popplers

Trader Joe's comes to the Big Apple

Trader Joe's is apparently set to open in Manhattan. It's probably less of a big deal for city-dwellers, but I was certainly psyched when our local one finally went in. The article touches on the "Trader Joe's mystique", their product development process, and how items are dropped if they don't sell well.

The products that make it through but do not find a loyal customer base meet an implacable fate. "It's like at General Electric under Jack Welch," said Mr. Sloan, the vice president for merchandising. "The bottom 10 percent is always being rotated out. It's painful but necessary, because it ensures that we always have new products for our customers to get interested in."

There is nothing quite like the chain anywhere else on the American food landscape. "Trader Joe's is radically different in many ways from other food retailers," said Stephen Dowdell, editor in chief of Progressive Grocer magazine. "The stores are small, they don't rely on national brands, you can't do price comparisons and they definitely don't offer one-stop shopping. But every product has a story."

My favorite new TJ's product is Dark Chocolate Covered Ginger— Australian crystallized ginger covered with rich dark chocolate. Decadent, with a nice little ginger hit in the middle.