In an era dominated by big box stores and online shopping, Trader Joe's has stayed on
top of its game by staying in its own lane.
To see how this grocery chain stands apart from the rest, check out the 10 reasons why
Trader Joe's is so successful.
Lower Prices
People can like a certain store for a whole multitude of reasons, but they probably won't
shop at one where the prices are too high.
Trader Joe's prides itself on providing quality products at lower prices than most other stores
in the highly competitive grocery store business.
This successful chain accomplishes this in several ways, but one of the most visible
ones is the use of its own line of products.
Instead of selling Oreos and Campbell's soup, Trader Joe's offers sandwich cookies and soup
of its own.
This saves the company money because the big brands charge stores a fee to sell their products.
Trader Joe's has cut out these companies and buys products directly from the suppliers
as often as possible.
They also buy in bulk, which is another way of getting products at a discount so that
the chain can pass along the savings to its customers.
One downside is that Trader Joe's has less variety than conventional grocery stores,
but their customers are willing to make this trade-off to get lower-priced products.
The big chains spend a lot on advertising and marketing, but Trader Joe's saves a lot
of money by putting out a charming advertisement known as The Fearless Flyer.
With its cartoon drawings, fascinating product stories, and informative tales meant to simplify
your shopping experience, The Fearless Flyer is beloved by the loyal Trader Joe’s customer
community.
Memorable Product Names
Product names are an important part of the grocery shopping experience.
This is true of most stores, not just at Trader Joe's, but this grocery chain has decided
to have some fun with it.
Most of us are familiar with the chocolate sandwich cookies with the creamy center known
as Oreos.
Well, Trader Joe's sells its own version of the popular cookies called Joe-Joes.
These cookies with the colorful packaging are a perennial favorite and also boast a
coveted Christmas version - peppermint flavor.
Swedish fish have been a popular gummy candy for a long time, and Trader Joe’s is smart
to have its own brand of candy fish called Scandinavian Swimmers.
These fun naming practices don't just apply to individual products, but to lines of products
as well.
For example, Italian food products fall under the Trader Giotto's label, and Mexican food
products are labeled with the Trader Jose's moniker.
Some people believe these names to be problematic or even offensive, and a petition has been
circulated to have them changed.
Still, most customers seem to appreciate Trader Joe's efforts.
You can't make everyone happy, but the chain's light-hearted efforts to come up with memorable
product names are appreciated by many customers indeed.
Service First
Upon reflecting on Trader Joe’s customer service, Conan O’Brien tweeted** in 2019,
“I told my therapist, ‘I just want to be as happy as a Trader Joe’s cashier.’”
(Don’t we all Conan, don’t we all.)
A key part of the in-store shopping experience is the interaction between customers and staff.
Obviously, Trader Joe's wants these interactions to be as positive and helpful as possible.
The company has taken steps to improve the chain so that staff will be positive, such
as encouraging employees to be friendly and chatty with customers.
The focus of these conversations tends to be about various products, which employees
are often familiar with because they use the products themselves.
Good customer service also means making it easy to find popular products.
Trader Joe's employees draw up a lot of their own hand written signs to advertise products
people want and the colorful signs make them easy to spot.
Delivering good customer service also happens before people even reach the store.
The Fearless Flyer advertisement arrives at peoples' homes and describes a wide range
of both new and familiar products that Trader Joe's offers.
All of these factors contribute to the positive customer service experience shoppers can depend
on at Trader Joe's.
Customer Psychology
Many businesses use psychology to help them attract customers, but it seems like Trader
Joe's might be a little more successful than a lot of the competition in this department.
Unlike the big box grocery chains, Trader Joe's decided it doesn't have to try to appeal
to everyone.
When the chain was able to admit that not everyone is a potential Trader Joe's customer,
it allowed the company to focus its efforts on the customers the stores are most likely
to attract.
Trader Joe's has identified these likely customers generally as young urban professionals that
are more educated than the average shopper.
These kinds of people have been referred to as yuppies in some circles, but regardless
of what you call them, they have money to spend, and they are willing to spend some
of that hard-earned cash at places like Trader Joe's.
According to most reports, these customers like what they find at this grocery store,
and they have helped cultivate a strong degree of loyalty that other grocery chains don't
enjoy.
This customer base is much smaller than the big chains enjoy, but the ability to attract
and keep these loyal customers is the key to Trader Joe’s success.
In-Store Shopping
Companies like Coca-Cola and Amazon are known for their strong and identifiable branding.
And, while Trader Joe's may not be a giant corporation, the grocery chain has worked
hard to define itself and set itself apart from a highly competitive industry with little
margin for error.
Amazon's brand depends on getting people to go to its website to shop, spend a lot of
money and keep going back to the site.
Trader Joe's, on the other hand, has staked its brand and its success on getting its customers
to come to its actual physical stores to shop.
(Old school, we know.)
This chain cannot and will not deliver your groceries to your door in a matter of hours,
and it has worked hard to make the in-store shopping experience a pleasant one.
An enjoyable in-person shopping experience is key to Trader Joe's branding.
There is something charmingly quaint about a grocery chain that cultivates a neighborhood
store feel in an era where online shopping continues to pull in more shoppers every day.
