tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26390950597401469352024-03-04T20:26:44.254-08:00Trader Joe's Brand SecretsMark Gardiner was an award-winning Copywriter and Creative Director, the VP of Marketing at one of Canada's best-loved retail chains, and ran his own ad agency. Then, he took a $12 per hour job at Trader Joe's, and discovered how one of America's most secretive companies built the strongest brand in its category, without ever spending a cent on brand advertising.
Want to create a cult of customers devoted to your own brand? Then you need to read "Build a Brand Like Trader Joe's"Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-17740409992589649302018-09-12T15:42:00.003-07:002018-09-12T15:43:50.595-07:00This blog is no longer being updated. New TJ's content will appear on RevolutionaryOldIdea.com<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://revolutionaryoldidea.squarespace.com/roi-blogi/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="1001" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjINY5VnlTuyaokTHTIjZXLhFeyjG0_RE9OpqInQaFMXYqd_HuLJPfW_BguxoWx5U7f-tkx_Qs53W5JIutWnwpi_y6ntzJ4pqsEspdwwMwm5M4UtQBwjdLM7a4NdP9PuqwoUCo3eHI7-No/s400/Recording+Studio+Mark+w+logo.jpg" title="" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click the photo to visit the new site. Thanks!</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-44480956058268253502018-07-19T07:23:00.002-07:002018-07-19T07:23:44.857-07:00Best Buy takes a page from 'Build a Brand Like Trader Joe's' to defy Amazon, and expectations...Bloomberg just put up <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-19/best-buy-should-be-dead-but-it-s-thriving-in-the-age-of-amazon" target="_blank">a terrific story</a> about the way that Best Buy uses its front-line customer service staff to fight off bigger and richer rivals, like Amazon.<br />
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If you're a fan of Trader Joe's, you'll recognize Best Buy's secret -- which is to empower front-line customer service staff to do what it takes to make customers happy.<br />
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Even after all these years, I'm still surprised this sure-fire brand-building method is something of a secret.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-8071267897256890262018-07-02T12:38:00.000-07:002018-07-02T12:38:17.584-07:00Check out this great podcast all about Trader Joe'sI was flattered to be asked to contribute to this great podcast, sponsored by Zendesk, on the topic of great customer service. The first episode is, in fact, all about TJ's. Check it out and let me know what you think...<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://www.zendesk.com/resources/trader-joes-customer-experience/" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="680" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxStDIwwyiNP8vY4ZzDeWR9wJ0ImO4t5Sd8ng_U2vS1ed6d01XvHgpVvBgBQd435Bo8x0F91xLDGU-9EIDcseCzeEmTYkBZ_Sef0E-mr6x3tTc1ovUoJ_3kv1WTXa5T4KcLoEFbud-mnM/s320/s01_episode1_header+%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.zendesk.com/resources/trader-joes-customer-experience/" target="_blank">This episode is entitled "Beyond Cookie Butter: The secrets behind Trader Joe's great customer experience.</a></td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-47560990912043263352018-03-05T11:23:00.002-08:002018-03-05T11:23:57.837-08:00What Delta Airlines could learn from Trader Joe's
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>TL;DR</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>A Delta Airlines flight from Kansas City to Atlanta landed 43 minutes late, leaving us with a very tight connection. After running through the airport, my wife and I found the once-daily flight to Turks & Caicos had left early. Then, the harried and overworked personnel at the 'Need Help' desk made matters worse by failing to display any empathy at all.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>In 'Build a Brand Like Trader Joe's' I wrote about Gardiner's Fourth Law of Marketing, which goes, "No one loves you as much as a customer who just hated you." </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>What that means is, when a customer's been wronged and has a complaint, as a brand, you have that customer's full attention. By caring, and making things right, a brand can turn a disgruntled customer into a real evangelist.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>That's a lesson lost on Delta.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinM4TAQG-oK8GLDfUL1tdTEjzUUY5CA8DpFKmNdTy6uVfwACeX_fGrh410RRtj2CBCzAVUwHRu4xgfxVrFd4jL9Z7P0teHIAS7BONn18BqdAw41qSXvgFW5cCidhgbdUxFMiebjHx6PZQ/s1600/Delta2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinM4TAQG-oK8GLDfUL1tdTEjzUUY5CA8DpFKmNdTy6uVfwACeX_fGrh410RRtj2CBCzAVUwHRu4xgfxVrFd4jL9Z7P0teHIAS7BONn18BqdAw41qSXvgFW5cCidhgbdUxFMiebjHx6PZQ/s320/Delta2.JPG" width="240" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We did ultimately get 'assistance', I suppose. But this sign would be more accurate if it read, "Need Help? Good luck."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">We booked a journey from Kansas City to
Providenciales, Turks & Caicos. Since our Kansas City flight left at 0600,
we took the precaution of booking an airport hotel the previous night. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Although our flight boarded on time, it took
off significantly late after a 20-minute wait for deicing—something that surely
should have been anticipated in Kansas City in February.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Very late in the approach to Atlanta—within
sight of the runway, long after the gear had gone down, at an altitude that, according to FlightAware must have been less than 500 feet—the pilot waved off the
landing. Neither my wife nor I are particularly nervous flyers, but that was a first for me. After a long, long time, we were told
that the landing had been aborted due to rain on the runway, and we were “in vectors”. The net result was that we arrived 43 minutes late.
That left us less than half an hour before our second flight was scheduled to
depart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">One large group flying to a wedding in the
Caribbean was told their plane was waiting for them.It would have been very
helpful if Delta personnel on the flight could have made an announcement asking
people traveling to Atlanta, or with reasonable connections, to let people with
tight connections leave the plane first. There was no effort to expedite
deplaning for those of us with tight connections. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">We ran through the airport, and arrived 8
minutes before scheduled departure, only to find the door to the jetway closed
with the jet still there. <i>According to FlightAware, Delta 509 departed early, even thought the crew had to know that there were transferring passengers on the ground.</i> Let that sink in: someone at Delta decided to leave early, while there were passengers running to the gate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">What could we have done, yelled at someone at
our arrival gate, to phone ahead to our departure gate? Would they have done
so? Earlier that morning in Kansas City, Delta ticketing personnel told us they
could not give us a seat assignment for our flight from Atlanta to
Providenciales. If we had seat assignments, would they have held the plane? That
lack of a seat assignment was certainly not our fault; we’d gone to expense and
trouble to ensure we could check in in Kansas City in plenty of time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Later on, a Delta customer service agent
informed us, “They just told us that they weren’t going to hold flights for
just two or three people any more,” <i>but is this a reasonable policy when there's only one flight a day?</i> Note that the door to the jetway was closed and
there was no Delta personnel at the gate eight minutes <i>before</i> the <i>one</i> departure for that day. Less than five minutes would have made a difference of
24 hours for two of the passengers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">We watched helplessly while the plane stayed
attached to the jetway for several more minutes; my wife ran to the nearest
staffed gate, where she was told, “Go to the ‘Need Help’ sign.” Then the jetway
moved back off the plane and it left, without us, for Turks & Caicos.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSfnFn9Tlzp8I8padar6VL-XVBqJNH-2to9JHS-pd1ZLtm2gAUFhks1U8Npv-XHaufeuPt_-1PCO3mf2bkA9RV8zwX42JPgiwwGDLPOJFvQOvPDxH4Jlpfl8Urmvy7EZDkYba6v6RmMzs/s1600/Delta3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSfnFn9Tlzp8I8padar6VL-XVBqJNH-2to9JHS-pd1ZLtm2gAUFhks1U8Npv-XHaufeuPt_-1PCO3mf2bkA9RV8zwX42JPgiwwGDLPOJFvQOvPDxH4Jlpfl8Urmvy7EZDkYba6v6RmMzs/s320/Delta3.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An added layer of irony comes from knowing that Atlanta is Delta's headquarters, and the airport's the airline's biggest hub by far. If Delta can't provide good customer service here, where can it do so? Most of these passengers are in this line because inbound flights were delayed. The implication is that Delta should be able to forecast demand at this desk hours ahead.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />We waited at Delta's ‘Need Help’ desk for over
