krhm
03-21-2006, 08:50 AM
Did anyone else in Atlanta see this in today's AJC? I'm dying to know where it will be!!!!
'I love that store'
Devotees of Trader Joe's thrilled grocer is coming
By CHRISTINE VAN DUSEN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/21/06
For some of us, it's difficult to imagine loving a retail store so much as to wax amorous about its lime-and-chili peanuts, its frozen vegetable samosas, its cheap wines, its staff dressed in Hawaiian shirts.
But such adulation is as common as cheese samples at Trader Joe's, the California-based, lower-priced gourmet grocer that will come to Atlanta sometime this year.
Fantastic, terrific, excellent such words are deemed insufficient to describe consumers' feelings for the 39-year-old company, which has about 250 small markets in 19 states. There are fan Web sites. Mention Trader Joe's in public and someone undoubtedly will coo, "I love that store." E-mails about the company are punctuated with exclamation points. "I can't wait!" they cry. "Just how soon will they be here??!!" they shout.
Trader Joe's isn't saying. The company is infamously quiet, refusing to divulge locations and opening dates even after whispers on the street have risen to a roar.
Spokeswoman Alison Mochizuki would only confirm that Trader Joe's is coming to the market in 2006. She would not discuss possible locations.
But just hearing that the company is coming it's enough to drive rabid fans to distraction.
"I love their cherry preserves, granola, dried banana pieces and the white cheese puffs," gushed Bridgette Washington, a 37-year-old Atlantan who shopped Trader Joe's in Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Maryland and D.C. "I can go on and on!"
Said Kari Apted, a 37-year-old Covington resident who shopped at "TJ's" while visiting her sister in San Francisco: "I think it's way past time that Atlanta gets a Trader Joe's. I only hope there are several locations so that we don't have to drive forever to get to one though anything would be closer than California!"
What is it about Trader Joe's a grocery store, for goodness' sake, and one that's entering an already crowded Atlanta marketplace that inspires such loyalty, such longing, such love? Let's try to get a handle on the hype.
Low prices an attraction
First, there are the low prices. Though Trader Joe's is a specialty market offering more than 2,000 foodie-centric items its prices typically are less expensive than gourmet grocers' and more closely resemble those found at traditional supermarkets.
Trader Joe's achieves this in several ways. The retailer, unlike a Publix or a Kroger, doesn't stock Cheetos or Downy and therefore doesn't have to pay the premium to get them. The limited number of brand-name goods Trader Joe's buys are bought in bulk directly from suppliers, cutting out the middle man. The retailer also manufactures its own products under its name and clever variations like Trader Jose's for Mexican meals and Trader Giotto's for Italian.
"Average supermarkets buy through brokers who make their commissions by marking up the cost of the products," said Gary Bienefeld, a vice president at the Greenberg Group, a New York-based consulting firm. "Trader Joe's is strictly buying direct from wholesalers or manufacturing their own products. ... They're packaging and labeling the products themselves and sending them right to the stores. There's a huge cost savings in that."
Brand-name products make up only an estimated 20 percent of the inventory at Trader Joe's. Private label, a.k.a. store-brand, products take up most of the shelf space. And whereas store-brand goods at traditional supermarkets often are assumed to be cheap, lower-quality and no-name, the private-label products at Trader Joe's are perceived as high quality and contribute to the company's cultish popularity.
"You can't necessarily find that specific product in any other store," Bienefeld said. "When you have a strong brand like that, it makes Trader Joe's a destination. People don't just go there for specials or sales or if they're in the area. They've gotten used to their products, like them and it's the only place they can buy them. That creates loyalty in and of itself."
Atmosphere an allure
What also inspires loyalty among TJ's shoppers is the stores' atmosphere. With wood display cases, hand-painted aisle signs and punny, hand-drawn shelf labels, the shops take on the feel of a cozy neighborhood market or a crunchy co-op.
Hawaiian shirt-wearing employees, who reportedly are paid more than the industry average, know the products and happily unload your cart at the register.
It's hard not to smile when the sign above the Niman Ranch ham features a doodle of the pork product as a drama queen in fishnet stockings (hamming it up, as it were).
"Fun" is how Barb Wolski, a Fulton County Schools employee, describes a visit to Trader Joe's. "What a thrill to think I won't have to board a plane" to shop there, she said.
Fun? A thrill? We're talking about grocery shopping, right?
"Most people hate to shop, especially grocery shop," Bienefeld said. "Any way that a store can make it easier on them, with better customer service or just doing things for them, is a good thing. The average consumer works, and so when they go to shop, they want it not to be a chore. They like a unique shopping environment. [Trader Joe's] is specializing and setting itself apart."
That will serve Trader Joe's well when it enters Atlanta. The metro area already is loaded with upscale grocery stores Whole Foods, the Fresh Market and Eatzi's all are within just a few miles of each other in Buckhead, for example so the newbie will face plenty of competition.
Still, "there's room for Trader Joe's," said David Grotenstein, a retail consultant with Food and Image in New York. He says its combination of low prices, fun atmosphere and gourmet goods puts the company into a niche of its own. Trader Joe's might even help drive down gourmet food prices at other chains.
The only issue Trader Joe's might face in Atlanta, and in other markets as the company continues to expand nationwide, Grotenstein said, is this: "If they succeed in leveling the playing field amongst retailers and become the national entity they seem to want to be, people might begin to need more variety from them. They may need more products in the store. They'll need to evolve."
