american and be proud to BUY american.
@Carey:
“we have always advocated a reasonable response”
Hi-freakin’-larious.
Does that include or not include the way the hammer-wielding grandma was glorified and turned into a hero?
Puh-leeze….
For a writer, you seem to have no grasp on the definition of words and the ability to decieve your own readers.
You’d be great at the New York Times….
Allow me to help you out, since you don’t seem actually interested in the importance of the definitions of the very words you string together:
From m-w.com
xenophobia – fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign
Please explain to us morons how a decision by Trader Joe’s to stop purchasing and reselling chinese individual goods is illustrative of fear and hatred of anything….
Nice try.
Integrity -1
“Caving to xenophobia” Really? Not “Caving to reason and conscientious reasoning for the betterment of everyone” ?
Granting China permanent normal trade relations has proven to be disastrous on just about every level except our personal wallets.
It would be xenophobia if they wouldnt allow foreigners to shop at Trader Joe’s because they are affraid of them for being from somewhere else.
Someone should ask the PC police to stand down.
@ Myself
That should have said: “Caving to conscientious reasoning for the betterment of everyone”
@Darren666:
You keep posting that definition of Xenophobia like it is a valid argument on deciding whether Trader Joe’s is right in taking some Chinese products off their shelves.
First of all, it is absolutely irrelevant to the argument.
Second, the definition you keep posting says “fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners”. Since the Chinese are foreigners in any country except China, it is xenophobia in any country except China.
Are you posting from China? Well, I am not so it is xenophobia.
banning single ingredient foods from china won’t protect those xenophobes against anything except their paranoia, since they’ll still be purchasing processed foods of all kinds from china. if the want a superficial way to deal with the problem, which is reliance on cheap imported food of questionable quality/safety, then trader joe’s has done a ‘good’ job.
personally i try to buy local foods as much as possible, so shopping at the farmer’s market is more appropriate. it’s nice to support local farmers, to meet the people that actually produce the food, and it’s good for the environment (think of all the resources saved from transportation). plus, it encourages you to eat seasonally (it’s healthy and encourages culinary experimentation). the food is often fresher and free of packaging (better for tastebuds, less waste).
it’s offensive to talk about china as if it’s somehow doing the US injustice by having a faster growing economy. it’s not as if US has the right to be the sole superpower of the world, or any nation, for that matter. when people express their concerns by blaming china, i can’t help but think they are insecure, envious, and hypocritical.