An inside look at Trader Joe's

We've had a lot of interest in Trader Joe's here, in especially in conjunction with the town center, so I thought I would link to this Business Week article. The company does not usually discuss itself, so the tidbits here are quite interesting. Note, too, that there is nothing in the piece about expansion.

Comments

[Roger]

LH certainly could use Trader Joe's or Sprouts. I'm afraid that Albertson's might close, and leave our neighborhood in dire grocery shopping straights. The Neighborhood Walmart needs to be bulldozed. That store was old and nasty before they came in. Supertarget, Kroger and Tom Thumb are ok, but it's further to go to them. I'm also going to plug Albertsons...they do a fantastic job of supporting our local schools and PTAs when there are special events going on.

[meredith]

Can't remember which business mag I read it in, but I swear I read a year ago that TJ's has zero plans to come here due to the abundance of competition in the form of Central Market and Whole Foods. Unfortunate, but it makes sense for them to focus on cities where they have less competitors.

[Brian LaCroix]

IMO... the two Tom Thumbs (Skillman/Forest and Skillman/Abrams) just need to be completely gutted. Nasty, dirty stores. The Albertsons (is that Northwest/Ferndale?) is a pretty nice store. The Walmart Neighborhood is running down hill very fast. We don't go there anymore - seems like we're running down to the store Tom Thumb by my wife's old place at Greenville and Mockingbird. Gorgeous store! If only we could get something like that here (read: TJ's) - keep WF and CM away - their prices are sky high. Why can't we have a clean store with quality products for a reasonable price? We only go to CM when we want some high quality cuts of meats/fish - they also have a nice selection of wines. And the Kroger Signature (Greenville/Forest) is getting better with their new floorplan, but it's still not a great store.

For what it's worth, Aldi's is building a warehouse in Denton (last I heard anyhow), so their parent company IS indeed coming to Texas. I personally believe if they opened up a TJ's in the LHTC, the two above mentioned Tom Thumbs would be forced to shutter their doors.

Brian

[MG]

I was at the Walmart at Audelia and Walnut Hill last week and there was a guy out there at noon, roaming around shouting and ranting at no one in particular. I thought he was a nutcase and wondered why their security wasn't after him (security couldn't be found). Turns out the guy was the employee that picks up the carts from the parking lot. Scary....and great impression for their customers.

[meredith]

Central Market and Whole Foods get a really bad rap for being overpriced. I do a lot of comparison shopping between CM and Tom Thumb/Kroger. There are a number of things on my weekly shopping list (Kashi cereal, canned beans, bulk lentils, etc) that are way cheaper at CM than the Tom Thumbs and Krogers of the world.

If you eat white bread and frozen burger patties, than I'm sure any supermarket would do. But Tom Thumb and Kroger have taken advantage of the new healthy food movement and as a result, have marked up the prices on any food considered "specialty" or "organic." For example, the Kashi cereal I eat every morning is $4 a box at TT and Kroger and only $2.50 at CM.

I do think that their prices on some items are a bit high, but the idea that everything there is overpriced just isn't true.

[lsc]

I've seen the cart guy that rants at Walmart...very scary.
Does anyone remember the promises we were given about that store when Wal-mart wanted to build their big store.
They were going to clean it up, enlarge it blah blah blah.

[Roger]

if you want high quality and reasonable organic beef, chicken, pork and eggs-skip the stores. Order from www.rehobothranch.com - the Robert Hutchins family from out near Greenville. They're at the Dallas Farmer's Market every other wkend. They also go to the McKinney and Coppell Farmer markets as well. Support a family farmer, not a big corporation, and get high quality LOCAL farm products!