[HN Gopher] Trader Joe Wrote a Memoir
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Trader Joe Wrote a Memoir
Author : samclemens
Score : 30 points
Date : 2021-10-22 04:00 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.newyorker.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.newyorker.com)
| maxk42 wrote:
| Am I missing something? This reads like the introduction to an
| article. Is there more somewhere?
| wffurr wrote:
| It's a book review. I thought it fairly thoroughly covered the
| reasons why you might want to read the book.
|
| If you're looking for the rest of Trader Joe's story, then
| that's what's in the rest of the book.
| setpatchaddress wrote:
| I'd love to also read about the post-"Joe" 1979-present period --
| how Aldi's has done so well with it without compromising the
| original principles.
| ghaff wrote:
| Aldi's is probably good example of optimizing for a different
| set of constraints. I use Trader Joe's a lot when I can; there
| isn't one especially near me. But there's an Aldi's right down
| the road--which I popped my head in once but have never bought
| at.
| fencepost wrote:
| IIRC fully separate companies tied into "Aldi Nord" and "Aldi
| Sud" from when the original company was split between sons.
|
| Similar approaches of "all store brand products" but Aldi
| focuses more on price and value while TJs focuses on "romance
| the hell out of it."
|
| Edit: https://www.aldireviewer.com/aldi-trader-joes-related/
| ghaff wrote:
| I knew they were related.
|
| Yeah. TJs optimizes for things that are of far more
| interest to me than what Aldi does. (Not that TJs is
| anything like a one stop shop for me.)
| AlbertCory wrote:
| It's close to one-stop, but not quite there. Paper
| products are very sparse, as are soaps & cleaning
| products, and personal/health stuff (I really don't care
| for Tom's of Maine).
| Spooky23 wrote:
| Aldi is shifting a bit. If you haven't been in one for a
| few years you should visit again.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| For maxk42: I think it should end with :
|
| _"A deeply troubled company is always the fault of the CEO, the
| board of directors, and the controlling stockholders who appoint
| these worthies," he writes. "It is never the fault of the
| frontline troops."_
|
| How true that is. I've noticed that the lower-level employees of
| a terrible company can always get an interview: no one blames
| them for it. Unless they stayed there long enough to become a
| lifer. Moral: if you're at a garbage company, get out while you
| can.
|
| Trader Joe's stores are always full, even at times when "regular"
| supermarkets are mostly empty. Moreover, you almost never have to
| wait a long time to check out. It's really a miracle how good
| they are.
| ghaff wrote:
| Clearly they do a lot of things right from a people
| perspective. [I'm sure there are exceptions.] They also seem to
| have picked a set of constraints that work well for them and
| their customers in (relatively upscale?) urban locations.
|
| Also a very deliberate rollout strategy. I remember when they
| were I think only in California. There was a time when I was
| going out to Orange County a lot and our engineering manager
| one day doing some vaguely crazy driving to get to a Trader
| Joe's before heading back east on a plane.
| irateswami wrote:
| Whew boy do I have some stories that might shatter your view of
| trader joe's being a good company.
|
| Prime example: my store captain, Jeff, got busted having an
| affair with a crew member that he was a direct supervisor of.
| Granted, Jeff was an asshole from the day I met him, he did
| everything he could to hold up my (and many others) promotions
| and pay raises just because he could, but the thing that got
| him finally fired was dipping his pen in the company ink.
|
| I was personally denied safety equipment multiple times, like
| lift belts and new blades for my box cutter.
|
| I know of a another store Captain that got fired for kicking
| out customers that weren't wearing masks when they tried to
| come in.
|
| TJ's is extremely anti-union and anti-union propaganda is
| posted all over the employee areas and handbook.
|
| Trader Joe's corporate will turn a blind eye to ANYTHING, as
| long as a customer doesn't complain or it doesn't open up the
| company to some kind of liability. It was a super cool company
| up until about 20 years ago when Bane took over as CEO. Since
| then it has been a cavalcade of hiring shitty management and
| unsustainable growth. TJ's has lost it's original
| weltanschauung and Joe Coloumbe would be horrified to see how
| the company is run now.
| MarcoZavala wrote:
| You're just jealous you can't get laid, incel faggot. Spare
| us your creepy novel-length manifesto that no one is going to
| read.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| You had me up until "TJ's is extremely anti-union."
| WillPostForFood wrote:
| I'm sorry you had a bad experience! For me, TJs was by far
| the best place to shop during the pandemic.
|
| Strict capacity limits, a clearly marked, spaced queue
| outside the store, and they'd wipe down the carts right in
| front of you so you knew it was clean. Masks were ubiquitous
| on customers and employees. It was relief to shop there
| compared to other stores.
| warning26 wrote:
| _> Trader Joe 's stores are always full, even at times when
| "regular" supermarkets are mostly empty._
|
| They actually employ a neat UX trick to make it appear this
| way! When a product is sold out, they'll remove the sign for it
| and rearrange the existing products to fill the space, making
| it seem like there's nothing missing.
|
| I realized this when I visited once and the entire spice shelf
| consisted of one spice (onion salt), spread across like 5
| shelves.
| zemvpferreira wrote:
| Not that you don't make a fine point but I believe the
| original comment was referring to stores being full or empty
| of customers. Still, learned something new!
| paulpauper wrote:
| >Trader Joe's stores are always full, even at times when
| "regular" supermarkets are mostly empty.
|
| I have been to many food stores over the past year, not once
| encountered stores being empty. The stuff I want is always
| there.
| EsotericAlgo wrote:
| I interpreted the comment to be about the number of customers
| in a store as opposed to stock levels. Anecdotally, Traders
| Joes does seem to have a higher base level of customers at
| any given time. However, I readily acknowledge that
| perception may be to their relatively smaller footprints and
| reduced operating hours.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| Right, I should have clarified it's "# customers."
|
| They're not open at 2:00 am, that's for sure.
| advael wrote:
| I've never been that interested in accounts of the lives of
| entrepreneurs. It strikes me as a genre akin to the
| autobiographies (or commissioned biographies) of autocrats. This
| review makes me want to read this book though
| paulpauper wrote:
| As a genre they sell poorly, really poorly. worse than even no-
| name amazon authors of fan fiction and erotica. As it turns
| out, CEOs are not that interesting , nor are their lives. Their
| accomplishments may be impressive but this doesn't always make
| for interesting reading.
| sharkweek wrote:
| Is that true?
|
| I guess there's always exceptions but Shoe Dog is an all-time
| best seller and is basically just the CEO recounting his
| version of events for 300 or so pages.
|
| Still enjoyed it though!
|
| Onward by Schultz (zzz), Jobs by Isaacson (not bad), the
| various Bezos and Ma books, etc. all seem to top lists.
| paulpauper wrote:
| it is easy to top a best-seller list with a pre-order push,
| which is what famous ppl typically do. Staying power
| however much harder to achieve. Autobiographies are
| probably going to be worse than having a world-famous, top-
| talented writer tell the story.
| pchanda wrote:
| Ride of a Lifetime by Bob Iger is another which was a
| bestseller and also one I found rather insightful.
| skinnymuch wrote:
| Jobs by Isaacson. Any book by Isaacson or some other famous
| author will always be exceptions. Autobiographies are also
| different than either biographies or something in the
| middle. I'd think the former sell worse.
|
| Bezos, Jack Ma, Jobs, Schultz are known as the person not
| just the company they [co]-founded, but for their industry
| as a whole while also being revered. Schultz might be an
| exception there. Not sure since his takes of getting into
| politics as an out of touch billionaire is the thing that
| comes to mind now.
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