
Ask HN: Kicked out of Trader Joe's for photographing nutrition labels? - erichacks
For the last 4.5 years, I have been building tools in my spare time that allow me to quantify the nutritional content of the foods I eat while doing my shopping. I believe that nutritional analysis should be part of the shopping experience (i.e., before the food is purchased), so I take photos and allow my smart phone to crunch the numbers before making any decisions. I used to be over 300 lbs, and I know that my tools are the only reason I don&#x27;t blow up like a balloon again.<p>While shopping at the Trader Joe&#x27;s in Santa Monica, CA this morning, a manager walked up and asked if he could help me. When I politely declined, he informed me that Trader Joe&#x27;s does not allow photographs of food items.<p>Is this a common policy for grocery stores? It seems absurd this would happen in &quot;Silicon Beach.&quot; Should I issue a press release for my users to avoid Trader Joe&#x27;s? Any advice would be appreciated.
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e9
They probably think you are scouting for competition. It's common practice for
grocery stores to send people to look around in competitor's stores and record
prices etc so that they can figure out what kind of sales to start, what new
products to put on shelves etc

