Richard Sandoval, a renowned Latin chef and multi-concept operator of 70 restaurants worldwide, put birria on the menu at dLeña in Washington, D.C. and Tamayo in Denver before it started trending on social media a couple of years back.
“We prepared it in the traditional way, as they do in the Mexican state of Jalisco,” said Myca Ferrer, head of marketing for Richard Sandoval Hospitality. “When Trader Joe’s introduced birria into its product line, we saw a 60% jump in orders. The stores lowered the barrier of entry for diners.”
While TikTok and Instagram may turn Americans on to unfamiliar foods and ingredients, you can’t eat a digital image. Purchasing a package of beef bulgogi, chana masala or birria at one of the more than 560 Trader Joe’s locations nationwide provides an affordable way to actually taste a dish rather than watch someone cook or eat it.
In short: What the Monrovia, California-based grocer puts on its shelves just might be influencing the food trends restaurant customers are seeking. Unlike traditional grocers, most of the products Trader Joe’s sells are private label and custom-made for the company by suppliers all over the world. The proprietary frozen meals, condiments, seasonings and other foods and beverages can’t be purchased anywhere else, which clearly differentiates Trader Joe’s from others in the grocery industry.
Richard Sandoval’s presentation of Birria Beef Tacos at dLeña; sales surged when Trader Joe’s started selling birria. | Photo courtesy of dLeña.
Although Trader Joe’s corporate spokesperson declined to comment for this story, Steve Snyder, who calls himself “chief food taster” for product review site Club Trader Joe’s, said in an email, “I have seen firsthand the amount of new ethnic foods that I have never heard of before being introduced through Trader Joe’s, and I am sure millions of other Americans feel the same way. ‘Kimbap.’ Never heard of it before last year,” he added, citing the Korean seaweed rice roll that sold out at Trader Joe’s last fall amid its viral popularity.
“There is absolutely a Trader Joe’s effect in this regard, especially through its frozen meals section. By having single-serve, well-priced dishes that highlight global foods, the consumer trial barrier has been lowered,” said Anne-Marie Roerink, a grocery industry expert and founder of San Antonio-based market research firm 210 Analytics. “Having a manageable price point, great package photography, excellent descriptions and indicators of how spicy or what type of meal to expect, all help consumers try something new. Because these things are easier to do in a retail setting, grocers such as Trader Joe’s have actually started to become gateways for consumers to familiarize themselves with global cuisines and venture out to restaurants as well.”
This is especially true in regions of the U.S. isolated from large urban areas where restaurants serving Korean, Indian, Vietnamese, regional Mexican and other emerging global cuisines may be few and far between. Trader Joe’s may be the only affordable way to access authentic versions of international foods and ingredients.
Blending authenticity with familiarity
“Trader Joe’s definitely creates demand, and we see that demand reflected in our restaurants,” said Akash Kapoor, founder of Curry Up Now, a fast casual with 16 locations. Consumers’ introduction to Trader Joe’s wide selection of Indian meals has especially benefited Indian fast casuals, which are finally growing their presence in the segment. “Trader Joe’s Indian food can be pretty authentic, and even my own kids go there to pick up meals,” said Kapoor.
Baseline change in visits
The typical Trader Joe’s store carries about 4,500 products, fewer SKUs than most large supermarkets, but foot traffic far outpaces the grocery sector at large, according to data from Placer.ai. By May 2023, visits to Trader Joe’s were 6.3% higher than in January 2022, while visits to the grocery category as a whole declined by 5% during the same period. The company has a unique positioning of being a specialty grocer with a budget-friendly reputation, the report noted.
Although the aisles are not packed with as much inventory as a mega-grocer, the global products selection is carefully curated by teams who travel around the world to taste and develop products, according to Hannah and Eric, Trader Joe’s section managers at a store in Connecticut who preferred not to give their last names.
The grocer’s monthly podcast confirms that strategy.
In an episode about spices, Lori Latta, VP of product innovation for Trader Joe’s, described how she chooses some of the 30 or so global seasonings on the shelves at any one time.
“Sometimes, if I’m eating at a restaurant, I might have something with a really interesting flavor, so I'll ask about it. And so some of them come from that,” Latta said. “But I do have a passion for going to markets, outdoor markets. And those are places where you really find some incredible spice blends and flavors.”
Seasonal spice blends rotate in, and for summer, Latta introduced South African Smoke Seasoning after tasting smoked chilies at a South African pavilion at a food trade show in Spain. “The smoked chilies were really cool, but I thought that was kind of a stretch. So, we worked on a blend, which is actually produced in South Africa.” The chilies are combined with sea salt, garlic, basil and smoke, and sold in the spice section in a grinder jar. When the consumer grinds the blend, it releases a unique flavor. The exhibitor Latta met at the food show grows and smokes the chilies.
Tastings of new products are held for crew members in each store so they can direct shoppers to items with preferred flavor profiles, said Hannah. Plus, employees are trained to do product sampling and demos, activities that have resumed post-pandemic.
“In other stores, consumers often take a gamble, but here, trial is more risk-free,” she said. “Crew members like to engage and talk to customers and even shop for them.” Some of her favorite global products include bulgogi, chicken shawarma and paneer masala, while Eric is partial to Thai green curry. “It’s as good as anything in a restaurant,” he said.