an hour, while a total of three customer service agents worked at a counter with
a dozen work stations. We didn't have any other flight options, but other people in line did, and some of their options vanished while they waited. There was one customer service phone position, and we
overheard someone say that hold times on the phone were over two hours.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">At one point, a customer who had just walked
away from the Need Help desk turned back to ask one more question, to which
customer service employee sternly replied “Ask Delta!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>“Ask Delta!” said the person who was the face
of Delta at that moment.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">When we finally got our turn, a harried and overworked customer service
agent then told us, we’d get a hotel voucher but no food allowance—"We
don’t do that any more.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">What’s the rationale for that? We do provide
accommodation, but we expect you to spend 24 hours waiting for the one flight a day without eating? It defies logic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">We were told our suitcase was going to the
warehouse. We had a choice of waiting several hours to have it retrieved, or
spend 24 hours in some airport district hotel with only the clothes on our
backs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The following day we arrived early only to
find that due to mechanical problems our plane had to be changed, resulting in
what was initially forecast as a 20 minute delay. When Mary wanted to ask a
question about the delay, three Delta employees at the gate desk stared at
their personal phones for 45 seconds before even acknowledging the presence of
a paying customer at the desk.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Then when we’d boarded, we were told the
catering crew didn’t supply enough bottled water for the flight causing another
delay. After a total of two hours’ delay and after takeoff we were informed
that they hadn’t filled up the plane’s drinking water tanks, so there would be
no coffee service, and there was no water available for hand-washing in the
bathrooms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">We are independent contractors, we don’t get
paid vacations. That means that every vacation day is precious. And, a wasted day in Atlanta is effectively a day that we could have been working.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">We rented a car and hotel room that went
unused, which begs the question: Where could Delta have done better?<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Why let us book a tight
connection to a destination with one flight per day, with such foreseeable
delays, without at least warning us?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The pilot took a long,
long time to explain the baffling first attempt at landing, which was waved off
in sight of the runway at an altitude of
less than a thousand feet.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Why not at least try to
let passengers with very tight connections get off the plane first?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">How hard would it have
been to contact crew of next flight to say, Hold for these people who are late
through no fault of their own? Or least, don’t leave early!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Isn’t it reasonable to
use a different standard in terms of holding for delayed passengers, when the
destination is served by only one flight per day?</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Ironically, I’m the author of popular business
book on the topic of customer service. In ‘Build a Brand Like Trader Joe’s’ I
devote a chapter to ‘Gardiner’s Fourth Law of Business’ which is; “No one loves
you as much as a customer who just hated you.” You guys could have made all
this right with an empathetic customer service agent empowered to make a
difference, or even providing a human email address when I specifically asked
for one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">All along the way we were met with cold,
defensive employees who had no time to listen to our concerns and were only
interested in divesting themselves of responsibility. Obviously, Delta has not
empowered their employees to care for their customers. Your investment in
advertising would generate better returns if it was allocated to better equip
employees with soft skills like empathy and compassion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The way we were handled added to our distress
causing us to feel helpless instead of valued. Mary posted about our experience
on FB and it garnered many comments from others saying they’d had similar
experiences. Imagine if you could turn those people into fans rather than
disgruntled former customers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">So, what did this debacle cost us?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The night we spent at the airport Marriott in Kansas City served
no purpose: $77.77</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Uber to the Kansas City hotel, because we were only going there to sleep and it was too late to ask a friend for a ride: $25.87</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">AirBnB night in Turks & Caicos: $276.64</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Meal in Atlanta: $36.22</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Breakfast in Atlanta airport: $13.22</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">One sixth of our vacation, the first in years: Priceless</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I'd honestly like to see Delta do better, and help them do better. In my time at Trader Joe's, I came to realize just how much of an impact front-line customer service staff have on brand value. This is precisely the kind of thing companies pay me to help them with: choosing, training, and empowering employees to show empathy and build strong relationships with customers.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-16946997578354860642017-08-09T13:50:00.003-07:002017-08-09T13:51:10.347-07:00Eater unmasks a bunch of TJ's secret suppliersIt was fun helping the guys at Eater dig into who, exactly, supplies Trader Joe's house-brand products.<br />
<br />
I gave them the lead to look into lawsuits and recalls, and they took it to the next level, filing a Freedom of Information Act request for all the suppliers listed in recall orders!<br />
<br />
To learn a bunch of TJ's suppliers and see how a taster panel compared TJ's vs. name-brand products, go to Eater, <a href="https://www.eater.com/2017/8/9/16099028/trader-joes-products" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.eater.com/2017/8/9/16099028/trader-joes-products" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="92" data-original-width="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJDF0F0n4WCr_7uOqBkUF_BgbD40QghWhKPtOQCLr5iPmZ2IJEb3X0wey7fqvOqEdtRhT1_SEjaQ-grG5jmalxOeX86AyzSvqpoAoUW62RmqWhHUtvf8iRWFkQQfZvpHun4EIKp1EyOr0/s1600/Eater.png" /></a></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-27771934132109141912017-06-16T10:18:00.002-07:002017-06-17T05:56:58.014-07:00Amazon shops at, no, FOR Whole Foods!Amazon has taken control of Whole Foods, a publicly traded company. Amazon's offering a 27% premium on shares -- $42 per share, for a total of nearly $14B -- making this a big deal in both senses of the word. In fact, the biggest deal in recent memory, in the grocery business.<br />
<br />
Whole Foods has struggled for years with its "Whole Paycheck" reputation, and in almost any discussion of what Whole Foods could or should do to revitalize itself post-Recession-of-'08, Trader Joe's has been the elephant in the room.<br />
<br />
Basically, every one of those conversations revolved around, "What can Whole Foods do to be more like Trader Joe's?" Whole Foods sharpened pricing on their in-house branded products, and experimented with some smaller stores.<br />
<br />
But now, the question is, what can Amazon do that Whole Foods couldn't have done on their own?<br />
<br />
Analysts are saying that the Amazon deal will enable Whole Foods to lower prices, but so far I've read no explanation of how that will happen. It's easy to imagine Amazon pushing the whole grocery business into the online realm. So far, U.S. consumers have been slow to shop for groceries online. I haven't been tracking reported online sales, but a quick check suggests that a large majority of food purchases are still made in person, and carried home by the shopper.<br />
<br />
This is one online market in which the U.S. lags. I've seen statistics that claim nearly half of U.K. grocery shoppers have at least experimented with online purchasers, and that over 10% of U.K. grocery shoppers buy all of their groceries online. I believe that; my sister lives in London, and does virtually all her grocery shopping online.<br />
<br />
If I had to guess, I think Amazon feels it can achieve that kind of market penetration here too.<br />
<br />
