Trader Joe wants their best customer to go away - posts his pics in stores [View all]

[Liberal_in_LA]

Vancouver, British Columbia -- Michael Hallatt has spent more than $350,000 at Trader Joe's in less than two years. But the popular grocery chain doesn't ever want to see him again.

"I'm their best customer," he said with a mix of pride and indignation.

Every week, the former Bay Area resident drives his panel van across the border to buy a few thousand dollars worth of merchandise at Trader Joe's stores in the States. He then turns around and resells the goods at his own shop in Canada for a profit.

Now, despite the obvious affection Hallatt and his customers have for the eclectic grocer, he finds himself the subject of a lawsuit filed in May by the California company, which has no presence in Canada. The suit seeks to shut down the store he owns in Vancouver that is entirely devoted to reselling Trader Joe's products.

His response: removing the "P" from his front window, turning Pirate Joe's into Irate Joe's. And his cross-border shopping trips continue, even though more and more Trader Joe's markets are posting his picture.

"Almost all the stores in the Pacific Northwest have asked me to leave," said Hallatt, 53, a British Columbia native who lived in the Bay Area from 1996 to 2004, lured by the dot-com boom. "This is a little bit David versus Goliath and a little bit Occupy Grocery."

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington state, alleges federal trademark infringement; unfair competition, false endorsement and false designation of origin; false advertising; federal trademark dilution; injury to business and reputation; and deceptive business practices. Earlier this month, Hallatt's Seattle lawyers filed a motion to dismiss.

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Weekly shopping trips

Hallatt usually spends $4,000 to $5,000 in cash during his weekly shopping trips. He used to go mainly to Bellingham, Wash., where more than 40 percent of credit card transactions are with non-U.S. residents, according to the suit. But being in Trader Joe's crosshairs has driven him south, into Seattle, Portland and even California. He said San Francisco is his dream territory.

"You've just got to have unlimited temerity," Hallatt said.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Trader-Joe-s-drags-a-pirate-to-court-4736782.php