Central Market now selling a Trader Joe’s coffee knock-off

by Teresa Gubbins

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Called "Texas Joe Coffee" -- how obvious can you get.

DALLAS — Following a similar initiative by Whole Foods Market to battle the mighty Trader Joe's, Central Market is selling $5 coffee in cans that are remarkably similar identical to the coffee-in-cans you can find at Trader Joe's, and is also selling dirt-cheap wine at a Two-Buck-Chuck-like $1.97 per bottle.

Trader Joe's opened its first area branch in Fort Worth last Friday, and it's turning into a fun spectator sport to watch how its arrival has affected, and will continue to affect, our local shopping culture.

Central Market on Lovers is currently selling "Cul de Sac" wine for $1.97, in varieties both red and white including chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon.

One employee described the price as "giving it away."

"It's not real expensive wine, but Whole Foods had something and Spec's had something, so I guess that's why we have it," the employee said, summing up exactly how imitative the supermarket industry is.

At Christmas, the same Cul de Sac was 3 for $10; by April, it had crept down to $2.84 a bottle.

This very dry review is pretty funny:

As for the coffee, it's sold in the same 12-ounce cylindrical canister you'll find at Trader Joe's. Same vividly colored packaging, too. But it's the name that's especially larcenous: "Texas Joe Coffee". OMG, Central Market, really? Why not just come out and call it TRADER Joe Coffee?

It comes in a handful of varieties, including Ethiopian, Costa Rican, and breakfast, as well as flavors such as pecan, which an employee said is the most popular.

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