This Is Why Your Favorite Trader Joe’s Products Get Discontinued—and How To Try To Get Them Back

Is there a greater culinary heartbreak than going into your local Trader Joe’s to find that your favorite product has been discontinued? One of the thousands of things that make the chain so special is its dedication to unique, hard-to-find, or one-of-a-kind products. Where else can you go to find Wildberry Cheesecake Ice Cream, Strawberry Mini Sheet Cake, or Italian Pistachio & Fior Di Latte Gelato Style Frozen Dessert? 

But sometimes you walk into Trader Joe’s and find a different product sitting where your favorite treat used to be. Maybe you get a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach: Are you ever going to see that item again? Don’t despair quite yet. There may be a way to get your favorite product back on the shelf or find something similar; however, you won’t be able to do it alone.

Why Some Trader Joe’s Products Get Discontinued

Traditional grocery stores and major retailers often work with distributors called Consumer Packaged Goods companies. And these CPGs pay retailers for a slot on the shelf. 

So even if the product doesn’t sell well, or isn’t popular, it will remain on shelves because the fees secure the shelf spot. And the product will remain there until the CPG company decides to pull the item or lose its shelf space. 

But Trader Joe’s is different. As Tara Miller, former marketing director and now Vice President of Marketing at Trader Joe’s, shared during a 2022 episode of the chain’s “Inside Trader Joe’s” podcast, “The only way we make money is when the customer buys something at the cash register. We’re not getting paid by the producer of that product to keep it on the shelves. And our business model says, ‘Let’s develop something new that might sell better and make more customers happy.'”

In the episode, “ICYMI: Discontinued Products,” Tara and co-host Matt Sloan, a fellow marketing executive at Trader Joe’s, discuss a couple of reasons (including seasonality, which we reported about in 2023), but the primary reason is what Matt calls “slow sales.”

Essentially, if a product isn’t selling enough to justify future production, it gets pulled. Unfortunately, that means sometimes our favorites are not fan favorites. 

Trader Joe’s small size, the fact that it produces its own products, and its continual product innovation are all factors that lead its team to make product cuts. “If you think about how small our stores are, and on a relative basis, they’re smaller than most grocery stores,” says Matt in the episode. “On a comparative basis, we have a lot fewer products than other grocery stores. We just physically don’t have room to carry things that aren’t popular, as disappointing as that is to hear and experience.”

How To Request a Restock at Trader Joe’s

So while the decision to cut a product is not taken lightly, not all hope is lost if your favorite product gets cut. Trader Joe’s has a Discontinued Product Feedback form where shoppers can share their comments about their favorite now-discontinued products that they miss and hope to get back. 

According to the form, the Trader Joe’s team makes no guarantees, but they do “take customer requests into account when we develop new products or revisit old favorites.” And it stands to reason that the more feedback the chain gets for a particular item, the more likely it is for Trader Joe’s to revisit.

It’s great to know that Trader Joe’s listens to customer feedback about products. And though sometimes it doesn’t result in our favorite products coming back, feedback often gets incorporated into something similar. 

In the episode, Matt shares that the Guajillo Salsa is a good replacement for the discontinued Double Roasted Salsa, and Tara suggests trying the Pineapple Salsa if you’re missing the discontinued Peach Salsa. 

So if you’re a diehard fan of a now-discontinued Trader Joe’s product, let them know that you miss it by using the feedback form. And keep your heart and stomach open for new products, too. You may just find that Trader Joe’s has already created your next favorite of all time.