By my estimation, about 95% of the products at Trader Joe’s come from the store’s private label brands. When it comes to the other 5% or so, I can’t help but wonder: are these third-party brands offered merely as a merchandising experiment? Won’t Trader Joe’s just create a house brand variant if the sales are strong? I think the chances of that are very high.

This brings me to one piece of advice for anyone lucky enough to get their products on the shelf at a private label-focused retailer: from the moment you sign the deal to provide your existing products, start discussing the idea of being the manufacturer for the retailer’s private label version, if they decide to create one down the road. Granted, you’ll make less money per unit sold. But at least you won’t have to watch that newfound revenue stream drop to zero if it’s a smash hit, and they make a deal with someone else to produce the product.