Trader Joe's and Customer Experience
All roads lead to retention, word-of-mouth marketing, and brand loyalty.
30-second read
Trader Joe’s largely has no debt, is a private company, and has a lot of cash reserves. It generates billions of dollars in annual revenue that is used to self-fund the business.
As a result, Trader Joe’s passes those savings on to their customers. They always have. You see this across all of their products—including the white labeled “TJ's” products which make up the bulk of their inventory.
I worked at Trader Joe’s for a few years and was able to get an inside look at their pricing, inventory, manufacturing, and supply chain. It’s fascinating from a business perspective.
A few more notable Trader Joe's business strategies:
Trader Joe’s pays their employees very well.
They have the greatest culture in the grocery business.
They offered the best health benefits I’ve ever had.
They provide a wonderful path of progression for anyone who wants to work their way up the chain.
Employees work on a rotating station schedule where every 2 hrs. they move to a new role in the store—balancing between customer-facing and non-customer-facing roles. Cashier, stocking shelves, backroom maintenance, customer support on the store floor, etc. What this means as an employee is that you’re never stuck doing the same thing for an 8 hr shift. You’re constantly getting a new and fresh experience that elevates on-the-job performance and happiness. Most importantly, you’re not getting sick of customers.
This level of employee care (and business self-awareness) is also passed on to the customer in the form of a wonderful customer experience.
All roads lead to retention, word-of-mouth marketing, and brand loyalty.
Note: In stark contrast, I’ve also worked at Whole Foods. Terrible employee experience, stale work environment, and as a result, a much poorer experience as a customer. Not to mention, skyrocketing prices—that are already high, to begin with.
— Nate