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The origins of Trader Joe's...


Carolyn Tillie

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This is a great article that appeared in this morning's Napa News with Joe Coloumbe

Telling a tale worthy of PBS's "Nova," he enthralled the audience about why the Little Ice Age kept Americans from drinking wine, how the breakdown of an international monetary agreement affects the wine business -- and how he started the chain of quirky gourmet stores that upended the demand for California wine.

Brilliant.

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Over-educated and underpaid?

So that why Dr Mrs JPW, PhD and Dr. JPW, PhD were fated to love Trader Joe's.

Now if only we had gotten our degrees in something useful, like marketing. :laugh:

If someone writes a book about restaurants and nobody reads it, will it produce a 10 page thread?

Joe W

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Well, I am definitely the target market, and I really want to spend my small sums of cash there, but there is no Trader Joe's to be found hereabouts. :sad:

"Portion control" implies you are actually going to have portions! ~ Susan G
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From the article:

Over time, he realized that his stores especially appealed to the over-educated and underpaid.... "That group now includes starving Silicon Valley engineers," he jokes. "It became our sacred mission to serve these customers."

It was a winning strategy, especially since the targeted customers has influence out of proportion with their salaries, and love to share their discoveries with others of the same ilk.

Something sounds earily familiar. :unsure::laugh:

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The funny part for me is that I remember shopping at one of the first Trader Joe's over twenty years ago... I was a young college student who wanted cheap wine, good cheese, and nuts. That's about all they sold then - it was more of a "SoCal Health Food" store with an emphasis on dried fruits and nuts alongside their cheese selection.

My favorite memory is buying Tyrrell's Long Flat Red (a blend of Shiraz, Cabernet, and Malbec) for $1.25 a bottle. I had to save up to buy several cases. Three years later, the very vintage I purchased was on the wine list of a hoity-toity restaurant for $30.00 a bottle and I felt on top of the world, having "discovered" a great wine so cheaply.

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It's true, medieval vinyards in England were wiped out when the weather changed. It's thought that the difference between the average temperature in the warm and cold periods was about 1 degree, which doesn't sound like a lot but it was enough to cause serious food shortages across much of europe. The Little Ice Age wasn't really global in extent, though, it mainly affected northern europe.

"I think it's a matter of principle that one should always try to avoid eating one's friends."--Doctor Dolittle

blog: The Institute for Impure Science

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The funny part for me is that I remember shopping at one of the first Trader Joe's over twenty years ago... I was a young college student who wanted cheap wine, good cheese, and nuts. That's about all they sold then - it was more of a "SoCal Health Food" store with an emphasis on dried fruits and nuts alongside their cheese selection.

I used to go to a Pronto Market in West LA. Joe is frequently quoted saying that his inspiration was combining a liqour store with a health food store.

I'm hollywood and I approve this message.

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i use trader joe's as my regular grocery store these days. but i still can't help missing the old days, particularly for wine. they had much more of a "scavenger" operation and were always picking up incredible wines that distributors had decided they couldn't sell and then passing them on at great prices. i remember in hte mid-80s buying 5 to 6-year-old prum ausles riesling for under $5 a bottle.

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Thanks so much for posting that link, Carolyn. Joe Coulombe has always been a hero of mine, business-wise, along with Chuck Williams.

My first Trader Joe's was a convenient block-and-a-half away from my first apartment, in 1979, if one doesn't count the mid-1960s Pronto Market my parents would sometimes run into for milk and liquor, and I've never been without one since.

(Spelling!)

Edited by Priscilla (log)

Priscilla

Writer, cook, & c. ●  Twitter

 

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Over-educated and underpaid?

So that why Dr Mrs JPW, PhD and Dr. JPW, PhD were fated to love Trader Joe's.

Ditto for Mr. Lloyd, MSc, MBA and Mrs. Lloyd, MHA. "Over-educated and underpaid" seemed to strike a real chord with us.

Edited to add that Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd just ate a package of TJ's Mandarin Orange Chicken for dinner; which was not half bad at $ 4.99 for a 22 oz. package. Tasted pretty close to the Panda Express Orange Chicken. Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd are also planning to go to TJs tomorrow.

