Recently the Freakonomics podcast ran an episode about why we just can’t quit Trader Joe’s and asked the question: If Trader Joe’s is so successful, should it run the United States?
I want what they’re drinking.
I can’t even make a “drinking the Kool-Aid” joke. What kind of question is that?
Why would we want to ruin Trader Joe’s by defocusing them on what they do best? (You can read what they do best and see how this is nothing new in my book TJ’s Then & Now – How Trader Joe’s Changes the Way America Eats.
The Freakonomics podcast featured The World’s Expert on Choice, professor and author Sheena Iyengar, who says she goes to Trader Joe’s for a food adventure.
I’ve shopped at Draeger’s market in Menlo Park where Iyengar conducted the famous Jam Experiment that revealed the paradox of too many choices and optimal number of choices. (Every food entrepreneur needs to watch the video!)
And I’ve shopped at Trader Joe’s for more than 30 years.
Adventure is only part of the appeal of Trader Joe’s. Predictability is the other. 100% customer happiness goes hand in hand with those two.
How I Saw Trader Joe’s in a New Light
My family would be flying for 12 hours – not including a midnight flight cancellation that led to a 3 hour midnight drive in the rain to a different airport.
Two teens were in tow, one with type 1 diabetes.
Comfort would be key to happiness upon arrival, especially given we’d be driving 2 hours after their touchdown!
Can you imagine all the possibilities of grumpy tantrums and we’ll-deserved pissed-offness?
Decision 1: Find fast comfort food and treats (i.e., find the closest Trader Joe’s)
And find the quickest route to that food that was en route to our ultimate destination. Done, thanks to Maps.
First thing at Trader Joe’s we bought a giant, insulated bag.
Do other supermarkets sell giant insulated bags? I don’t recall having seen them…where: in the kitchen supplies aisle?
At Trader Joe’s their private labeling and long track record of knowing what customers want over time, they will reliably have the basic hummus, sliced pepper jack, good bread, sweet and spicy pecans, instant coffee (which is really good and also featured in my book), great nuts, and all the Trader branded items we know so well.
The real test came when we saw that Whole Foods was next door to the Trader Joe’s.
We could get salads and sandwiches for the road at Trader or check out the salad bar and hot food bar at Whole Foods. One kid wanted some T-shirt’s and I thought Whole Foods might have some.
Yet the road called.
Based on my embarrassing knowledge of Trader Joe’s inventory we quickly spent a couple hundred dollars (which was another funny thing on that podcast, a guy who said employees look at him funny when he buys that much…I’m not buying it. Such a haul is standard.)
Conclusion: Trader Joe’s should run convenience stores on major highways
I never thought I’d compare Trader Joe’s to McDonalds or Starbucks but this trip forced such a comparison.
At those 2 standardized joints customers know what to expect 90% of the time. While the typical TJ customer may have more penchant to experiment with new foods, it’s a similar idea.
If Trader Joe’s ever ran out of locations for its full-sizes stores or ever wanted to branch out can you just imagine them killing it in convenience?
Considering people inconvenience themselves without limits of their way to get to Trader Joe’s — my story being that I fly into Portland, Maine since there’s a Trader so I can shop for my fam farther north — Trader ‘n Go would be a mass obsession.
What foods should they carry? That’s for another ramble.
For now, here is the video about the jam study whose author, I believe, must like Trader’s predictability as much as then adventure and low number of SKUs that eliminate over abundance of choice.
