[mscarborough]

You're right, no smuggling. I'm not sure that suing the guy isn't a bad idea...if you're a brand that doesn't franchise and controls experience, why let international stories out about how some peeps are just "gray-area-ing" your products and name, and getting away with it? In the article it even said the guy was looking for places to open up a new store.

Trader Joe's not wanting to open up in Canada doesn't validate anything about what he's doing. Perhaps TD has a longer-term strategy, that doesn't involve anyone who can live near the Canadian border selling their stuff at a marked-up price.

We're not talking about importing fruits and vegetables to save money for people at "the Safeway across the street," which the author didn't bother to justify. How anyone would go to this length to sell chocolate-covered almonds, or peppermint cookies, and pretend that selling more snacks is just doing everyone a political/ethical justice is beyond me.