About 15 years ago, Jeff Bezos said,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "guardian text egyptian web" , "georgia" , serif;">I don't know about you, but most of my exchanges with cashiers are not that meaningful... "Have a nice day"... "You're welcome"... "No, we don't take credit cards." I mean, I love browsing around independent bookstores. But even there, the store doesn't instantly customise itself to suit your interests the way ours does and no one can tell you what other people who buy the books you're buying also bought. And you can't read your neighbours' reviews the way we allow you to. Those kind of community features can only be done online. And you can't have universal selection in a store, however big it is.'</span></blockquote>
<br />
Trader Joe's has built its brand on the strength of millions of direct, personal encounters between its famously cheerful and helpful staff and its zealous customers -- many of whom <i>do</i> feel that those interactions are meaningful. That's almost directly opposed to the appeals of online shopping. But crowded stores and famously congested parking lots are also part of the TJ's brand.<br />
<br />
So it remains to be seen how much Trader Joe's business would suffer if Amazon made shopping online for Whole Foods groceries a real 'thing'. And, of course, this begs the question of whether the usually-slow-to-try-out-new-technology executives at TJ's will try to build an online shopping forum of their own.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-87534409188761207172017-04-12T15:31:00.003-07:002017-04-12T15:32:06.335-07:00If you're in advertising, United's fiasco should make you want to slit your wristsUnless you've been hiding out in Tora Bora for the last few days, you know all about United Airline's PR fiasco. Last Sunday, an overbooked flight between Chicago and Louisville led to the "reallocation" (United CEO Munoz's choice of words) seen around the world.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But here's the thing: After that PR disaster -- hell, United basically detonated an atom bomb under its brand -- the company's stock dropped sixteen cents. Considering that the starting price was over $70, the effect of all that incomparably negative publicity was impossible to spot in amongst the normal daily standard deviation in UAL shares.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqzwtaxNTBZGcB5kLD79Wwl5wnrUTmo2ZkWBMP_zvR56D_HJOe-fvmjx41nJQ_DqUNssLV5iFR7__6N8rW48OQbdny3_SAwLrcwCohMJn1s4cBUPNXrFxpdGliZTGaGxfmqjeILUXxfkE/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-04-12+at+5.28.28+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqzwtaxNTBZGcB5kLD79Wwl5wnrUTmo2ZkWBMP_zvR56D_HJOe-fvmjx41nJQ_DqUNssLV5iFR7__6N8rW48OQbdny3_SAwLrcwCohMJn1s4cBUPNXrFxpdGliZTGaGxfmqjeILUXxfkE/s320/Screen+Shot+2017-04-12+at+5.28.28+PM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Brand value? We don't need no stinkin' brand value!" says the market, as UAL's price rebounds to within a day's standard deviation of where it was before Chicago cops showed airline passengers they've forgotten nothing since '68.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
If you're in advertising, you've spent your working life arguing that your clients' brands are among their most valuable assets. And you've almost certainly positioned yourself as a skilled steward of those brands. But would you dare suggest that any ad campaign could counter United's fiasco? Would you dare suggest that anything -- ANYTHING -- you'd ever do could help United or any other client, as much as that fiasco hurt them?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Of course you wouldn't. There are limits, even to the hubris of ad guys.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And yet at the end of the day, the markets have decided that blowing up United's brand was trivial.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I'd ask, "What does the stock market know that we don't know?" but at the end of the day, I suspect the market's placing about the right value (cost) on this worst-corporate-PR-of-the-year moment.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The truth is airlines' customers have, by and large, adopted one of two operating modes (or, they're combining those two.) Some are pure price shoppers, and they'll buy the cheapest ticket they can find on any given day subject to their personal willingness to endure things like multiple or long layovers; others are points-gatherers who have picked an airline and are sticking with it.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Millions of people have posted, "I'll never fly on United again!" on Facebook. If you're one of them, the market's called bullshit on your threat. If you're in advertising, the market's blithe evaluation of the impact of that event on United's brand, or -- take your pick -- the fact that the market basically doesn't value brands nearly as much as you do, you pretty much have to slit your wrists right now.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
While I have to believe that there are still a bunch of companies that thrive because of great customer service, there are clearly plenty that don't.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-55593569449146103342017-02-17T18:02:00.003-08:002017-02-17T19:25:30.999-08:00What Donald Trump’s campaign (might have) learned from Trader Joe’s <div class="MsoNormal">
When I wrote ‘Build a Brand Like Trader Joe’s’ back in 2012,
I could not have imagined Donald Trump as the President of the United States.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Since Trader Joe’s customers skew liberal, I will probably
not make any new fans by pointing out that one of the secrets of Trump’s
success could have been pulled straight from my book. Donald Trump has
certainly internalized one of the secrets to Trader Joe’s success—and it’s one
that, while obvious, is not followed by many other politicians, or brands.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what is this thing, that Donald Trump and Trader Joe’s
have in common?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s simply this: Neither Donald Trump nor Trader Joe’s care
how many people don’t like them, as long as enough people do like them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr9f3VcE_qoTHsuIhTO5PWi4soKwCPwGNeJjo0mLK0fHM-krcOuXoibNw89Vpi0KsEHVI8mvXxqOzjIgJ6ppHnMEmEfYxacvItVtoxQKC5lgJofHQy94zMzRZvuXlP9BFvvbywTTJ_BMA/s1600/enten-generaldislike-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr9f3VcE_qoTHsuIhTO5PWi4soKwCPwGNeJjo0mLK0fHM-krcOuXoibNw89Vpi0KsEHVI8mvXxqOzjIgJ6ppHnMEmEfYxacvItVtoxQKC5lgJofHQy94zMzRZvuXlP9BFvvbywTTJ_BMA/s320/enten-generaldislike-1.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Both Clinton and Trump were historically disliked. The difference: Some people really liked Trump.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
True story: If you Google the phrase “What I love about
Trader Joe’s”, you’ll see all the same things you see if you Google “What I hate
about Trader Joe’s”. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Those famously chatty cashiers? Some people love ’em and
others hate ’em. You know the way TJ’s arbitrarily drops one item and replaces
it with something completely different without notice? That drives some people
crazy, but for everyone who hates it, there’s someone else who thinks that the
unpredictable product mix makes every trip to TJ’s a little adventure.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That willingness to piss off a potential customer is
incredibly rare. Most companies will do almost anything to avoid conflict. In
the decades I spent in the ad business, I had clients who spent hundreds of
thousands of dollars producing TV ads. We launched ad campaigns and clients often
saw an immediate uptick in sales and profits—but only a handful of viewer
complaints were all that were needed to kill a costly campaign. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The problem with that cautious approach is, if you’re
preoccupied with making sure that no one hates you, you’ll almost certainly
also ensure that no one loves you, either. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Almost every brand would do better to focus on making some
people love them. But Trader Joe’s is one of the only businesses I’ve ever
studied or worked with that really takes that truth to heart. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Donald Trump’s the only Presidential candidate who I’ve ever
seen who almost went out of his way to antagonize voters who he knew would
never vote for him anyway. I’m fairly certain he has not read my book (or anyone
else’s, really.) But he instinctively knew that by winding up liberals, he could
made right-wing voters love him.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You know that I’m right about this: The things that liberals
hate about Donald Trump are the very same things that his supporters love about
him.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By contrast, Hillary Clinton’s campaign tried desperately to
appeal to old-school Republican voters who were put off by Trump’s persona. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Basically Clinton’s strategy came down to a battle of
negative ‘net-favorables’. “Lots of people hate Donald Trump. If I can be the