'I love that store'
Devotees of Trader Joe's thrilled grocer is coming
By CHRISTINE VAN DUSEN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/21/06
For some of us, it's difficult to imagine loving a retail store so much as to wax amorous about its lime-and-chili peanuts, its frozen vegetable samosas, its cheap wines, its staff dressed in Hawaiian shirts.
But such adulation is as common as cheese samples at Trader Joe's, the California-based, lower-priced gourmet grocer that will come to Atlanta sometime this year.
Fantastic, terrific, excellent such words are deemed insufficient to describe consumers' feelings for the 39-year-old company, which has about 250 small markets in 19 states. There are fan Web sites. Mention Trader Joe's in public and someone undoubtedly will coo, "I love that store." E-mails about the company are punctuated with exclamation points. "I can't wait!" they cry. "Just how soon will they be here??!!" they shout.
Trader Joe's isn't saying. The company is infamously quiet, refusing to divulge locations and opening dates even after whispers on the street have risen to a roar.
Spokeswoman Alison Mochizuki would only confirm that Trader Joe's is coming to the market in 2006. She would not discuss possible locations.
But just hearing that the company is coming it's enough to drive rabid fans to distraction.
"I love their cherry preserves, granola, dried banana pieces and the white cheese puffs," gushed Bridgette Washington, a 37-year-old Atlantan who shopped Trader Joe's in Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Maryland and D.C. "I can go on and on!"
Said Kari Apted, a 37-year-old Covington resident who shopped at "TJ's" while visiting her sister in San Francisco: "I think it's way past time that Atlanta gets a Trader Joe's. I only hope there are several locations so that we don't have to drive forever to get to one though anything would be closer than California!"
What is it about Trader Joe's a grocery store, for goodness' sake, and one that's entering an already crowded Atlanta marketplace that inspires such loyalty, such longing, such love? Let's try to get a handle on the hype.
Low prices an attraction
First, there are the low prices. Though Trader Joe's is a specialty market offering more than 2,000 foodie-centric items its prices typically are less expensive than gourmet grocers' and more closely resemble those found at traditional supermarkets.
Trader Joe's achieves this in several ways. The retailer, unlike a Publix or a Kroger, doesn't stock Cheetos or Downy and therefore doesn't have to pay the premium to get them. The limited number of brand-name goods Trader Joe's buys are bought in bulk directly from suppliers, cutting out the middle man. The retailer also manufactures its own products under its name and clever variations like Trader Jose's for Mexican meals and Trader Giotto's for Italian.
"Average supermarkets buy through brokers who make their commissions by marking up the cost of the products," said Gary Bienefeld, a vice president at the Greenberg Group, a New York-based consulting firm. "Trader Joe's is strictly buying direct from wholesalers or manufacturing their own products. ... They're packaging and labeling the products themselves and sending them right to the stores. There's a huge cost savings in that."
Brand-name products make up only an estimated 20 percent of the inventory at Trader Joe's. Private label, a.k.a. store-brand, products take up most of the shelf space. And whereas store-brand goods at traditional supermarkets often are assumed to be cheap, lower-quality and no-name, the private-label products at Trader Joe's are perceived as high quality and contribute to the company's cultish popularity.
"You can't necessarily find that specific product in any other store," Bienefeld said. "When you have a strong brand like that, it makes Trader Joe's a destination. People don't just go there for specials or sales or if they're in the area. They've gotten used to their products, like them and it's the only place they can buy them. That creates loyalty in and of itself."
Atmosphere an allure
What also inspires loyalty among TJ's shoppers is the stores' atmosphere. With wood display cases, hand-painted aisle signs and punny, hand-drawn shelf labels, the shops take on the feel of a cozy neighborhood market or a crunchy co-op.
Hawaiian shirt-wearing employees, who reportedly are paid more than the industry average, know the products and happily unload your cart at the register.
It's hard not to smile when the sign above the Niman Ranch ham features a doodle of the pork product as a drama queen in fishnet stockings (hamming it up, as it were).
"Fun" is how Barb Wolski, a Fulton County Schools employee, describes a visit to Trader Joe's. "What a thrill to think I won't have to board a plane" to shop there, she said.
Fun? A thrill? We're talking about grocery shopping, right?
"Most people hate to shop, especially grocery shop," Bienefeld said. "Any way that a store can make it easier on them, with better customer service or just doing things for them, is a good thing. The average consumer works, and so when they go to shop, they want it not to be a chore. They like a unique shopping environment. [Trader Joe's] is specializing and setting itself apart."
That will serve Trader Joe's well when it enters Atlanta. The metro area already is loaded with upscale grocery stores Whole Foods, the Fresh Market and Eatzi's all are within just a few miles of each other in Buckhead, for example so the newbie will face plenty of competition.
Still, "there's room for Trader Joe's," said David Grotenstein, a retail consultant with Food and Image in New York. He says its combination of low prices, fun atmosphere and gourmet goods puts the company into a niche of its own. Trader Joe's might even help drive down gourmet food prices at other chains.
The only issue Trader Joe's might face in Atlanta, and in other markets as the company continues to expand nationwide, Grotenstein said, is this: "If they succeed in leveling the playing field amongst retailers and become the national entity they seem to want to be, people might begin to need more variety from them. They may need more products in the store. They'll need to evolve."