I’ve been a fan of the Trader Joe’s grocery chain since the first Trader Joe’s opened in Glendale at the Bayshore Town Center a few years ago. The company, which is well known for its eclectic selection of items, is also famous for its secrecy, but Yahoo! Finance recently had a great writeup about Trader Joe’s, and it’s a writeup well worth a read.
Here’s a snippet:
Trader Joe’s is no ordinary grocery chain. It’s an offbeat, fun discovery zone that elevates food shopping from a chore to a cultural experience. It stocks its shelves with a winning combination of low-cost, yuppie-friendly staples (cage-free eggs and organic blue agave sweetener) and exotic, affordable luxuries — Belgian butter waffle cookies or Thai lime-and-chili cashews — that you simply can’t find anyplace else.
Employees dress in goofy trademark Hawaiian shirts, hand stickers out to your squirming kids, and cheerfully refund your money if you’re unhappy with a purchase — no questions asked. At the Chelsea store opening, workers greeted customers with high-fives and free cookies. Try getting that kind of love at the Piggly Wiggly.
It’s little wonder that Trader Joe’s is one of the hottest retailers in the U.S. It now boasts 344 stores in 25 states and Washington, D.C., and strip-mall operators and consumers alike aggressively lobby the chain, based in Monrovia, Calif., to come to their towns. A Trader Joe’s brings with it good jobs, and its presence in your community is like an affirmation that you and your neighbors are worldly and smart.
I’d love to see a Trader Joe’s here on the south side of the Milwaukee metro area, because I think a Trader Joe’s would be a welcome addition to the South Shore’s grocery store landscape.
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