At last night's hamburger talk, Andrew Smith talked at length about White Castle. While the burger chain may now be a punch-line for stoner movies, it was the first fast food restaurant in America and up to World War II was widely imitated.
More than imitated, actually. Smith mentioned a now-defunct restaurant chain called White Tower. Below is a picture of a White Tower on the left and White Castle on the right. Besides the white brick theme, White Tower had even copied the insignias in the brick.
White Castle was not flattered by all this imitation and sued White Tower, showing that White Tower had hired the same designers as White Castle and would take pictures of White Castles to stay up on design. White Tower managed to drag the court case around long enough to build a small burger empire but, as Smith said, when White Castle finally won, it spelled the doom of White Tower.
The case reminded me of a story I saw today concerning Trader Joe's.
Like White Castle, Trader Joe's is a successful company with a
unique brand. In Trader Joe's case, it's Hawaiian shirts and a beach
theme. So when a Manhattan grocery company started putting up banners for a Trader John's that features Hawaiian shirts and a beach theme, Trader Joe's did the same thing
White Castle did. It's suing.
Trader Joe's is arguing that Trader John's, which is only three blocks away from a Trader Joe's, is infringing on its copyright. From the AdWeek story:
The complaint noted that Trader Joe's sent a "cease and desist"Trader John's is claiming that it's owner's first name is John and he is a trader, but name accuracy isn't all it's cracked out to be. After all, White Tower was white and had towers and that ended up not helping it any. -- By Owen Morrisletter Jan. 6 to [Trader John's owner] Gristedes about the store. In addition to the
similar-sounding name, which the complaint called a "blatant
attempt to confuse consumers and capitalize on Trader Joe's
hard-earned goodwill," Trader Joe's contends that the sign, awning,
and inside decor of the Trader John's store all rip off unique
Trader Joe's design elements.
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I've often wondered about the Trader Vic's, Trader John connection myself. From what I can tell Trader Joe's did steal...oops...borrow from Trader's Vic.
And to answer about it is relevant to KC, well it's not...yet. But hope against hope that the more I and other KC blogs talk about Trader Joe's, the more they'll pay attention to KC and maybe even one day build a store here. Yeah, it's out there but hey, a blogger can dream can't he.
I'm going to get started on a Trader Jim's here in KC. Maybe then Trader Joe's will see there is a market here!
I wonder if Trader Joe's was capitalizing on the success of tiki restaurant Trader Vic's?
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