Trader Joe's was founded in 1958 as Pronto convenience stores and opened its first location in 1967 in Pasadena, CA. It now has over 300 stores across 25 states. Trader Joe's aims to give customers high quality products at low prices in a unique shopping experience. Stores curate a laidback atmosphere through Hawaiian-shirt clad employees, nautical decorations, and new product discoveries. The company focuses on customer service through personal recommendations rather than discounts. This cultivates loyal customers who enjoy the adventurous shopping experience.

1. Trader Joe’s
CASE STUDY
MARRIOTT CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION

2. CASE STUDY: TRADER JOE’S
Founded: 1958
Industry: Food retail
First Location: 1967 Pasadena, CA
Current Number of Stores: Over 300
Vision: The mission of Trader Joe’s is to
give our customers the best food and
beverage values that they can find
anywhere and to provide them with the
information required to make informed
buying decisions. We provide these with a
dedication to the highest quality of
customer satisfaction delivered with a
sense of warmth, friendliness, fun,
individual pride, and company spirit.
Total Revenue: $8 billion
Brand Highlights:
• Employee Uniforms- Hawaiian Shirts
• Manager Title: Captain
• Maritime bell used to get
employee’s attention
• Company Newsletter and main
advertising vehicle: Fearless Flyer
• Signature Wine- Charles Shaw
infamously called “Two Buck Chuck”
referring to its low cost
• Use of Trader Joe’s Private Label for
more than 80% of products
Trader Joe’s, originally called Pronto convenience
stores until 1967, was the brainchild of founder,
Joe Columbe in the late 1950s. While completing
his business degree at Stanford University, Columbe
developed a business plan for a new and unusual
neighborhood style grocery store. He envisioned a
store that catered to educated lovers of gourmet
and exotic foods by offering new and unusual
products, but at budget friendly prices. He also
wanted to give customers a unique shopping
adventure that took them away from a routine
grocery store visit, allowing customers to go off to
faraway lands, but in a laidback, relaxed atmosphere
that reflected the West Coast vibe that Californians
loved.
Out of this vision, Trader Joe’s created a niche for
itself standing out among small boutique grocery
stores and large grocery chains. Today, Trader Joe’s
operates over 300 stores across 25 states. It has
managed to maintain its neighborhood-like
atmosphere, expand its’ base of loyal almost “cult
like” supporters, while undergoing aggressive ex-
pansion to the Midwest and East Cost. As a result,
Trader Joe’s continues to rank at the top of the list
among grocery store options with consumers citing
outstanding customer service and great prices as the
reason they come back.
Introduction
PAGE 1
COSTCO
FAREWAY
PUBLIX
TRADERJOE’S
WEGMAN’S
Consumer Reports Grocery Rankings
89 -
88 -
87 -
86 -
85 -
84 -
83 -
82 -
81 -
80 -
Customer Satisfaction
In a survey by Consumer Reports the
following top five brands ranked 83
and higher in overall satisfaction.
Trade Joe’s ranked second at 86.
*Range is out of 100.
MARRIOTT CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION

3. CASE STUDY: TRADER JOE’S
“At the end of 30 days, if you are not having fun, please quit. You spend
most of your life at your job. If you’re not having fun, get out of here.”
-John Shield, Former CEO,Trader Joe’s
(Famous saying to new employees at pre-store openings)
The Foundation
Trader Joe’s was never intended to be a one-stop
shop for customers’ grocery needs, but rather a
side excursion for customers in search of products
that they could not find elsewhere. Founder,
Columbe, envisioned a store that catered to
customers’ tendencies to be impulsive in their
grocery shopping and seek adventure. He
believed that Trader Joe’s should be a place
“where people with champagne tastes and beer
budgets could feel like they were on holiday.”
Trader Joe’s, therefore is a balance between
unique style and budget friendly products and
services.
