Inside the secret world of Trader Joe's
money.cnn.com
money.cnn.com
The manager was cheerful about it, and told me I wasn't the first person to bring back that particular item. Then he reeled me in:
"I'll gladly get you a refund; did you have any other shopping to do today? I can have the checker credit your order."
"Oh... I suppose I do."
I returned an item that cost less than $2, and then ended up buying a week's worth of groceries at $50.
Zappos may be the only other company I can think of that has the kind of return policy that increases revenue in the long run.
My wife bought blackberries this morning. Tonight, after dinner, we realized they were moldy. I went to exchange them at about 8:30 pm, just before closing. The store was out of blackberries, though. I called home to ask if there was anything else I should get.
"Olive oil" was the answer. So I walk up to the counter, ready to do an exchange, and the cashier looked at the $8 bottle of Olive Oil, the $3 carton of moldy blackberries, and said:
"Yeah those are about even. Have a good night." He then shooed me out the door without even ringing anything up on the computer.
That kind of autonomy is not what you expect from ANY retail establishment, let alone a grocery store.
Fry's : Best Buy; backcountry.com : REI
About 12 years ago my friend and I were shopping at a local Middle Eastern grocery/restaurant (Holy Land in North Minneapolis for those local) and she happened to mention to the owner in passing that the halvah we bought a week ago had a funny taste. He immediately jumped on it "oh, we had some trouble with the refrigerator last weekend. Here, let me give you some more for free!" That was a complete surprise and to this day if I'm in the area, it's the first place I think of to stop and get a bite to eat at.
I've found over the years that most places have such mediocre service that anyone who rises just a bit above the mean sticks in my mind and I tend to patronize their business from that point on.
TJs has the lowest number of different products in it stores of any major supermarket, plays employees significantly above the industry average ($40-60k; managers can earn 6 figures), gets a far greater $/sq foot return than competitors, and does over $8 billion a year in sales. And pretty much everyone likes them.
Herr Albrecht is a pretty good role model if you ask me.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/aug/05/theo-albrecht... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870489500457539...
Aldi is feared in Germany by their suppliers. Once they pressured farmers to sell their milk at such low prices that the farmers went on strike and poured their milk onto the fields instead of selling it.
The working conditions seem to be average for a discounter. Meaning: Not very good but that is to be expected.
So yeah Aldi does put the squeeze on its suppliers (as it should), but the agricultural sector is not the best poster child for that.
http://www.amazon.com/Bare-Essentials-ALDI-Way-Retailing/dp/...
Their prepared foods and marinated meats are really pretty good. Their cheese and wine selections are quite good. I found a Petite Syrah I absolutely _love_ there for $3.99. We buy it by the case. Bread is consistently some of the better bread I've found outside of dedicated bakeries here in the US (our bread generally sucks). A glass of wine ($3.99 a bottle), a loaf of bread ($1.99 a baguette lasting a day or two), a bit of low fat goat's milk brie ($2.99 a round lasting several days), a bit of sliced salami ($2.99 a for 2 salami's lasting 4 meals), some dried almonds ($3.00 for a pack of 20 mini bags), and I have very tasty no-cook meals for a day or two.
If you're in Silicon Valley (or anywhere that has a Joe's), and trying to eat well on a budget visit Trader Joe's.
A closer look at its selection of items underscores the brilliance of Coulombe's limited-selection, high-turnover model. Take peanut butter. Trader Joe's sells 10 varieties. That might sound like a lot, but most supermarkets sell about 40 SKUs. For simplicity's sake, say both a typical supermarket and a Trader Joe's sell 40 jars a week. Trader Joe's would sell an average of four of each type, while the supermarket might sell only one. With the greater turnover on a smaller number of items, Trader Joe's can buy large quantities and secure deep discounts. And it makes the whole business -- from stocking shelves to checking out customers -- much simpler.
For example, "McCains Simply Gorgeous Chunky Chips", a variety of oven chips in beef dripping, is vanishingly rare; there's a Sainsburys in Bethnal Green which sells them, but that's going well into the city.
Similarly, for The Berry Company juices - things like açaí, blueberry, goji berry - I have to go to Waitrose in Canary Wharf. Other Waitrose outlets are hit and miss, with patchy coverage of the line; and there's virtually no chance of finding the products elsewhere.
I was amused to find once I went to a Tescos Extra that they largely just had twice the space on the shelf for the same number of SKUs.
If a different store had the range, I'd go there instead. But each store targeting a slice of the demographic pie has very much the same limited range with a tiny bit of diversity outside of store brands.
It's not that UK supermarkets don't have choice, it's that US supermarkets are spoiled for choice. I mean, I went back home and saw a WALL of bread, and a long aisle where half was just cans of soup! For me, it's not just the difference between 10 different SKUs of peanut butter and 50+, but US stores seem to have much more stock of each SKU, too.
That said, YMMV.
* Buying good food
* Distributing it efficiently
* Paying their employees well.
I don't really care how "quirky cool" they are or are not, that's pretty sweet.
I love the New Zealand Cheddar they sell there. I have no idea why but it's my favorite cheese. My two year old daughter can't get enough of it either so maybe it's genetic.
Go into an American supermarket and there are dozens of types (or at least shapes) of bread - all the same oversweet soft wonderloaf inside, and dozens of types (or colors) of cheese - that all taste the same.
When I lived there, live cheese was banned, pot is being legalized but Brie is illegal !!!!
And now it's stuck in your head! ding
The one thing they seem to be lacking is a meat and seafood department. All their meat is shipped in; it's not bad, but it can't compare to Whole Foods. My solution is to get everything at TJ, then stop by Whole Foods to buy a pound of fish and chicken. Best of both worlds...
I think the Chelsea store opened a few weeks back, as someone from our office stumbled upon it and brought back peanut butter filled pretzels nuggets - which were awesome. Needless to say, once I heard they opened a TJ in the area, I had to stop by and experience it.
The Chelsea store is so much more open with high ceilings compared to the Union Square location. If you live in NYC, I recommend shopping in this location.
Kidding aside, I used to live one block away from a Trader Joe's and am sort of over them now. It can be a frustrating place to shop when you just want 'regular stuff', rather than paying the markup for fancy varieties of things. It's very nice to have as a supplement to a normal grocery store though.
I go there and there are about fives things I want and which are good deal. Then there are ten things I'd buy if I was in a hurry and are only a good deal if want I to pay premium for processed stuff. I get a good deal there but I suspect most customers throw down a lot of money for convenience that isn't cheap or healthy - but I suppose that's what they want.
I am impressed.