Customers accept that Trader Joe’s has only 2 kinds of pudding or 1 kind of polenta because they trust that those few items will be very good. “If they’re going to get behind only 1 jar of Greek olives, then they’re sure as heck going to make sure it’s the most fabulous jar of Greek olives they can find for the price,” explains a former employee. To ferret out those wow items, Trader Joe’s has 4 top buyers, called product developers, do some serious globetrotting. Trader Joe’s biggest R&D expense is travel for those product-finding missions. Trade shows that feature the flavor of the moment “are for rookies”. Trader Joe’s doesn’t pick up on trends — it sets them.

This makes me want to check them out again. I dismissed them years ago because I was underwhelmed.

To do what they do, you can’t just hire the same people they hire. You have to emulate the private-label strategy. The real-estate strategy. The pricing. The quirky culture. And it’s often the soft things. Not just the kind of people you hire, but the way you train them and the culture you create. I mean, we can build a store that looks like a Trader Joe’s. But when we have people walk in, can they have the same experience? Well, that’s very hard to replicate.

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