Trader Joe's Has Good News For Impossible Burger Fans

Yesterday, the Instagam account @traderjoesobsessed found a pack of Impossible Burger patties at the store with which they are explicitly so "obsessed." "If they are anything like the ground Impossible meat," they raved, "I will be a happy camper!"

In fact, Trader Joe's first began to offer Impossible Foods burger meat last year. A 12-ounce packet of unformed "beef" was selling for $7.99, according to Veg News. The big difference, as one Instagram commenter noted, is that shoppers can now save time by not shaping the burger patties themselves. This will probably draw more curious people who may have passed over the mound of Impossible ground burger in favor of already made burger patties.

The @traderjoesobsessed account didn't list the price of these Impossible patties. However, the bags contain six patties and weigh 24 ounces. Impossible Foods sells two packs of 10 patties weighing 4 ounces each for $69.99 on its website. Theoretically, if Trader Joe's is selling the patties at a similar price point, a packet of six would cost about $21 for nearly two pounds of fake meat. That said, these patties should almost certainly be cheaper at Trader Joe's, because the $7.99 Impossible meat package reported by Veg New would cost about $13 dollars on the Impossible Foods website. The price difference seems to indicate that Impossible Foods wants to be a supplier to restaurants and stores like Trader Joe's, not a store itself. 

The $7.99 price tag for Impossible meat that was reported by Veg News in 2020, however, is outdated. Since then, Impossible Foods has lowered its prices. In fact, it lowered the suggested price of its grocery store products by 20 percent back in February. That means, CNBC calculates, that patties (of an unspecified amount) are now $5.45 and the 12-ounce package has a suggested price of $6.99.

There are a few reasons for the recent explosion in the popularity of meat-free products. One is that the pandemic prompted people to look for meat substitutes in an attempt to find a healthier lifestyle and navigate meat shortages (via Mashable). Also, as Impossible notes in the company's blog, these lower prices further its mission for market dominance, which would result in Impossible Foods being an actual alternative to meat. For that reason, Impossible Foods will always strive to sell itself in stores at the most affordable price it can get away with, even if online store prices come across as prohibitively expensive. 

Now, with the Impossible patties available at Trader Joe's, shoppers can expect easier-to-make patties at the lower prices they come to expect.