Trader Joe’s top customer choice awards
A two-way street to global adventure
Restaurants are also making more of an effort to be a gateway to new taste experiences, by blending the authentic with the familiar. At Richard Sandoval’s restaurants, the chefs apply new and unique flavors to popular platforms.
Ferrer cites the recent example of palo santo, a sacred wood with a citrusy, herbaceous, smoky flavor profile. “We introduced it in a Palo Santo Margarita, where we infused tequila with the smoky scent of the burning wood,” he said. “And we made crystallized palo santo sugar and used it on our Day of the Dead Bread, served this past fall.”
Guacamole is another familiar platform adaptable to flavor and ingredient trial. The restaurants cater to all levels of taste with customizable guacamole, prepped to order tableside. Less adventurous guests don’t have to add extras, but the more adventurous have the choice to blend in chapulines (grasshoppers), chicarones, and assorted chilies and spices.
Although Richard Sandoval Hospitality doesn’t offer its signature ingredients or preparations at retail, other concepts have found consumer packaged goods can open the doors to their brands—and restaurants. Fast-casual Mexican chain Tacombi sells its artisanal Vista Hermosa retail line in Whole Foods, Erewon and specialty grocers. Under that brand are fresh organic corn tortillas, authentic totopos or tortilla chips, frozen burritos and condiments.
“The retail products line started before the first Tacombi opened in the U.S. in 2010,” said Dario Wolos, founder and CEO of the now 20-location chain with taquerias in New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Miami. “The retail side points us to where interested consumers are and we follow them [with restaurants]. We’re building an eco-system around the Mexican experience; teaching people to enjoy traditions they didn’t grow up with.”
Home cooks can try the Vista Hermosa products in simple preparations. Once that trust is built, “you can take those consumers along on your culinary discovery journey,” Wolos noted. That worked for Tacombi when the fast casual introduced birria and al pastor tacos. “Customers didn’t understand them at first, but that trust moved them to be more adventurous,” he said.
Wolos also serves the branded products in his restaurants and uses some locations as consumer-facing R&D labs for product tests. “The larger consumer packaged goods brands wish they could do this,” he said. “It’s beneficial for restaurants and retailers to partner to teach consumers about flavor profiles and authentic cuisines.”
Wolos is a fan of Trader Joe’s and would love to work with the chain, he said. “Their approach to branding is similar to Tacombi’s,” he added. So is the retailer’s mission to offer ingredients and products free of GMOs, preservatives and additives, with a number of organic choices.
Elevating the Chinese-American experience
That’s exactly what San Francisco-based Mamahuhu set out to do with its Chinese-American menu and product line when it launched in 2020.
“We wanted to reintroduce the Chinese food and flavors we grew up with in a fast-casual setting, but make them better with organic, higher quality ingredients and great flavor,” said Anmao Sun, who partnered with Ben Moore and Michelin-starred chef Brandon Jew to create Mamahuhu. “The pandemic shut down the first location right after it opened, so we started developing a packaged product for consumers.”
Older consumers can be more flavor-curious than younger ones
That product is a frozen Chinese potsticker, a thin-skinned dumpling that is prepared by steam frying. “We focused on two flavors, one filled with organic tofu and the other with heritage pork,” said Sun. “The wrapper is made with a blend of rice flour and oat flour.”
They taste-tested the potstickers in the restaurants and once perfected, they were offered online and “we started tackling the grocery world,” said Sun. They became available at stores in California only last year, and the team hopes to expand into other parts of the country.
Now the potstickers are coming full circle, coming back to the menu at Mamahuhu’s now three locations this month. “We’re serving them with a house-made tiger sauce, a blend of tamari, vinegar, diced bamboo shoots, sesame seeds and chili flakes,” said Moore.
The “big picture” is to get the younger generation excited about Chinese-American dishes. “Brandon looks at it through a culinary lens, building on what mom-and-pop restaurants have created and making the dishes tastier and focused on ingredients and technique,” he said. Some of these dishes Trader Joe’s has made ubiquitous, like Kung Pao Chicken and General Tso’s Chicken.
The grocery chain’s Kung Pao Chicken is one of its most popular frozen entrees, but product developer Catherine was asked to make a similar flavor profile for tempura cauliflower after a request from her boss, the VP of Merchandising.
“I reached out to a supplier in Southern California who flew out to the restaurant in Boston to try the dish,” Catherine relayed in a Trader Joe’s podcast. The supplier brought back 10 samples and “it was a labor of love for about six months, just really trying to perfect the sauce, have the right amount of savory notes and sweetness. It’s been in our stores for about four years and it’s a really great item,” said Catherine, referring to what became Kung Pao Cauliflower.
“Trader Joe’s can act as a complement to restaurant food and an entry into different cuisines,” Sun agreed. Mamahuhu’s intention is to offer chef-driven versions of Chinese-American dishes, many of which are part of the culinary legacy in the U.S., but also introduce esoteric ingredients through popular all-American platforms.
A recent Mamahuhu addition is the Honey Hawthorn Chicken Sandwich, a fried chicken sandwich served on a unique bun. It’s a crispy, rice flour-battered thigh with sweet-and-sour sauce, crunchy cabbage and black vinegar mayo on a pineapple bun.
“We’re pushing the envelope to meet people where they are. They may not know what a pineapple bun is, but putting new flavors into a familiar item like a chicken sandwich will get them to try it,” said Moore. “The cross-cultural aspects are a big part of why people love Chinese-American cuisine.”
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