Trader Joe's: The Trendy American Cousin

It's a small grocery chain that moves into abandoned retail stores in second-rate locations. Parking is all but impossible. There's not a deep selection in the cramped aisles, and you'll be lucky to spot a national brand on the shelves.

Welcome to Trader Joe's. About all this 210-store U.S. chain shares with Germany's Aldi Group -- besides being owned by a trust created by Aldi co-founder Theo Albrecht -- is its rigorous control over costs. But where Aldi carries such basics as toilet paper and canned peas, TJ's, as it's known, stocks eclectic and upscale foodstuffs for the wine-and-cheese set at down-to-earth prices.