@conscious.app: Just when you thought you ditched Big Food, they found a way to sell to you anyway. Trader Joe's sells a feeling as the wholesome neighborhood grocery store with Hawaiian shirts, hand-drawn signs, a neighborhood store that seems like the opposite of corporate grocery. About 80 percent of the shelf carries the Trader Joe's name but is made by other companies, some of them the exact Big Food giants you went there to avoid. And they hide it by legally forcing suppliers not to disclose it. Over the years recalls and reporters have revealed part of their deceptive system. The pita chips are linked to PepsiCo, a top global plastic polluter six years running. The gluten-free cookies are linked to Mondelez, investing in lab-grown chocolate while investigations keep finding child labor in its cocoa supply chain. The pistachios are linked to the Wonderful Company, whose billionaire owners control 57 percent of one of California's largest underground water banks. Even the salads come from Taylor Farms, whose lettuce sickened over 12,000 and killed two this summer. A federal labor judge ruled Trader Joe's broke the law by threatening workers' wages if they unionized and cutting benefits at union stores. Trader Joe's built itself as the store where people feel like they ditched Big Food, but Big Food was there all along. Big Food knows people are leaving for local and ethical alternatives, so it sells to you through stores that look like one. The Conscious Spend app shows who owns what you buy, how ethical the company is, and better alternatives, so your money goes to the people who deserve it. Link in bio.

Conscious Spend

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Saturday 26 September 2026 21:49:48 GMT