The Trader Joe’s approach is based on a distinct
set of philosophies and principles including:
• Asceticism - simple layout including limited
amenities for customers and staff
• Simplicity - structure, technology, products,
marketing, and workflow
• Economy and cost awareness - maximizing
efficiencies
• Leadership - belief in company philosophy
and culture including modesty, discretion, and
self-discipline
• Secrecy - employees are prohibited from
interacting with media or third parties
• Fairness - treating people fairly and motivat-
ing people to excel
• Customer Focus - understanding the target
customer and educating on their products
• Trustworthiness and predictability -
consistently offering quality products at low
prices
The less is more philosophy and quality over
quantity is evident in Trader Joe’s physical layout,
staffing, and basic daily practices. To start, Trader
Joe’s is one-sixth the size of an average grocery
store with most stores having no more than 5 or
6 aisles of food. Instead of traditional white walls,
Trader Joe’s walls are lined with photos from
customers, highlights of new products written in
chalk, fun facts, recycled bags for purchase, and
other quirky items that reflect the store’s signature
Hawaiian theme.
While most grocery stores pride themselves on
having a large fresh produce department, Trader
Joe’s produce department is relatively small, and
in some instances only 1-2 display tables and 1
refrigerated section. Each store offers only 600-
700 products. Additionally, instead of carrying
national brands like Kraft and Kellogg, Trader
Joe’s products are sold under its own private label.
While the products are similar in use, Trader Joe’s
puts its unique spin on the titles, often with titles
gathered from customers or staff.
Store staffing is also relatively straight-forward
but with a stylistic twist. Each store is run by a
store manager called the ‘Captain’ and an
assistant store manager called ‘First Mate’.
The remaining staff is called ‘crew members’.
Similar to a shipping crew, the Trader Joe’s staff
works within close proximity to one another. The
managers’ office typically sits in an open space
with no doors or walls at the front of the store
near the registers. The Captain and the First Mate
are regularly seen shouting directions to crew
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MARRIOTT CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION

4. CASE STUDY: TRADER JOE’S
members across the store or assisting at the
register after hearing the maritime bell ring.
Trader Joe’s employees can be found throughout
the store wearing company t-shirts or Hawaiian
shirts, which are usually earned after working for
the company for several years. Every crew
member is responsible for delivering the
experience while keeping the ship moving at full
steam. All crew members stock shelves, provide
taste tests of new products, explain product uses,
provide alternatives, and share their opinions of
their favorite products.
To prepare crew members, Trader Joe’s does not
conduct hours of operational training. Instead
they combine culture and service training with
on-the-job procedural training. The culture and
service training involves orienting crew members
to the culture, building their understanding of
the customer experience and the company values
including:
• Integrity
• Product driven company
• Create WOW customer experiences everyday
• No bureaucracy
• National chain of neighborhood grocery stores
• Kaizen! (Japanese for 1% improvement every
day, or helping others)
• The store is our Brand
During daily operations, crew members are
expected to constantly multi-task. Unlike other
grocery stores, Trader Joe’s crew members stock
shelves during peak operational hours to
maximize the opportunities for customer
interaction. In addition to stocking, they are
expected to deliberately make eye contact and
start informal conversations with customers. If
asked a question about a product, a crew
member should never simply tell the customer
where the product can be located, but physically
lead them to the product while asking questions
and promoting other items along the way.
The company’s successful daily practices stem
from the type of people Trader Joe’s hires. In
some instances, a store may receive over 200
applications per week for crew member positions.
Trader Joe’s focuses on finding people who are
passionate about the products and the people
with whom they work. Crew members have been
known to have their own taste test parties to try
new products or work extra hours to support their
fellow crew members. The company is disciplined
in finding crew members who have innate
empathy and judgment, are comfortable carrying
on conversations, genuinely care about people,
and can deliver an authentic ‘wow’ experiences
on a consistent basis.
PAGE 3
“I’ve become a regular [customer] since
moving to California. I love them, and I
can’t live without them now. They have so
many things I didn’t know that I needed.”
