Interesting article on Trader Joe's

[Robin Garr]

From the serious folks at Fortune magazine, a rare peek behind the curtain at Trader Joe's. It's not all fuzzy hippie love.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/20/news/co ... n.fortune/

Great read, thanks. As one who lobbied for years to get TJ's here in Redding, most of that write-up was known by those dozens of us who traveled to Sacramento and then to Chico to get our favorite TJ's products, filled out requests "to come to our town" and sent emails by the hundreds. Considerable reading was done and a lot of research, so that we could get our City of Redding council to start requesting a store, as well. When we got a new and young City Manager, several years ago from Benicia, CA, he was already familiar with TJ"s and started the ball rolling.
I love Whole Foods, too but they are way over priced. Trader Joe's picked the perfect spot in Redding, access from I-5, easy driving from anywhere in the city and only 6 minutes from my house, driving the back roads. They are hip, fun, and do everything the old way. Service is stellar, the store is always beautiful, clean, and all the help know how to answer questions. When I buy wine, I ask for assistance getting it into my car....and they are more than happy to do so, not just the wine, but everything I buy. While I never buy all the fresh prepared meals, which take up one whole wall in our store, I love the meats that are already marinated. They have a pot roast that is excellent and their peppered, marinated boneless leg of lamb is an excellent product. I discovered that all food that does not sell is given to charities around town. Fresh produce, packaged foods, etc. This was a great addition to Redding and they are doing a booming business. Oh, they also have a beautiful dark-skinned lady working there, with huge round eyes and a wide smile. She has beautiful shiny brown hair, always braided and piled on top of her heard. She must be the best foodie there, because she is always surrounded by people wanting to know about what do do with a product. She recites recipes on the spot, runs around with a person, assisting in finding just the right ingredient. I love it when she is at the door blowing up balloons. Just her beautiful face lights up the place!

[Robin Garr]

As one who lobbied for years to get TJ's here in Redding

Interesting insights, Karen. A lot of people around Louisville are constantly yelling about Trader Joe's, but I expect they look at Kentucky rather than Louisville and figure, "That's not for us."

To be honest, since we have a number of really exceptional local food-specialty stores here that fill much of that gap, I'd have very mixed feelings about Trader Joe's coming in, fearing that it might "Walmart" our locals.

[Jenise]

To be honest, since we have a number of really exceptional local food-specialty stores here that fill much of that gap, I'd have very mixed feelings about Trader Joe's coming in, fearing that it might "Walmart" our locals.

Your concerns are what a lot of us feared when we heard TJ's was coming to Bellingham. I know it had the good folks at the Co-op rather worried, but I'm not sure they needed to be. To my eye, Trader Joe's doesn't come close in quality and range of raw ingredients for the above average cook or seeker of natural/organic/vegetarian/bulk grain options, and the Co-Op has never striven for the heat n' eat crowd of persons looking for shortcuts in home food preparation that Trader Joe's excels at. Or the Two Buck Chuckers: though the wine selection is oriented toward QPR choices, Q trumps P every time and the selection is broadly European. So though the Co-Op is actually more similar to Trader Joe's, it might be the regular grocers that have lost the most ground to them.

[Robin Garr]

Or the Two Buck Chuckers: though the wine selection is oriented toward QPR choices, Q trumps P every time and the selection is broadly European. So though the Co-Op is actually more similar to Trader Joe's, it might be the regular grocers that have lost the most ground to them.

Actually, there's probably a key to TJ's lack of interest in a Kentucky location. Under state law, grocery stores can't sell wine. Whole Foods, Costco and big chains like Kroger get around this by building a walled-off room with a separate entrance for the wine shop, which passes legal muster, but given TJ's preference for smaller, existing construction, that would be a major challenge. Since they get so many invitations it's easy for them to pass over situations where it's complicated. Kind of a shame in that some of our urban neighborhoods loaded with bistros and boutiques in late 19th century storefronts seem like TJ's natural setting.

[Jenise]

Or the Two Buck Chuckers: though the Co-op wine selection is oriented toward QPR choices, Q trumps P every time and the selection is broadly European. So though the Co-Op is actually more similar to Trader Joe's, it might be the regular grocers that have lost the most ground to them.

Actually, there's probably a key to TJ's lack of interest in a Kentucky location. Under state law, grocery stores can't sell wine. Whole Foods, Costco and big chains like Kroger get around this by building a walled-off room with a separate entrance for the wine shop, which passes legal muster, but given TJ's preference for smaller, existing construction, that would be a major challenge. Since they get so many invitations it's easy for them to pass over situations where it's complicated. Kind of a shame in that some of our urban neighborhoods loaded with bistros and boutiques in late 19th century storefronts seem like TJ's natural setting.

I don't think two-buck chuck went over very well in Redding...too many wine snobs here. We have a local place where they can go to actually make their own wine, blend wine, taste, etc. and it also has a small restaurant. When TJ's opened a year ago, the two-buck was stacked high. The stack is much smaller now, and I notice they feature the more expensive ones each week. Lots of it coming from the Paso Robles area. Australian, Portuguese, Spanish wines seem popular, as well.
I don't buy any produce from TJ's, it all looks good, but the taste is not there, nor the quality. Occasionally, I pick up some fancy bagged lettuce package, and it seems OK.

A co-op is starting up here, but like every business who comes to Redding or even moves one block down the street, they have to deal with the 'good ole boys' at City Hall who make life miserable and try to squeeze every nickel out of the start-up.
The co-op is grant driven by local growers who wanted an inside store to sell their products all year long. They will have a full kitchen run by a local lady who already provides healthy lunches to our charter schools and some funded by local foundations. It will be in a very large building, and I am looking forward to being able to buy seasonal and organic all year.

Actually, there's probably a key to TJ's lack of interest in a Kentucky location. Under state law, grocery stores can't sell wine.

Not sure that's the deciding factor. Wine sales in Massachusetts are prohibited in grocery chains (well, except for three locations) and TJs has 19 locations in that commonwealth.

[Robin Garr]

Not sure that's the deciding factor. Wine sales in Massachusetts are prohibited in grocery chains (well, except for three locations) and TJs has 19 locations in that commonwealth.

I guess they just figure we're hillbillies, then.

Wine sales in Massachusetts are prohibited in grocery chains (well, except for three locations) and TJs has 19 locations in that commonwealth.

That explains something I'd been wondering about. I stopped by the Hannaford's supermarket in Lunenberg, MA recently and was surprised to see that they had wine, beer and hard liquor on the shelves. I had never before seen wine on a supermarket shelf in Massachusetts. So apparently the grocery chains are able to designate up to three of their locations as liquor stores.

-Paul W.

Is the 3 location rule only applicable to groceries or is it that any single entity, such as a liquor store, is limited to 3 locations.

Is the 3 location rule only applicable to groceries or is it that any single entity, such as a liquor store, is limited to 3 locations.

I don't know what restrictions apply to liquor stores or chains thereof, just that grocery chains are limited to three locations where they can sell alcohol.