sensible candidate that fewer people hate, I should win this thing hands down.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fewer people did hate her, but not enough people loved her.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As the election came down to the final days, I watched Trump
with a mixture of horror and fascination. I realized that he was simply never
going to pivot to the center—in defiance of accepted wisdom amongst GOP
strategists. In the end, his approach worked just well enough to win the
Electoral College vote. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, of course, it really doesn’t matter that many people
find shopping at Trader Joe’s to be infuriating; they can shop at many other
grocery stores. Trump… that’s a different story. If you find him infuriating,
he’s still your President.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-60253131808479288052016-11-06T12:18:00.001-08:002016-11-06T12:18:44.567-08:00Is the good ship Trader Joe's changing course?That was a question I asked at the conclusion of my 2012 book, "<a href="https://amzn.com/0979167337" target="_blank">Build a Brand Like Trader Joe's</a>".<br />
<br />
Just around the time I was leaving the company, TJ's head office announced changes to the management 'track' that caused quite a few full-time employees to quit. And they changed the way Crew Members were evaluated, in subtle ways that I thought reduced the rewards for truly exceptional employees.<br />
<br />
At the time, I noted that it was a big company and it would take a long time before customers might see the effects of such changes.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDm7XfKzfKZA06glUTdh0aXO7b7MuomaLLloq8ozdB5iy7pg28V42uTTKrsfFgUbNhJe6LX_85ByxW1f6fbX5CrZv8p4wsDfs0AO6-djn2Ja5rNJFEE7TYjsREkQ0xLNIaO0NKg9xxdKM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-11-06+at+2.01.42+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDm7XfKzfKZA06glUTdh0aXO7b7MuomaLLloq8ozdB5iy7pg28V42uTTKrsfFgUbNhJe6LX_85ByxW1f6fbX5CrZv8p4wsDfs0AO6-djn2Ja5rNJFEE7TYjsREkQ0xLNIaO0NKg9xxdKM/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-11-06+at+2.01.42+PM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One thing that's interesting about this story is that in New York, especially, customers are almost as likely to hate Trader Joe's famously chatty approach to customer service as they are to appreciate it. Half the comments readers posted amounted to, "I wish they'd shut up, anyway."</td></tr>
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I was reminded of that when the company got some notably bad press in the New York Times the other day, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/04/business/at-trader-joes-good-cheer-may-hide-complaints.html" target="_blank">in a story about an employee who claims to have been fired for not smiling enough </a>(or just being allergic to Kool-Aid.)<br />
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I'm inclined to believe the employee, Thomas Nagle (seen above). In TJ's limited defense however, the entire brand's been built around a certain kind of employee-customer interaction. Employees who aren't cut out for that kind of interaction should probably not have been hired in the first place.<br />
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Are you a regular TJ's shopper? What do you think? Has customer service suffered at the chain over the last five years or so?<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-50636156673965743032016-04-07T13:21:00.000-07:002016-04-07T13:23:14.630-07:00Don't put too much credence in reports that TJ's is lowering prices across the boardOver the last couple of weeks, a story's gone viral about Trader Joe's (perhaps) introducing a sweeping set of price cuts.<br />
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Aggregators like Business Insider and slightly more reputable sources like <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/03/30/traderjoes-whole-foods/" target="_blank">Fortune</a> picked up this story, which originated with a quick research trip by an investment analyst for Deutsche Bank. The analyst did a "cart comparison" of 77 grocery items, purchased at Whole Foods and TJ's. Apparently an earlier comparison found TJ's 15% cheaper, while the more recent check showed TJ's to be 26% cheaper.<br />
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The reason an investment analyst would do this in the first place is, Whole Foods is a publicly traded company. Investors are curious about Whole Foods strategy going forward, including plans to spin off a new smaller grocery store concept that seems to be a more direct competitor to Trader Joe's.<br />
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Right off the top of my head, I can think of two reasons to question the simplistic conclusion that TJ's is dropping prices. The first has to do with the design of this experiment: if Deutsche Bank wanted to determine whether TJ's was lowering prices, the way to do that would be to compare a current TJ's 'basket' with an earlier identical selection of goods. They didn't do that; they just used Whole Foods as a benchmark. Nothing I've read points specifically to TJ's lowering prices, as opposed to Whole Foods raising them.<br />
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And, they noted that the price disparity was greatest in produce. While I'm a big fan of TJ's as a company and a brand—and while I'm no fan of Whole Foods—no grocery expert would ever say that comparing TJ's produce to Whole Paycheck's was an apples-to-apples comparison. Produce is a TJ's weak point, and a Whole Foods strong point.<br />
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Meanwhile, if there are any current Trader Joe's employees who want to weigh in on the "price drop" story, feel free to contact me through this web site. I'd love your insights.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-70519787024584348722016-03-11T10:22:00.002-08:002016-03-11T10:22:57.815-08:00Whole Foods rebounds, but there's a difference between the stock market and, well, a food market<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitZBJbyxXIkp1iPVQLP5i-0944lqeivVSexygr28ruuos5k0hhJ8UBpcRGysdlE_gnYsZPNtFUL7WC7Hr6FoR6YPe6WT-nm-nDLPeheb79xTj7P9usM8VT8zctH3RDqHjzkVoEkRWnvPM/s1600/WFM+stock.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitZBJbyxXIkp1iPVQLP5i-0944lqeivVSexygr28ruuos5k0hhJ8UBpcRGysdlE_gnYsZPNtFUL7WC7Hr6FoR6YPe6WT-nm-nDLPeheb79xTj7P9usM8VT8zctH3RDqHjzkVoEkRWnvPM/s320/WFM+stock.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Whole Foods stock has taken a pounding over the last year or two. Same store sales have fallen, as lower-price rivals from Costco to Walmart have increased their organic food offerings.<br />
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Whole Foods was also hurt by a weights-and-pricing scandal that added insult to the injury of already-high prices.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigkgJ5Iat1xTMkwdCyci8ajFvgrUxwLa3K7z3G88ToWZxcPGWYPLJK8GHgLjS6SuFLOw_anV5Mn5dH98mg81rPTxAw3ZSbEq1Y4ECyTgtMcPrF61zs628mOD1VPcaHFfpRudLZXnudBDY/s1600/365-by-whole-foods-plans-600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigkgJ5Iat1xTMkwdCyci8ajFvgrUxwLa3K7z3G88ToWZxcPGWYPLJK8GHgLjS6SuFLOw_anV5Mn5dH98mg81rPTxAw3ZSbEq1Y4ECyTgtMcPrF61zs628mOD1VPcaHFfpRudLZXnudBDY/s320/365-by-whole-foods-plans-600.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first '365' store will open in a few months. Like Trader Joe's, it will offer a smaller-than-usual number of SKUs and emphasize Whole Foods' private-label products. I imagine they'll do a better job than Trader Joe's when it comes to produce, but the key to profitability will be prepared foods. Whole Foods seems to be doing a lot right, right now. But can 365 stores develop a TJ's style cult following? As readers of Build a Brand Like Trader Joe's can guess, I think it's all going to come down to the customer experience. So, I'm dismayed that Whole Foods is cutting staff at the same time... </td></tr>
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The company's responded to increased competition by launching a new line of smaller stores, called '365', that are plainly modeled on Trader Joe's. While the stock (NASDAQ: WFM) has climbed about 10% so far in 2016, it's still trading near a 5-year low.<br />
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So is this a good time to buy in? Maybe, but as an afficionado of the Trader Joe's business model, I'm put off by Whole Foods' recent announcement that it was going to cut 1,500 jobs. Trader Joe's outperforms in the grocery category in large measure because it is way overstaffed, by the standards of typical market.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-72399690380103969122015-09-30T15:28:00.000-07:002015-09-30T15:28:28.382-07:00Undrinkable? Maybe. Soon to be unbreakable? Probably.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwlQu6FVySFFUUc5uxwSJhORGtTSEgZHJ1_d3QA7Iu79juEUgmlCk1Uzf1h6QukOHRSFKf8rSnkZuOjoEl7NHL7xI2-urgoxzqs5jIqTyYiuGz_aM0VyTFxa5aN1PuZetnCxdBVvvHW-8/s1600/twobuck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwlQu6FVySFFUUc5uxwSJhORGtTSEgZHJ1_d3QA7Iu79juEUgmlCk1Uzf1h6QukOHRSFKf8rSnkZuOjoEl7NHL7xI2-urgoxzqs5jIqTyYiuGz_aM0VyTFxa5aN1PuZetnCxdBVvvHW-8/s320/twobuck.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There's a wide range of glass thicknesses used in the wine business. Bronco Wine already packages Charles Shaw wines in very thin/light bottles, which might explain why there's so much breakage in the stores. Moving to PET packaging would improve margins and reduce breakage.</td></tr>