Edited by MGLloyd (log)

Regards,

Michael Lloyd

Mill Creek, Washington USA

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the last link states that joe coloumbe is the "late founder", but i guess not, if he was speaking in napa last week?

"Laughter is brightest where food is best."

www.chezcherie.com

Author of The I Love Trader Joe's Cookbook ,The I Love Trader Joe's Party Cookbook and The I Love Trader Joe's Around the World Cookbook

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the last link states that joe coloumbe is the "late founder", but i guess not, if he was speaking in napa last week?

I think they are trying to refer to the fact that he is no longer involved in the business, having sold it years and years ago...

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the last link states that joe coloumbe is the "late founder", but i guess not, if he was speaking in napa last week?

I think they are trying to refer to the fact that he is no longer involved in the business, having sold it years and years ago...

jeez, wording seems a little drastic...former owner or founder seems a bit more appropriate, no? anyway, i'm glad he's alive, kickin' and talking about his great business ideas. i don't know what i would do without tj's.

:wub:

"Laughter is brightest where food is best."

www.chezcherie.com

Author of The I Love Trader Joe's Cookbook ,The I Love Trader Joe's Party Cookbook and The I Love Trader Joe's Around the World Cookbook

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I bought a bunch of wine a year ago that TJ had picked up from the airlines (no corkscrews allowed on planes).

I talked to the salesperson for over an hour about the wine, then about Trader Joes...

He stated that they can keep the prices low on wine because they offer cash up front for all there purchases.

What a great spot for a company to be in. Buying everything with cash! No debt.

Chef/Owner/Teacher

Website: Chef Fowke dot com

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Many business will give a 2 percent discount if an invoice is paid within 10-days (2-10, net 30). Perhaps TJ's is able to bargain for more of a discount by offering cash on the barrel head. That could help further explain their low prices,

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He stated that they can keep the prices low on wine because they offer cash up front for all there purchases.

I think that is now considered an urban myth -- that was the "story" behind the Charles Shaw wine when they first started selling it (sorry can't find the original news stories that back this up). I remember a lot of their salesmen offering this story but the TwoBuckChuck wine was never offered on any airline and subsequent stories confirm the fact that it was produced by the Franzia company specifically for TJs.

Part of the reason the story doesn't make sense is that airlines could not have sold wine to another retail outlet -- wine distribution laws simply don't allow it. They MIGHT have been able to return it to their distributors, but it is highly unlikely there would have been a general train of "from airline to TJs" transaction.

Most of the salespeople still have that story stuck in their craw and it has perpetuated since...

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I bought a bunch of wine a year ago that TJ had picked up from the airlines (no corkscrews allowed on planes).

this is the story i heard about charles shaw, post 9/11...

"Laughter is brightest where food is best."

www.chezcherie.com

Author of The I Love Trader Joe's Cookbook ,The I Love Trader Joe's Party Cookbook and The I Love Trader Joe's Around the World Cookbook

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I bought a bunch of wine a year ago that TJ had picked up from the airlines (no corkscrews allowed on planes).

this is the story i heard about charles shaw, post 9/11...

To put some depth to the story...

The salesperson said that the wine was bought from the winery after the contract was broken with the airline....the winery was J Lohr.

To be quite honest, the salesman was great, told a great story and I got some really nice wine for less then I could get it at the vineyard.

I find it easy to believe that a lot of contracts were cancelled after 9/11.

Chef/Owner/Teacher

Website: Chef Fowke dot com

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[Thanks to the GI Bill, it was growing very fast, and he discovered a very strong relationship between years of education and alcoholic consumption. "It was as perfect a correlation as found in market research," he notes.]

This seems to suggest that education turns people into drunks. :biggrin:

Canada doesn't have Trader Joe, but the influence of the chain and its founder has been profound here. When Loblaws began remaking itself some years ago, the grocery chain "borrowed" heavily from Trader Joe, launching a lookalike "newsletter" format flyer called Insider's Report, which trumpeted new house brand products.

I suspect Loblaws' plunge into a whole range of stuff like balsamic vinegar and various exotic sauces and cheese before these things were really mainstream was also inspired by TJ.

It's paid off, because Loblaws went from nowhere to the dominant supermarket chain in Canada, thanks in part to the TJ influence.

Arthur Johnson, aka "fresco"
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