2. Trader Joe’s is a consumer retail grocery store that started in 1967 in Pasadena, California. Joe Columbe founded Trader Joe’s and has been succeeded by John Shields in 1987. Under John command in 1983 they expanded into Arizona and then 2 years later to the Pacific Northwest. Then in 1996 they opened their first store on the east coast just outside of Boston. Shields retired in 2001 and was succeeded by Dan Bane. As of April 2015, Trader Joe’s had 457 locations in 25 states (Llopis, 2011)and is adding new locations regularly. They are reluctant to growth too fast but rather develop a good reputation with the general vicinity of its locations. Trader Joe’s in not a super mega store or chain. Each of its location have an average of about 10,000 S.F. This limits the variety of product that they carry but does not limit their variety. This means that they don’t carry your staple products from Kellogg’s, Kroger, General Mills, etc. like Walmart or Safeway but allows them to carry their own versions of such foods and hard to find products that their competitors don’t carry. Most grocery chains carry around 50,000 sku’s in each of their stores, Trader Joe’s carry only around 4,000 sku’s, 80% of which carry its own private label (Kowitt, 2010). Fortune magazine also estimated sales to be $1,750 in merchandise per square foot. This more than doubles sales of its nearest competitor, Whole Foods. If a product doesn’t carry its own weight, it is gone to make room for
Trader Joe’s chief executives have been careful in their expanding of the brand to more geographic locations, and they must continue to seek out their target market of “intelligent, educated, inquisitive individuals” and settle around them.
Grocery shopping is more diversified and evolved than ever before. Individuals across the nation have access to everything from exotic products to unique delivery services. Often, specialty stores have limited locations whereas specialty services have a limited reach. However, two retailers have expanded to hundreds of locations while adhering to unexpected market positioning for previously untargeted market segments. Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe’s have become household names while also innovating beyond regional and national traditional chains. Despite comparable size in
Trader Joe’s occupies a niche position in the grocery market by providing natural, organic and eclectic selection of wines, frozen food, prepared food and groceries at everyday low prices. They have a small area format with limited products which has put them in the top rank for sales per square feet.
Trader Joe's faces several threats to its business, as competitors try to invade the company’s niche and attempt to imitate the company’s core strategies. The supermarket industry itself faces a major threat, as larger chains such as grocery retailers Wal-Mart and Tesco have begun to open small-format stores that mimic the Trader Joe's approach. This invasion results in additional cost pressure for incumbents like Trader Joe’s, which had to let go employees in order to become more cost competitive.
They only stock about 4,000 SKUs in their small locations; this is a business strategy resulting in the retailer selling an estimated $1,750 in merchandise per square foot, more than double Whole Foods’ (Kowitt). Additionally, produce is priced per unit at Trader Joe’s, while Whole Foods sells by the pound. Both Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s “organic” options generally run about $1-2 more expensive than their “regular,” non-organic products. Whole Foods also offers more national brands, which are pricier than private label brands.
Current news report describes Trader Joe’s as a “trendy grocery store with cult like following,” Similar new report that Trader Joe’s are opening up a store in Florida. I do believe Trader Joe’s is a management benchment
This is because they constantly keep their shelf stock moving. This is shown by the SKU (stock keeping units) of 3500 compared to the traditional supermarket, which has an SKU of 55,000 (Kowitt, 2010). Trader Joe’s keeps their SKU much lower which enables them to constantly offer high numbers of new products. Therefore brand loyalty will not be as high for Trader Joe’s. Trader Joe’s keeps their costs per unit down achieving exceptional economies of scale. All of these barriers to enter the market make it difficult for new entrants trying to enter the market.
“At Trader Joe's, our mission is to bring our customers the best food and beverage values and the information to make informed buying decisions. There are more than 2000 unique grocery items in our label, all at honest everyday low prices. We work hard at buying things right: Our buyers travel the world searching for new items and we work with a variety of suppliers who make
Trader Joe’s promotes healthy and unique organic products at affordable prices. Most products on the shelves are their own brand and come from vendors all over the world, unlike other grocery
Trader Joe’s is a major food retailer who has developed quite the name for themselves. It has well over 350 stores in over 32 states and is expected to continually grow over the next few years (Bond, 2012). For over 50 years, Trader Joe’s has been providing quality customer services, products and a unique shopping experience for its customers. They have come a very long way from when they first officially opened their doors. Trader Joe’s started when its founder Joe Coulombe wanted to find a way to differentiate his 7-Eleven stores (Schermerhorn, Osborn, Uhl-Bien & Hunt, 2012). In the food retailer industry, Trader Joe’s has developed a process that works well and
Firstly, it is important to remember the current situation of Trader Joe’s in USA, the company has over 400 stores in 30 states and is the leader in customer service in USA. However, the company is not on the top ten supermarkets in sales category. Additionally, Trader Joe’s just operates in USA and does not have experience in other international markets. (Peterson, 2013)
Whole Foods Market started off as being Safer Way natural grocery store in 1978. However they were not
Also, while Trader Joe 's is not a health food chain, it still supplies a large amount of organic options in its stores which sells in the billions (Smyszkowski, 2012).
After reading this it makes me want to be a manager for Trader Joe's. There making a lot of money. But with the workers that work for them there given a lot of benefits with all the health, dental, vision and etc. Also they're given promotions from within philosophy because they're privately own. Also they tell there employees to try the produce so when someone has a question about something they can take them to something that is something there thinking about or better. Trader Joe’s has designed jobs to increase job satisfaction by showing appreciation in providing more benefits to their employees than other chain grocers.
Townhouse Grocery , November 2, 1994. As I opened my eyes, the different shades of color shook me. It was so amazing to see so many different shapes and sizes. From frozen products to personal care . It was love at first sight. I no longer sat alone in an empty boxes, I had friends to keep me company. I was no longer the lonely banana. Wait! What is that! I can not believe my eyes, what is this "creature" coming towards me! A sweaty, nasty, thing is headed towards me! This creature holds some kind of furry thing in its hands, and its face has crusty stuff running down it. I'm scared. I turned next to me and seen all of the other fruits and vegetables, starting to get so excited.