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Anyone who's worked in a Trader Joe's store knows that several times a day, there's a wet cleanup in the wine department—usually no great lo<span style="font-family: inherit;">ss, as it's just a bottle of Two-buck Chuck. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">That may soon be happening a lot less frequently, because Bronco Wine, the supplier of TJ's most famous plonk, is experimenting with plastic bottles. The bottles are supplied to Bronco by a company called Amcor. They're made from <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.2px;">PET, which stands for </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.2px;">polyethylene terephthalate</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 19.2px;">, lined with a silicone oxide barrier (trademark: Plasmax). The purpose of the Plasmax inner coating is to prevent the oxidation through the package.</span></span><br />
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Currently, Bronco is testing the packaging with its Green Fin white wine, which is packaged only for Trader Joe's. The plastic bottles are lighter than glass (of course) and are fully recyclable. While crew members in stores will appreciate reduced breakage, there are a number of advantages including faster fill-rates (the rate at which bottles can be filled, capped, and put into cartons in the plant) and lighter shipping weights.<br />
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PET is the same plastic used for a lot of the small bottles of wine served on airplanes (though not usually in First Class!) If you've bought Jack Daniels in a plastic bottle, it was also made of PET.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-24672922530452991552015-03-20T11:41:00.000-07:002015-03-22T17:00:18.150-07:00Two guys named Kevin hold Two-Buck Chuck for ransom<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">This week, Trader Joe's was named in <a href="http://www.taintedwine.com/home" target="_blank">a class action suit </a>alleging that many California wines—including “Two Buck Chuck”—have unsafe levels of arsenic. Some wines have up to five times the arsenic allowed in drinking water.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The State of California (and the U.S. EPA) specifies that drinking water cannot contain more than 10ppb (parts per billion) arsenic, a toxic heavy metal. <i>There is no standard for wine.</i> Specifically, the sample of Charles Shaw White Zinfandel was found to have more than 20ppb of the toxic heavy metal.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The lawsuit, which was first reported by CBS News, has generated a ton of publicity very quickly. It’s a regular meme, right now. The suit was brought by a lawyer named Brian Kabateck, who was alerted to arsenic levels in popular (read: cheap) wines by BeverageGrades, a company run by two guys going by the name Kevin.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVMh-0to-I_XpDmjGQ9BQk1tTiASlQzKDwbZlbn5y1OecZKNwkJKVswLvo_gsjTSlOea8SImP4CHM2ZJ_Ch04wfTfexFzuFwuqBtbzOST6XhSmSBql2K8h9tnIQaAc7PpWDUyVO7HM1Hw/s1600/Kabateck_Brian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVMh-0to-I_XpDmjGQ9BQk1tTiASlQzKDwbZlbn5y1OecZKNwkJKVswLvo_gsjTSlOea8SImP4CHM2ZJ_Ch04wfTfexFzuFwuqBtbzOST6XhSmSBql2K8h9tnIQaAc7PpWDUyVO7HM1Hw/s1600/Kabateck_Brian.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">According to his website, "<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px; text-align: justify;">Mr. Kabateck’s vigorous litigation on behalf of his clients has netted more than a billion dollars in recoveries. He has won many multi-million dollar verdicts, judgments and settlements in the areas of personal injury, insurance bad faith, pharmaceutical litigation, wrongful death, class action, mass torts and disaster litigation... </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 17px; text-align: justify;">Because of his deep knowledge of the law and dynamic speaking style, Mr. Kabateck is a frequent analyst for national, local and legal media outlets. He makes regular appearances on CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX and CW stations. In addition to his television exposure, Mr. Kabateck often speaks at seminars, law schools and industry events. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I suppose it’s possible that Kabateck is in it for more than just the money. It’s possible that he really does have the safety of California wine consumers at heart, but is just misinformed. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But whether Kabateck wins his lawsuit or not, this publicity is a gold mine for the Kevins and their BeverageGrades business. By highlighting the “dangerous” levels of arsenic in some wines, they’re effectively pressuring winemakers to pay for BeverageGrades' testing and rating service. Until now, they haven’t had that much business, since they’ve only given their ‘Seal of Approval’ to about 150 wines in total. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAr29gyXis3nhF-5DzplL8j-sGw_9UENE2gCAC1bwAQx-SIDayKNlvcPbWMxdGEo62KA4fg9lXqWnntUTv-GH-1EScdThQSLI_vOrKhxXPdnDdxGiDyTCeJbBG8KmhoDEIN4DffayGU3k/s1600/9abeveragegrades1*600xx3549-2366-0-45.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAr29gyXis3nhF-5DzplL8j-sGw_9UENE2gCAC1bwAQx-SIDayKNlvcPbWMxdGEo62KA4fg9lXqWnntUTv-GH-1EScdThQSLI_vOrKhxXPdnDdxGiDyTCeJbBG8KmhoDEIN4DffayGU3k/s1600/9abeveragegrades1*600xx3549-2366-0-45.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kerry Hicks (left) was identified as Kevin Hicks in BeverageGrades' own press release about arsenic levels in cheap California wines. Hicks' previous business was HealthGrades, a web site that rates doctors and hospitals and which claims to get a million hits a day. That's a lot more interest than BeverageGrades has ginned up, until now. Kevin Byrne is Hicks' business partner.</td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I’m not just a conspiracy theorist when I suggest that Hicks & Byrne have purposely manufactured a problem—or should I say, 'hysteria' about arsenic levels in wine—in order to promote their solution, in the form of BeverageGrades ‘A+’ rating. (Which, by the way, is the only rating they offer; it’s either A+ or, by inference, poison.) </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>BeverageGrades has pretty much admitted that’s exactly what it set out to do.</b> A day or two after their carefully orchestrated story broke, they had the gall to send a professionally written press release to WineBusiness.com, reading in part...</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>BeverageGrades provides comprehensive health and nutritional information for alcoholic beverages via testing in its independent, state-of-the-art lab, using methodology developed by the American Organization of Analytical Chemists. BeverageGrades offers two health panels for screening products for the presence of contaminants in levels that exceed regulatory standards; these include heavy metals in one panel, and pesticides in in the other. The company offers an A+ BeverageGrades Certification to specific products that fall below certain regulatory thresholds in panels of heavy metals and pesticides...</i></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i></i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Our goal is to be the beverage industry’s top resource for analytical product information, so producers are able to remain in compliance with regulatory provisions, and maintain consumer trust.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Don’t be fooled by the coy language, that’s little more than a fucking ransom note. What they're saying to the wine industry is, "First we'll shake consumers' confidence in your products with this bogus arsenic scare. Then, you can pay us to rebuild consumer trust with our pseudo-scientific Seal of Approval." So, what’s been lost here? Well, business ethics, obviously. But another thing lost is scientific perspective.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Yes, it’s a fact that arsenic is toxic. Some arsenic compounds are very, very toxic. But since Kevin/Kerry Hicks is a medical doctor, he knows that small quantities of arsenic have long been safely used in both traditional and western medicine.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Here are the facts: While California and the U.S. EPA set a cautious level of 10ppb for arsenic in drinking water, many other places either don’t regulate it or allow much higher levels. The EPA accepted up to 50ppb until 2006.