https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/trader-joe-wrote-a-memoir Skip to main content The New Yorker * Newsletter To revisit this article, select My Account, then View saved stories Close Alert Sign In Search * News * Books & Culture * Fiction & Poetry * Humor & Cartoons * Magazine * Puzzles & Games * Video * Podcasts * Archive * Goings On * Shop Open Navigation Menu To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories Close Alert The New Yorker New Yorker Favorites * The Fatwa That Changed My Life * A Quest for Literary Respect * The End of Food * A Botched Circumcision * Can Bullet Journaling Save You? Culture Desk Trader Joe Wrote a Memoir The book is a sort of "Kitchen Confidential" for the grocery business, but without the drugs or rage. [battan-car] By Carrie Battan October 20, 2021 * * * * * Save this story for later. Joe Coulombe smiles as he holds a large halfwheel of cheese near a cheese display. In "Becoming Trader Joe," Joe Coulombe writes that he was prone to engaging in acts of "selfish altruism."Photograph by John Blackmer / Orange County Register / Getty * * * * * Save this story for later. In the sixties, a thirty-two-year-old entrepreneur named Joe Coulombe presided over a midsize chain of California convenience stores called Pronto Markets. The company, which lived in the shadows of 7-Eleven, was nearly bankrupt. One afternoon, a desperate egg supplier paid Coulombe a visit. He had a major problem: he had far too many extra-large eggs. In order to off-load them promptly, he offered them to Coulombe at the same price as the plain old large eggs. This meant that Pronto Markets could sell extra-large eggs--which were twelve per cent per dozen larger than the large eggs, a meaningful difference to customers--at a discounted price, undercutting other chains. The success of the discounted extra-large eggs helped buoy Coulombe's stores, and eventually allowed him to embark on his path to grocery-business notoriety. A few years later, he used the financial resources and customer insights that he'd acquired through Pronto Markets to start Trader Joe's, a grocery store known for its seemingly irreconcilable characteristics: high-quality, health-minded foods self-branded and sold at bargain prices. Coulombe would build an empire rooted in small-scale cleverness and common sense, exploiting loopholes and product discontinuations, zigging where others zagged, and turning the rest of the grocery business's trash into treasure for Trader Joe's. [battan-car] Carrie Battan began contributing to The New Yorker in 2015 and became a staff writer in 2018. More:BusinessGrocery StoresMemoirsFoodShoppingStores The New Yorker Recommends What our staff is reading, watching, and listening to each week. Enter your e-mail address [ ] Sign up By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. The New Yorker Sections * News * Books & Culture * Fiction & Poetry * Humor & Cartoons * Magazine * Crossword * Video * Podcasts * Archive * Goings On More * Customer Care * Shop The New Yorker * Buy Covers and Cartoons * Conde Nast Store * Digital Access * Newsletters * Jigsaw Puzzle * RSS * Site Map * About * Careers * Contact * F.A.Q. * Media Kit * Press * Accessibility Help * Conde Nast Spotlight (c) 2021 Conde Nast. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Conde Nast. Ad Choices * * * * * Do Not Sell My Personal Info