Amazon 'tried to take down Trader Joe's by poaching executive, taking her into darkened room filled with TJ's products and bullying her to reveal secret data in bid to copy supermarket's most beloved snacks'

An Amazon whistleblower has claimed that the online retail giant used extraordinary tactics to uncover insider secrets at Trader Joe's and copy its best-selling snacks.

A former Trader Joe's executive claimed she was hired by the tech giant while it working on a new private-label food brand, Wickedly Prime, Wall Street Journal reported. 

She told the outlet she had not been informed what project she would be working on when she was interviewed for the job in 2015 but was hounded for information as soon as she arrived. 

She claimed that during her first week was walked into a conference room at its Seattle-based headquarters that was full of Trader Joe's snacks and even had brown paper covering its windows and doors to ensure secrecy.

The recruit alleged that she later learned she had been hired to help the company work out which of Trader Joe's most popular 200 products they should try to copy.

An Amazon whistleblower has revealed how Amazon tried taking down Trader Joe's by copying the grocery chain's most important snacks

The tech giant hired a former Trader Joe's executive while working on a new private-label food brand, Wickedly Prime

Amazon recruited a senior manager from Trader Joe's snack-foods sector, but the recruit wasn't informed what project she would be working on when she was interviewed in 2015

Trader Joe's has gained a cult following over the years and is known for creating unusual yet incredibly popular products - such as its philly cheesesteak baos and cinnamon bun spread - that fly off the shelves

However, the grocery store is notoriously secretive when it comes to sales data and does not offer online shopping it's harder for rivals to track its best selling products.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the former Trader Joe's executive hired by Amazon tried to deflect requests for inside information for months. 

Eventually, her manager requested she send over any documents she had kept from her time at the grocery store to another colleague on the team.

One of these documents was an Excel spreadsheet that detailed Trader Joe's nationally top-ranked items over the course of a week, including the number of units sold per item over that time period, according to the outlet.

Her manager reportedly also demanded she share Trader Joe's margins for each product and berated her when she refused.

A bystander who witnessed the encounter recalled the manager screaming, 'you have to give us the data' - at which point the new recruit burst into tears.

Amazon planned to replicate the top 200 items sold at Trader Joe's, a grocery chain that has amassed a cult following

For six months, the manager hounded the recruit for inside information about Trader Joe's best selling product

Eventually, her manager requested she send over any documents she kept from her time at Trader Joe's to another colleague on the team

The team allegedly tore through the proprietary data to try to work out which products they should replicate. 

But another Amazon employee saw what was happening and reported it to the legal department, the Wall Street Journal reported.

After further investigation, the team of employees pressuring the recruit were fired - despite their claims that their actions had been driven by the pressure they were put under by those higher up.

A spokesperson for Amazon told the outlet: 'We do not condone the misuse of proprietary confidential information, and thoroughly investigate any reports of employees doing so and take action, which may include termination'.

Meanwhile, a separate investigation by the Wall Street Journal alleged that Amazon was also secretly gathering information on other rivals.

Big River Services International sells around $1 million a year of goods through e-commerce marketplaces including eBay, Shopify, Walmart, and Amazon under brand names such as Rapid Cascade and Svea Bliss.

But in fact, Big River is owned by Amazon and was launched as part of a plan called 'Project Curiosity' in 2015 to gather information on competitors.   

Ploys to seek out data would go as far as team members attending their rivals' seller conferences and meeting with competitors identifying themselves only as employees of Big River Services, not Amazon, the outlet reported.

Big River Services International, sells around $1 million a year of goods through e-commerce marketplaces including eBay, Shopify, Walmart, and Amazon under brand names such as Rapid Cascade and Svea Bliss - but it is owned by Amazon 

Employees of Big River Services also reportedly went to great lengths to keep their identity hidden - by using non-Amazon email addresses, for example. 

In the event their true identity was uncovered an internal crisis-management paper advised employees to say: 'We make a variety of products available to customers through a number of subsidiaries and online channels.'