Trader Joe's is an American privately-held chain of specialty grocery stores headquartered in Monrovia, California. Its stores are located most densely in Southern California, but the chain has locations in 18 other states as of 2005. The chain was founded by Joe Coulombe and is currently owned by a family trust set up by German billionaire Theo Albrecht, one of the two brothers behind ALDI.[1]
Products sold at "TJ's" include gourmet foods, organic foods, vegetarian food, unusual frozen foods, imported foods, domestic and imported wine, and "alternative" food items. Some non-food items, including personal hygiene products (ex. Burt's Bees items) and household cleaners, are also available. Almost all of the company's products are considered environmentally friendly.
Trader Joe's sells many items from any of several of its own private labels. Such labels are quirkily named by the ethnicity of the food in question, such as Trader Jose's (Mexican food), Trader Ming's (Chinese food), Trader Giotto's (Italian food), and Trader Joe-San (Japanese food). They also sell products from companies which sell exclusively through Trader Joe's, such as Charles Shaw wine, popularly known as Two Buck Chuck because of its $1.99 a bottle price (although in some locales it sells for as much as $3.39 a bottle, due to varying state liquor taxes and transportation costs).
Locations
As of June 2006, Trader Joe's has stores in the following states: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin (opening in Madison in October 2006.) [2]
As of July 2006, Trader Joe's has a total of 254 stores. The most recent stores opened in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Creve Coeur, Missouri; Novato, California; St. Louis Park, Minnesota; and New York, New York (near Union Square).
Stores are also slated to open in Des Peres, Missouri; Paramus, New Jersey; Washington, D.C.'s West End; Carson City, Nevada; Madison, Wisconsin; Atlanta, Georgia; Roswell, Georgia; Brentwood (Contra Costa County), California; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Irvine, California; Glendale, Wisconsin; Walnut Creek, California; Chicago, Illinois; Morgan Hill, California; Livermore, California; Sandy Springs, Georgia; Cary, North Carolina; Norcross, Georgia; the Point Loma neighborhood of San Diego, California; East Cobb, Georgia; Hillsboro, Oregon; and Henderson, Nevada.
Employees
According to Business Week, Trader Joe's pays better than union wages, generous bonuses, and contributes an additional 15.4% of each worker's gross pay into a company-funded retirement plan. As of 2004, pay for entry-level part-timers was $8 to $12 an hour; first-year supervisors average more than $40,000 a year.[1]
Trader Joe's also offers health insurance benefits (dental, medical, and vision) to part-time employees and their dependents, who must work 900 hours per year (an average of 20 hours per week) to qualify.
Employees are referred to in the company as "crew members", and most official positions within the store are references to naval ranks: the store's manager is called the Captain, while the assistant manager is the First Mate or Second Mate, depending upon their rank in the company. Other ranks include Commander, Merchant, Specialist, and Novitiate.
Part-time crew members work up to 40 hours per week, and do not supervise other employees. Full-time crew members, also known as Novitiates, work 47.5+ hours per week, and are supervisors. Full-time crew members have the opportunity to be promoted into management positions, while part-time crew members may train to become full-time crew members.
Unlike its supermarket competitors, Trader Joe's employees are non-union. An attempt to unionize at its South Pasadena, California store failed in 2003.[citation needed]
History
Trader Joe's is named for its founder, Joe Coulombe. The chain began in 1958 as a Greater Los Angeles area chain of "Pronto Market” convenience stores. The first store named "Trader Joe's" opened in Pasadena, California in 1966. This store, on Arroyo Parkway, is still in operation. In response to strong competition from 7-Eleven the chain differentiated its stores' offerings and doubled the floor space in 1967. In the first few decades of operation, the stores offered fresh meats under the banner "Galley Meats.". Albrecht bought the company in 1979.
A Business Week article about the store noted that between 1990 and 2001, the chain quintupled its store count while increasing its profits tenfold.[1]
See also
References
External links and sources
- Official Web site
- Trader Joe's community fan site with product reviews, recipes, articles, forums and monthly contests.
- Leading Listener: Trader Joe's, an October 2004 article from Fast Company
- Shopper's Special: Trader Joe's, a September 2004 article from Workforce Management
- Trader Joe's: The Trendy American Cousin, an April 2004 article from Business Week
- German success stories in America: Trader Joe’s, a January 2004 article from the Deutsche Welle website
- Trader Joe's targets 'educated' buyer, an August 2003 article from The Seattle Times
- For Trader Joe's, a New York Taste Test, March 2006, The New York Times