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">There is no scientific evidence to support the lawsuit’s claim that arsenic levels in Two Buck Chuck represent a health threat. Acute arsenic poisoning results from the ingestion of more than 100mg of arsenic. That means that you’d need to consume all the arsenic in at least 7,000 bottles of cheap rosé <i>at once</i>, to poison yourself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;">Of course, the implied threat is not acute poisoning, but the carcinogenic effects of long-term, chronic exposure. That's a real thing, although all the studies have looked at well water with far, far higher levels of arsenic than BeverageGrades found in wine. The most-cited study, of a population exposed to arsenic in Taiwan, looked at people drinking water with at least</span></span><i style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;"> ten thousand times</i><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;"> as much arsenic in it. And, the people most susceptible are children, </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">especially <i>in utero</i>. Children and pregnant women shouldn't be big wine drinkers anyway.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Those poor Taiwanese people were drinking water loaded with arsenic. Other studies have established toxicity at lower levels, but not at the 10ppb level set for water, which is the level BeverageGrades claims is also unsafe in wine. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Estimates of the toxicity at those levels are extrapolations. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">According to Health Canada, if you spent your lifetime drinking water with 10ppb arsenic your odds of dying of cancer would be 0.3% higher than if your water had no arsenic at all. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">So if you're an American man with baseline odds of dying of cancer of 1 in 4 (estimate: American Cancer Society) raising </span>the<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> arsenic level in your water by 10ppb would increase your odds to 1 in 3.98. A woman's chances of getting cancer are about 1:5, so they'd go up to 1:4.98.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;">To put it another way, in a hypothetical population of 1 million people you'd expect, say, 22.2% of population to die of cancer and 77.8% to die from all other causes. If the arsenic levels in that population's drinking water were to be raised by 10ppb, you'd expect 22.5% of them to die of cancer, leaving 77.5% of them to die of all other causes. Again, these are estimates, based on extrapolations from toxicity at much higher levels. It's not possible to accurately measure the risk from drinking water at 10ppb, because the risk is so small that it's lost in standard deviation.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>The reason there are no arsenic levels established for <i>wine</i> in the U.S. is that there is no evidence that wine has ever been a dangerous source of arsenic for anyone. </b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Even if you look at the highest concentrations of arsenic that BeverageGrades found, and assumed that all the arsenic they found was the most toxic form, you’d die of cirrhosis, diabetes, or in a drunken car crash long before you’d accumulate a toxic dose of arsenic. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Not only that, but as BeverageGrades knows, the cheap wines that showed high arsenic levels are blends of grapes from all over the state, that change all the time. There’s no reason to believe that those wines’ arsenic levels will be the same next month, let alone next year. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxoU2YV2PwsrfknsOpn-DCyQtu7RY74wAe4AW4pGd52S_7FLAsnxvd50-VmM5lMGxP5Icuc9ZDR9fXzDaUrcyi4S8qrQmVyleMjdyJl_RKFOoQP3seL5hyphenhyphenfB5O3912S2hyCpTxrKhlQTw/s1600/vqa.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxoU2YV2PwsrfknsOpn-DCyQtu7RY74wAe4AW4pGd52S_7FLAsnxvd50-VmM5lMGxP5Icuc9ZDR9fXzDaUrcyi4S8qrQmVyleMjdyJl_RKFOoQP3seL5hyphenhyphenfB5O3912S2hyCpTxrKhlQTw/s1600/vqa.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Ontario (Canada) Vintners Quality Alliance standard, which is reserved for high-quality wines that are far above minimum standards, allows for 100ppb arsenic. The highest arsenic levels found by BeverageGrades were about half that amount.</td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Kabateck Brown Kellner is going after Trader Joe's, the Franzias, and a few others because they’re huge targets with deep pockets. BeverageGrades released those brands' arsenic levels to Kabateck because Hicks & Byrne know TJ's and the rest of the commodity winemakers will never pay them for a good rating. But if they can hurt TJ's, they'll scare other winemakers into paying what amounts to protection money.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Don’t get me wrong; Two Buck Chuck is shit. But this lawsuit is bullshit, and BeverageGrades’ strategy is nothing less than corporate piracy.</span></div>
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<i>Here's the full list of companies named in the suit:</i></div>
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<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Sutter Home Winery</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Trinchero Family Estates</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Folie a Deux Winery</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>California Natural Products</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Golden State Vintners</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Varni Brothers Corp.</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Treasury Wines Estates Americas</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Beringer Vinyards</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Seaglass Wine</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Constellation Wines</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Hahn Family Wines</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Smith & Hook Winery</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Raymond Vinyard and Cellar</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Fetzer Vineyards</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>A. Korbel & Bros.</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Mason Cellars</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Oakville Winery</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Woodbridge Winery</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Simply Naked Winery</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Winery Exchange</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Sonoma Wine Co.</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Don Sebastiani & Sons</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Bronco Wine Company</i></span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Trader Joe’s Company</i></span></li>
</ul>
<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">NOTE: This version includes changes to the math/statistics to make it more accurate and easier to understand. It corrects some arithmetic errors that appeared in the first 18 hours this post was live. The errors were not substantial.</span></b></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-89721291416028428092015-02-18T19:33:00.000-08:002015-02-19T08:44:00.121-08:00If Trader Joe's was a car, it'd be a Subaru (according to these guys)<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<i>How does TJ’s famous customer satisfaction compare to other brands, in other sectors?</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii8t-dNRbvGtcM-gxEcDpgLA3teKbf_yOLZ1fClva-jNTCQK308eA4HkU_bBWYyccR2xOmD60J80jagTHNQ1mRu17_52E9__fL9Wpsk2qIrwxY-Z1qyzO3xmsTKwVJ7Ztnm_17GtU3pqY/s1600/LogoPile.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii8t-dNRbvGtcM-gxEcDpgLA3teKbf_yOLZ1fClva-jNTCQK308eA4HkU_bBWYyccR2xOmD60J80jagTHNQ1mRu17_52E9__fL9Wpsk2qIrwxY-Z1qyzO3xmsTKwVJ7Ztnm_17GtU3pqY/s1600/LogoPile.png" height="318" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The other day, my Google news feed led me to a story about how Trader Joe’s (and Wegman’s, another great grocery business) had displaced Publix as the customer-satisfaction champion in the supermarket category. When I tracked the story back to the <a href="http://www.theacsi.org/the-american-customer-satisfaction-index" target="_blank">American Customer Satisfaction Index</a>, however, I learned that 2014 was the first year ACSI had questioned consumers about Trader Joe’s, so the results of the survey don’t necessarily indicate a change in the relative performance of TJ’s or Publix (which is also a chain that I respect.)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">ACSI claims that the scores are comparable not just between brands in any one category, but between brands in different categories. With that in mind, I dug into their stats to learn how Trader Joe’s customers’ satisfaction compares to people’s satisfaction with, say, their cars or phones. The comparison was enlightening.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Trader Joe’s (and Wegman’s) scored 85 on the ACSI satisfaction scale. That’s epic. To put it in perspective, no airline got into the eighties last year. Even Southwest scored only 78. No major cellular telephone provider came close, either.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the clothing category, VF came closest. The maker of Lee Jeans scored 84.