What do you know about Trader Joes?

Trader Joes can be like Amazon; you either love them or you hate them. Myself, I love them. They go against so many retail/customer service theories, and WIN.

The average food store is 50,000 square feet with a huge parking lot, plenty of shopping carts, usually in varying sizes. Aisles upon aisles of everything you could need while you’re there. Trader Joes, they built a business on an average of 1,200 square feet, with a small parking lot and smaller shopping carts. They based their business on ‘quick in and out’ and when the founder was sharing his idea with investors, he was told over and over that the idea would never work. Well, whaddya know?

Trader Joe’s stores have only have an average of about 4,000 items per store compared to 40,000 or more SKUs per normal grocery store.  Again, this means lower prices all around and frankly it just makes it easier to navigate the store with fewer choices. When your store is ¼ the size of a normal grocery store, it means lower overhead and lower prices.

Let’s talk about staffing. Most of the people you see working at Trader Joe’s are “crew members” these are the non-management employees. You can recognize them because they usually wear Trader Joe’s  t-shirts. Management must wear some type of Hawaiian shirt mostly button down type, short sleeve shirts. Most employees in the store can pretty much answering any question about any product, stock shelves and ring up sales. They are always around and almost always helpful. If you want to sample a product, usually they will open something up and let you have a taste! Seriously!

Additionally, the crew members at Trader Joes are exceptionally trained. Trader Joes is famous for discontinuing items and rotating new items in. Sometimes seasonally, sometimes deliberately. When I’ve visited a big box store and asked for an item, I’ve been told, “we’re out” and I just continue on. With Trader Joes, the crew members are trained to ‘counsel’ you. They will find out what you liked about the item, how long you’ve been using it and introduce you to something else you may like. As you read above, you can even sample it there to ensure it will work for you. They don’t want you to walk away disappointed. I think that’s brilliant.

One of the biggest differences with Trader Joes is their customers. Trader Joes has fans, not clients. These fans, like myself, promote the business through posting recipes, product review, FAQ pages, and loyalty groups on social media pages. The customers are so happy with the store and it’s employees that they drive the business for them; most times unknowingly, just out of genuine bliss of their TJ’s experience. There’s no commercials, no special sales, just 12-14 hour days of low prices and happy employees resulting in a culture unlike any other in the grocery industry.

Again, I’m not affiliated with Trader Joes, just a fan myself.

If you haven’t gone, check it out. If you’ve gone and been less than thrilled, maybe give it another shot knowing some of this insider information. There’s so much more to share, too!