The first draft of this had an extremely impolite title but I cleaned it up. So why nuts to Trader Joe’s?

There are a bunch of people in the Capital Region crusading to get trendy supermarket Trader Joe’s to open a store in the area. They have a website to get Trader Joe’s. They took a field trip to Massachussetts to visit Trader Joe’s. They engage in grassroots action, such as applying bumper stickers to their cars and wearing t-shirts. And they go on the offensive when anyone points out that Trader Joe’s isn’t quite as pure and wonderful as they think it is.

That’s what happened when Freakonomics author Stephen Dubner mocked the Trader Joes’s fanatics — and connected the dots between Trader Joe’s and their owner, Aldi Foods.  Aldi is the un-chic discount grocery that drove WalMart out of Germany. Well, to paraphrase what  General Anthony McAuliffe famously told the Germans at Bastogne:  nuts to Trader Joe’s.

My advice to those obsessed with Trader Joe’s: go get a life. Me? I’m holding out for the We Want Wegmans club to start up.