Becoming Trader Joe

Thoughts

Alright almost, immediately I thought this book was going to be your typical biography. You know when it tells you the history of Joe, where he was born the town he grew up in, and so on and so forth. I was delightfully surprised when this turned out to be almost a business book on marketing, production, and operations to run a grocery store. It dove right into the the first iteration of Trader Joes and didn’t slow down.

The book goes through almost a business like structure and tells the story of TJ’s from it’s beginnings as a small chain trying to compete with 7/11 and how it slowly expanded across the nation.

Target Audience

If you’re a fan of Trader Joe’s like I am and millions of others on the east coast this is the book for you. Odds are you asked, “How can Trader Joe’s sell this for that much” or “Why can’t I find this anywhere else?”. This is the book to answer all of your questions that you are going to ask on reddit.

Takeaway

Absolutely loved this book, because I am a big nerd about the how and the why for anything. Getting to understand why the store operates this way, and why something costs this much, or why the store is opened here etc. It’s so interesting and cool to hear it right from Joe’s words.

This is a go to for any lover of Trader Joe’s or business entrepreneur. It’s an easy read you get to learn some history, business tactics, and learn about this cool story.