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Of the major hotel chains, only Marriott cracked the ’80’ barrier, although amongst luxury hotel chains, Marriott’s Ritz-Carlton subsidiary beat out TJ’s with an 86.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Perhaps unsurprisingly, Apple scored an 84—by far the highest among personal computer brands.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">If TJ’s was a car, what car would it be? Subaru shares its customer satisfaction score of 85. Only Mercedes-Benz did better (although Lexus and Volkswagen were both within the margin of error.)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What about comparisons with other food categories, or other retailers? Well, Starbucks scored a paltry 76. I note that the highest score for all fast-food is “All others”. I.E., any small local fast food outlet will likely outscore any major national brand. That’s food for thought, eh?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Food <i>manufacturers</i> did much better. H.J. Heinz, Hershey, Mars, Quaker, Nestle, and General Mills all equalled or bettered TJ’s score. That supports my general theory that it’s TJ’s customer service—not products—that drives fan loyalty.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Among other retailers, Costco and Nordstrom put up functionally identical scores of 84 & 86, respectively. Amazon also scored 86—by far the best among web retailers surveyed, but they didn't ask about Zappos.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The ACSI web site doesn’t provide enough statistical background for me to tell you how significant a one-point difference in score really is. I suspect it’s not significant at all. Still, their brand rankings ring true. And one thing’s certain, TJ’s has built its incredible brand with far, far less advertising than any comparable brand, in any industry. If you want to know the secret of how they did that, you’ll have to <a href="http://amzn.com/0979167337" target="_blank">read my book</a>.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOTyqeqK0-qjyNYBnywftXCr4mHt6wgMBCJkMFgxoTOupp6ZRC7aXZjnEiXlBMmL_3ziexOFbZCwUeTJ06awRYiyQusoKUm40yIf1P88ZlRM8Z-OSPYhQthbI4KaFmAIHwb9XHsR8U4DU/s1600/SubaruTJ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOTyqeqK0-qjyNYBnywftXCr4mHt6wgMBCJkMFgxoTOupp6ZRC7aXZjnEiXlBMmL_3ziexOFbZCwUeTJ06awRYiyQusoKUm40yIf1P88ZlRM8Z-OSPYhQthbI4KaFmAIHwb9XHsR8U4DU/s1600/SubaruTJ.jpg" height="268" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thanks to Google, I found this photo of a Subaru in a TJ's parking lot while sitting at my desk in my pajamas. And yet, Google's own Customer Satisfaction score is well below Trader Joe's. Perhaps it's that we don't fear that, one day, Trader Joe's will actually rule the world as a dark and imperious overlord. (Just kidding, Google. I love you guys.)</td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-5772353740159155562015-01-26T11:01:00.004-08:002015-01-26T11:01:48.558-08:00A lesson IKEA could learn from TJ's (but probably won't)Last year, IKEA came to the Kansas City metro for the first time. My friends asked me if I was going to get a job there, and write a book about that brand—the way I did when Trader Joe's arrived a few years ago.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbYYuiNYHnTRWzp02ZiUtQGchhKXeu11bFv5o0_S7bTk6rETJzk656Ihha6Iu9121DCn0n54jtfp2IbdtbB9qg5mt9IBqO8aqHv0hyphenhyphenkVDJmMZ3WKqMUNZ-BoRmVIsUyCufNqyyWyA2ymw/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbYYuiNYHnTRWzp02ZiUtQGchhKXeu11bFv5o0_S7bTk6rETJzk656Ihha6Iu9121DCn0n54jtfp2IbdtbB9qg5mt9IBqO8aqHv0hyphenhyphenkVDJmMZ3WKqMUNZ-BoRmVIsUyCufNqyyWyA2ymw/s1600/images.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trader Joe's customer service is to IKEA's customer service what meatballs are to poo.</td></tr>
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I didn't, but I can't help myself, when it comes to analyzing customer service in any retail setting. What I've learned is that, when it comes to front-line customer service staff, IKEA's no Trader Joe's. Based on my observations, IKEA could learn a lot from TJ's.<br />
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Read my article on Medium <a href="https://medium.com/@brandroi/one-idea-ikea-doesnt-get-715d116f8005" target="_blank">here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-65841080277205223162014-10-06T17:56:00.001-07:002014-10-06T17:56:19.507-07:00The keys to TJ's success with 'Millennials'I was recently interviewed by Hanna Chalmers, the head of research at Mediabrands—the ad giant Interpublic's in-house nerd department. The topic was, Trader Joe's success with 'Millennials'. (Millennials=people who came of age post-2000. Some demographers define this group as people born between 1982-2004.)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://initiative.co.uk/download" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKaeVb886NSm_wpRE-eXPE9DhRpIkhV2XAEbgbS7yhDWAwqo8Cyfk7uKqFAfnBSh4piiLRwRKh8wcupGMeU8_7zmPM0G93fJwah6VwsjiJjhcVwszm-m9mblOx_Bu4r4OLlEcmG5-K7oQ/s1600/millennials_booklets--kvvf04obds_s520x0_q60.png" height="218" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://initiative.co.uk/download" target="_blank">I'm quoted in this report. If you're interested in marketing to Millennials, you can download it by clicking the image.</a></td></tr>
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The report was published by Initiative, a hip agency based in London, England, that is part of IPG. Here's the full text of my interview with Hanna. Do you agree with me? What do you think is the secret of TJ's success with younger consumers?<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Mediabrands: What is at the root of Trader Joe’s success?</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Mark Gardiner: </b>They’d tell you, “We’re a product-driven company,” and that’s part of the story. But TJ’s incredibly strong brand—and the company’s sustained growth and financial success in a very difficult category—is rooted in millions of face-to-face interactions between shoppers and front-line retail staff. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">TJ’s ‘crew members’ are famously chatty and cheerful (sometimes annoyingly so!) The brand relies on the oldest trick in a merchant’s book: Friendly, personal service.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Mediabrands: Is their secrecy part of their success?</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Mark Gardiner: </b>Yes and no. The company’s cutthroat management style is not consistent with the friendly, laid-back vibe in the stores. For example, TJ’s didn’t stop selling red-listed fish until Greenpeace lampooned it with a Traitor Joe’s website. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So they have to be secretive, in order to prevent a sort of cognitive dissonance amongst shoppers. But it’s to the point now that the company’s secretive ways are <i>becoming</i> the story. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The counter-example here would be Patagonia. Their front line retail staff can be a little snotty, but the company’s management is remarkably transparent, and the company lives its brand values, all the way up the org chart, and throughout its procurement and manufacturing.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPlocy6V18ND89ysI2-88JJieP4DoVE2abu_XsZf21D2RIZEhBB8OVqfk61kAs0QNqRjI8G7FYwfR7GgzUcE8eNVpkQVOmxXwu-9TUuk3PyoicYpuZmwCLuNpJaIGoeLWs9f4wfHxy-v4/s1600/presentation--o0rp1mzlx7_s638x0_q80_noupscale.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPlocy6V18ND89ysI2-88JJieP4DoVE2abu_XsZf21D2RIZEhBB8OVqfk61kAs0QNqRjI8G7FYwfR7GgzUcE8eNVpkQVOmxXwu-9TUuk3PyoicYpuZmwCLuNpJaIGoeLWs9f4wfHxy-v4/s1600/presentation--o0rp1mzlx7_s638x0_q80_noupscale.png" height="219" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A collection of marketing and agency types gathered in Farringdon, in central London, to listen to Hanna and a few of her co-workers present their insights into Millennial consumers.</td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Mediabrands: Why is it particularly successful with Millennials?</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Mark Gardiner: </b>It’s worth noting that there are things you might expect TJ’s to do well, that they don’t do at all. For a hip California company with a devoted following of young consumers, they have almost no social media presence. The company has a relatively rudimentary web site, a moribund Twitter feed, and no official Facebook page.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">At the product level however, TJ’s ‘gets’ Millennials. People under 35 today were the first demographic group raised entirely in the era of Hot Pockets, Lunchables, and the Starbucks drive-through. In the U.S., they attended schools in which Home Economics classes had been cut back. Sure, they watch cooking shows on TV, but they’re not big on practical kitchen skills. Perhaps that’s why snacks and prepared meals (particularly frozen meals) contribute most of the profit from TJ’s food sales. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Relatively sharp prices and a good assortment of cheap, drinkable wine are also strong selling points for the under 35 crowd; in the U.S. they’re all still paying off their student loans!