Trader Joe's Strategy

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.

Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods are grocery retailers who have become very successful. Both these companies offer whole, natural, and quality products but operate to a wide extent particularly in terms of inventory management and supply chain organizations. Trader Joe’s has incredible inventory management and their supply chain focuses on private labels and extreme secrecy while Whole Foods has poor inventory management but their supply chain is quick, nimble and versatile. A huge competitive advantage that Whole food has is that they keep their shelves packed with about 25,00 to 45,000 products while Trader Joe’s keeps about 4,000 products. However, Trader Joes’ still made about $1,750 per square foot in 2009, more than double of what Whole

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

Dan Bane has been working with Trader Joe’s for over 20 years. In 1998 he become president of the company for three years, where he was then appointed CEO. Trader Joe’s originated as a small chain of grocery stores in 1967, and since then has expanded to over 465 stores nationwide across 41 states. Often referred to as the go-to neighborhood grocery store, Trader Joe’s has established its brand through continuous success under Dan Bane, generating a whopping 15.7 billion in revenue in 2016. Bane’s commitment to serving individual communities throughout the country is evident through the company’s donation of $341 million worth of organic food products to food banks last year. The company’s revenue has been growing at an average of 6.8 percent

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.

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 has designed jobs to increase job satisfaction by showing appreciation in providing more benefits to their employees than other chain grocers. They provide starting benefits including medical, dental, and vision insurance, company-paid retirement, paid vacation, and a 10% employee discount, Pg. w-100.” Traders Joes also recruits people with certain personality traits that the company wants in their stores. They are able to enrich their employees with knowledge of their products that they are selling, as well as inducing customer involvements. As a result, they are able to have higher job performance because they are able to train and

For Trader Joe’s, they are able to demonstrate the importance of each responsibility in the management process by establishing a plan to serve quality products with natural ingredients, inspiring flavors, and buying direct from the producer whenever possible,. They also organize their stores to limit its stock, carrying about 1,500 to 2,000 products compared to retail mega-markets with 25,000 to 45,000 products. Through leading, Trader Joe’s support their future leaders by hiring managers only from within the company. Future leaders enroll in training programs called, Trader Joe’s University that foster in them the loyalty necessary to run stores according to both company and customer expectations. Lastly, Trader Joe demonstrated the responsibility in controlling by placing standards to sell natural based ingredient products, as well as striving to offer the highest quality type foods.

Joe Coulombe started Trader Joe’s in 1967. Traded Joe’s can be characterized as a low cost, high quality grocery store. Eighty percent private label product mix, expanding its target markets, keeping costs down, and extremely effective marketing powers Trader Joe’s increase popularity. Since 2002, the market value of private food label has risen twelve percent (Datamonitor, 2008). This essay

“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 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

Market Force has ranked Trader Joe’s as #3 for America’s favorite grocery stores (Vasel, 2016). Trader Joe’s is all about customer service, happy employees and offering high quality products at low prices. Their strategy is to compete differently than their rivals, and by offering products that the others can’t. This is reflected in their mission statement below:

Trader Joe’s has great workforce management practices and its employees enjoy what they do. They have cheerful attitudes and are more than willing to assist customers with anything in the store. Trader Joe’s employees are engaged in conversation with the customers that shop in the store and make the customers aware of any new or exciting products from them to try. The positive behavior of these employees is due to the compensation and benefits each employee receives, which is far more competitive than other grocery food stores. Trader Joe’s has also created an environment where employees feel valued and know their opinions matter to the growth of the

THE ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR OF FOOD RETAILER TRADER JOE’S IS UNIQUE IN MANY WAYS. FROM OWNER, JOE COULOMBE, TO A STORE CLERK, THEY ALL HAVE THE SAME VISION IN MIND- TO SET THEMSELVES APART FROM THE REST. NOT FALLING INTO STEREOTYPICAL FOOD CHAINS, TRADER JOE’S DOES BUSINESS THEIR WAY. THIS MAKES THEM PERFECT AT BEING THEM. FROM INTERVIEW QUESTIONS TO JOB DESIGN, THEY ARE NOT YOUR STANDARD FOOD MARKET. THE SOCIAL CAPITAL IN WHICH MANAGEMENT IS CHOSEN, TO THE STORE’S ATMOSPHERE AND POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT FOR ALL EMPLOYEES ARE HAVE A PROVEN TRACK RECORD OF SUCCESS. ADDED WITH IMPECCABLE CUSTOMER SERVICE, THE ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR OF

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)