-Libby Sartine,
former head of Southwest Airlines,
Human Resources
The Customer Experience
Trader Joe’s creates the experience from the
moment the customer enters the front door. The
store provides an entertaining and adventurous
experience, opportunity to fulfill the customers’
lifestyle needs, and creates a community-like
connection.
Fun decorations dot the store where customers
move through the cramped aisles to the beat of
fun and lively music. Customers can stop by the
Tiki-style taste testing hut and get advice on new
and exotic products. The fun maritime bell, which
became a standard feature in the store in the
1970s, is how crew members signal one another
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5. CASE STUDY: TRADER JOE’S PAGE 4
for help or announce when there’s something
exciting in the air.
The company has developed a loyal following that
is drawn to its cool and unusual products which
they cannot find elsewhere. Half the experience
is making new discoveries and getting additional
recommendations of what may compliment the
product. With over 90% of the products offered
on Trader Joe’s private label, Trader Joe’s has built
another vehicle for building customer loyalty and
recognition. The brand introduces 20-25% new
items on a weekly basis to entice customers to
come and see what might be new and appealing.
Trader Joe’s approach is to invest in the direct
customer experience rather than reach out
through advertising or other engagement
strategies. The famous weekly Fearless Flyer
(store newsletter) and chalkboard signage at the
front of the store demonstrate a bit of mystery
each time the customer returns to the store.
The Fearless Flyer introduces customers to new
products, recipes, and suggested uses along with
a shopping list for the recipes. The flyer style also
communicates the laidback and informal store
experience with old time cartoons and comics.
Trader Joe’s does not offer deals or discounts as
one might see in traditional grocery stores. Rather
it relies on regular item sales and the excitement
that comes with regularly offering new products.
New products offerings are immediately tracked
by watching and listening to customers and then
communicated to store managers. In many
cases this is a simple email notification. Crew
members are also given the autonomy to provide
their personal product opinion, open any product
to provide the customer a taste test, and redirect
customers to a better product solution in the store
that better meets their needs. Beyond the floor
experience, crew members communicate with
customers via email with additional product
solutions, ideas, or solicit feedback.
The check-out process is the last step in creating
the wow experience. Where major grocery chains
like Giant, Stop and Shop, Kroger, and Ralphs
have a combination of manned and self-check-out
cash registers stands with conveyer belts,
Trader Joe’s opts for no conveyer belts and no
self- check outs. Crew Members maintain
informal conversations as they organize items and
place them into brown paper or recycled bags.
Before saying goodbye, crew members ask if the
bags are too heavy, shift items as needed and ask
if the customer needs assistance to the car.
Trader Joe’s aims to ensure that every customer
leaves the store feeling as if they had fun and that
they got a good deal. Customers have bought
into the warm and friendly attitude of the store
and connect with the crew members who act
is if they are their friends while creating an in-
timate, neighborhood environment. The focus
is on informing and establishing a need among
their customers which often results in a sale. By
consistently delivering quality gourmet products
at discount prices, customers seek the deals and
communicate those deals to their friends which
ultimately increase demand.
Standing Out
References
• Inside the Secret World of Trader Joes, www.money.cnn.com,
August 23, 2010
• Lewis, Len.The Trader Joe’s Adventure:Turning a Unique Approach
into a Retail and Cultural Phenomenom, Chicago, IL: Dearborn
Publishing, 2005. Kindle AZW file
• The Supermarket of Struggling Artists, New York Magazine, 2007
• Gardiner, Mark. Build a Brand Like Trader Joe’s. Bikewriter.com,
2012. Kindle AZW file.
• www.traderjoes.com
• McGregor, Jena. “Leading Listener:Trader Joe’s” Fast Company,
October 2004.
• Trader Joe’s Quirky Mart, www.brandchannel.com
• Why The Most Social Brand in the Worls Isn’t Evan Social, http://
smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/why-most-social-brand-world-
isn-t-even-224505452.html
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