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For a Brit who's never been to the USA, please can you explain the unique (compared to UK supermarkets) factor(s) Trader Joe's has?

From elsewhere in the thread, I hear that they pretty much only sell their own brand - but that alone would make them similar to Marks and Spencer.

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From an American who's been to Trader Joe's a lot and a Marks and Spencer grocery exactly once, I think they are pretty comparable except that the food items are more aligned with their respective nation's typical dietary preferences.

Marks and Spencer is not a bad comparison, product-wise. But M&S is more distinctly up-market, whereas Trader Joe's is more generally a bargain. (This is appreciated, because although I'm not actually an unemployed PhD student, I'm probably not overly far from that demographic...). Also, Marks and Spencers are pretty generic, whereas the Trader Joe's staff are encouraged to heavily personalise each store, with hand-painted signage and their own product recommendations and the like. This kind of place-making builds a loyalty towards the brand that can be hard to shake!

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