The owner of a store in Vancouver that sells goods from U.S. chain Trader Joe’s is standing his ground after the company launched a lawsuit back in May.
Michael Hallatt drives down to Washington State to buy goods from Trader Joe’s, just like a regular customer. He then brings them across the border and sells them in his store Pirate Joe’s. Trader Joe’s does not have any stores in Canada and there are no laws preventing Hallatt from selling their goods in Canada.
However, Trader Joe’s wants Hallatt to stop what he’s doing, and in May slapped him with a lawsuit saying Hallatt is infringing on their copyright.
Renewed interest in the story came from the San Francisco Chronicle, and Hallatt said he has no intention of changing his business practices.
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“I’m legally allowed to do this,” said Hallatt “and Trader Joe’s is overreacting, definitely overreacting.”
“There’s no law that Trader Joe’s can use to shut me down.”
However, Hallatt said that does not protect him from being sued.
“It’s hard enough running a grocery store anyway, but add in that your major supplier hates you and that’s trouble.”
On their website and their storefront, Pirate Joe’s has changed their name to ‘_irate Joe’s’ to show they are standing strong against the food giant.
“I think Trader Joe’s is going to get the memo and open in Canada,” said Hallatt. “We need to get the Canadian government to ease up on their ridiculous cheese rules and alcohol import rules.”
Pirate Joe’s sells non-perishable food items from Trader Joe’s, but that is getting harder to do because Hallatt has been banned from most of the stores in Washington State. He now has to drive further away to shop at Trader Joe’s.
However, business for him is still going strong.
“No one really cares about the lawsuit,” said Hallatt, “and at the end of the day I’m a guy selling groceries on 4th beside another grocery store beside another grocery store.”
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