Many Trader Joe's customers say they look forward to shopping at their local store because
it's usually more fun than their other shopping trips.
This type of feedback is encouraging for a successful Trader Joe's future.
Stuck in the Past
Some people are said to march to the beat of their own drum, and Trader Joe’s is definitely
evidence that businesses can do this as well.
This grocery chain's beat keeps it stuck in the past, but both the chain and its customers
don't see this as a bad thing.
On the contrary, Trader Joe's relatively low-tech and neighborhood store approach accounts for
a lot of its appeal.
This chain values people, its employees, and customers over technology like self-checkout
counters.
You can pay lip service to the idea that people are the most important part of the equation
or you can make things happen to make it true.
A study cited by Forbes.com showed that as technology becomes ever more part of our lives,
people actually want more human interaction instead of less.
Trader Joe's seems to understand this and has built its success on it by trying to make
the shopping experience as enjoyable as possible.
This is an amazing feat in an era when you can shop at home with the click of a button.
It should also be noted that the company also tries to make working at Trader Joe's as enjoyable
as possible, and it has been pretty successful on this count.
Trader Joe's is countering the online shopping trend and if this means they are stuck in
the past, well, the company will probably just take that as a compliment.
Slow and Steady
All businesses want to grow, and Trader Joe's is certainly no exception, but the successful
grocery chain has been relatively slow and methodical with the implementation of its
strategy for growth.
Like the turtle versus the hare, Trader Joe's has decided that slow and steady will win
the race.
Trader Joe's was founded in 1967 when its first store opened in California.
Twenty years of slow, but steady growth raised this count to 27 grocery store locations.
After 1988 the chain started to accelerate its growth a bit as it expanded into Northern
California.
In 1993, Trader Joe's opened its first location in Arizona.
Three years later, the chain opened its first East Coast location with a store in Maryland.
By this time, the grocery chain was approaching 100 store locations, but it still had a lot
of growth ahead of it.
Fast forward to 2020, and Trader Joe's now boasts 500 locations with stores in almost
every state.
Two notable states still without a Trader Joe's are Alaska and Hawaii.
Simply the Best
The large grocery chains sell thousands of products, so there is some room to hit and
miss on what their shoppers want to spend their money on.
Trader Joe's sells a relatively small number of products when compared to the big chains,
but the grocery chain uses this factoid to its advantage by being very picky about the
products it allows on its shelves.
Only high quality products are allowed, and the chain's customers appreciate this because
they know they are often getting better quality items at lower prices than they would get
at the big grocery store chains.
This is a winning formula, but it isn't the only way Trader Joe's manages to use its products
to draw customers in and have them keep coming back for more.
The grocery chain offers many different products for a limited time only so shoppers know they
must come in and get them while they last.
This also means customers can look forward to seeing new products on a regular basis,
and this keeps them wondering what's coming next from Trader Joe's.
This is a small grocery chain, but it has become a success by focusing on quality products
at lower prices while providing an enjoyable customer experience.
Many shoppers look forward to visiting their local Trader Joe's, and we definitely understand
why!
A Good Place to Work
Let’s be honest, we're not all fans of our jobs, or even our places of work for that
matter.
While Trader Joe's employees would probably admit that their jobs aren't perfect, there
is still a fairly high degree of job satisfaction at this grocery chain.
In fact, Forbes.com actually named Trader Joe's as the best place to work in 2019!
This was before the current situation hit, but even so, this is a serious achievement
for any business.
The grocery chain prides itself on hiring people that fit in with its culture.
The company tends to hire friendly people who are likely to enjoy interacting with customers
and see it as an important part of their job instead of a necessary evil to be endured.
Beyond being the right fit for the job, Trader Joe's employees have several reasons to experience
fairly high job satisfaction.
One of these reasons is a higher pay rate than grocery workers usually get at the big
chain stores.
These employees also get better benefits than the competition, and these factors combine
to give Trader Joe's a low turnover rate.
Being able to maintain employee retention for longer is more cost-effective for the
company and helps make it a nice place to work!
Can Always be Better
People might think improving is mostly about big concerns like prices and product availability,
but Trader Joe's has been careful to focus on the finer details.
In 2018, customers complained that many of the chain's products used too much packaging,
and it was a wasteful use of plastic and other materials.
Trader Joe's took the criticism seriously and took steps to rectify the situation.
It removed six million pounds of packaging from circulation by changing how it packages
more than 40 of its products.
Trader Joe's stores tend to have smaller parking lots compared to chain stores, and they aren't
really big enough to handle the traffic that Trader Joe’s typically generates.
One tweeter* remarked on the small parking lots imitating a fictional conversation between
a real estate agent and a landlord.
The Trader Joes Real Estate Agent asks, “How’s the parking lot?”
To which the landlord responds, “Terrible.”
The Agent then replies, “We’ll take it!”
Despite the annoyance, the parking lot issue is a sign of success, but it can definitely
frustrate customers.
Trader Joe’s can't afford to push consumers away, so some of these lots have been redesigned
to try and alleviate the problem, but it's hard to add many parking spaces in a small
lot.
This grocery chain hasn't been perfect by any means, but its commitment to improvement
seems to be genuine.
Got a Trader Joe’s favorite we should know about?
Leave us a comment.
Hit that subscribe button, then tap or click on another great video.