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">One New York Times journalist called TJ’s “the home of lonely food”, which is an evocative way of describing the single customer who has worked late, and stopped by TJ’s on the way home to pick up a frozen mac ‘n cheese or pre-made salad and a bottle of Two Buck Chuck, that they’ll eat alone, while updating their Match.com profile.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In that context the warm, friendly TJ’s shopping experience is a welcome relief. The company may not get social media, but it understands the value of that real-world social experience. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Mediabrands: What is at the essence of the brand?</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Mark Gardiner: </b>A fun, friendly shopping experience, that makes the things you buy there seem even better.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The key to this is, hiring the right people. As I explain in my book, “Build a Brand Like Trader Joe’s”, you can train skill, but you have to hire attitude. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">TJ’s offers good wages and benefits, and the store seems like a fun place to work. (Imagine, as a 30-something, telling your peers, “I work at McDonald’s.” They’d think, “loser”. Tell them you work at Trader Joe’s and the response is, “Fun! I love that place.” As a result, TJ’s has its choice of employees. And it uses that choice to hire natural extroverts. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Millennials are skeptical about a lot of the things companies do to promote their brands, but the authentic contact they make with TJ’s employees (who skew, age-wise, into the same category) isn’t perceived as “marketing” or “corporate”. It comes across as authentic, because it almost always <i>is</i> authentic. Crew Members create authentic connections with customers—not because they are told to do so, or trained to do so (although they are told, and trained) but rather because <i>that’s who they are</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Mediabrands: What does it understand that other brands in its category don’t?</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Mark Gardiner: </b>A.) TJ’s doesn’t try to please everyone. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Fun exercise: Google “Why I hate Trader Joe’s” and “Why I love Trader Joe’s”. You’ll see the same traits listed in both places. But TJ’s knows that if half of America’s grocery shoppers love its brand, that’s more than enough to be profitable; who cares if the other half hates them?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Wishy-washy companies that try not to offend anyone don’t give anyone a reason to love them, either.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">B.) TJ’s understands that paying front line customer service staff a little bit more is a great investment. MIT prof Zeynep Ton’s research has amply proven that the retail chains that pay staff the highest wages have higher rates-of-sale and are more profitable. Retailers who increase customer service pay show increased profits, and retailers who cut staff costs typically lose profit as a result.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Trader Joe’s pays better than average retail salaries, and offers better than average benefits, so it can easily recruit employees who will naturally extend that cheerful, sociable brand. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The company’s built one of America’s most valuable brands virtually without advertising. That savings alone would easily cover the cost of paying customer service staff another $2-$3 per hour.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Mediabrands: What is the future for Trader Joe’s – what risks do you foresee?</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Mark Gardiner: </b>TJ’s has lots of growth potential in the U.S.; it could easily double sales volumes by expanding into markets where it is not active at all, and many markets that have 2-3 Trader Joe’s stores could support twice that many. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The company’s been successful because it’s always focused on the relationship between customers and the store, and saved the hard bargaining for its relationship with suppliers.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The biggest risk is that the company’s current CEO is an accountant, not a merchant. I think TJ’s is beginning to see it’s crew members as a cost center and not as a key source of the company’s profits.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Mediabrands: What can other brands learn from Trader Joe’s?</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Mark Gardiner: </b>Hire the right people, then have the courage of your convictions and really empower them to live and promote your brand values. The authentic connections they make with consumers are priceless—especially so when the consumers are Millennials who’ve long been jaded when it comes to ‘messages’ from brands.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">If you’re a highly-paid VP Marketing, that’s scary advice. I’m telling you to place your brand—perhaps your company’s most valuable asset—in the hands of your lowest-paid employees. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But think of it this way: Those front line employees have always been empowered to reduce the value of your brand. No matter how great your new product or ad campaign, if the customer comes to the store and is treated poorly, they’ll hate your company. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Since your customer service staff can already reduce your brand equity, you have nothing to lose by empowering them to increase it.</span></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-76817974734663412942014-06-17T13:39:00.000-07:002014-06-17T13:40:02.775-07:00Comedian's 'ode' to Trader Joe's: It's NarniaOne reason I know I'm right about Trader Joe's -- by which I mean, I know TJ's built its brand on the strength of those chatty, cheerful crew members -- is that TJ's corporate culture has entered American pop culture.
Check out this bit by Gary Gulman, appearing on the Pete Holmes show. It's as if he read 'Build a Brand Like Trader Joe's' and set about turning into comedy.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/TFNx3LP-kZU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-13131409584505280142014-01-27T09:20:00.002-08:002014-01-27T09:21:05.232-08:00A supplier outed, along with some unsavory business practices<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">One of the most popular items in Trader Joe's salty snack aisle are these peanut butter-filled pretzels. We used to sell case after case of these on days leading up to big football games, and I can only imagine how many are currently being stocked up in anticipation of the Super Bowl. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8GIvtB_C4Xb0o47KFODWK-JJ38hNMDp23iEkQ19hCAMroKXRRMIuWFCBWZCQw04h0tTJSoyZ2oz4Cve9NCsPC0fSTeLFF5TedRdavxoarGDy3TO8dMDgvOPpjaL-RFqS79Ea6DqVBo18/s1600/pretzels-peanut_300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8GIvtB_C4Xb0o47KFODWK-JJ38hNMDp23iEkQ19hCAMroKXRRMIuWFCBWZCQw04h0tTJSoyZ2oz4Cve9NCsPC0fSTeLFF5TedRdavxoarGDy3TO8dMDgvOPpjaL-RFqS79Ea6DqVBo18/s1600/pretzels-peanut_300.jpg" height="320" width="256" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But they've left the owners and employees at a Maxim Marketing Corp., a California-based snack company, with a bad taste. According to a lawsuit between Maxim and Con-Agra, a giant food conglomerate based in Omaha, Con-Agra has stolen Maxim's Trader Joe's business.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Maxim's story is that, for years, Con-Agra supplied the pretzel "pockets" that Maxim filled with peanut butter and then sold to Trader Joe's. I'm not sure if Maxim claims to have actually invented the filled pretzel, but they do sell a similar product that they call, "<span style="background-color: white;">The Original Pocket Pretzels®". </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Now, it seems that Con-Agra has gone around Maxim, and is filling its own pockets. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Internally, Trader Joe's talks a lot about it's sharp—some might say, ruthless—buying practices. The story told to employees is that the company cuts costs in order to sell to consumers at the lowest possible price. But while eliminating one step in the peanut butter-filled pretzel supply chain has, presumably, resulted in a cost savings, <span style="background-color: white;">Trader Joe's sells the Con-Agra product in the same packaging at the same price, $3.79 for a one-pound bag. (Maxim's original pocket pretzels are sold in other outlets, at a suggested retail price of $2.39 per 8 oz.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Luckily, Maxim has other customers. Trader Joe's buyers love being a small company's only customer, though that has obvious risks because TJ's projects a "South Seas" vibe but the company acts more like a cutthroat pirate when negotiating supply deals. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Anyway, Maxim will miss the $10M in revenue from selling (my guess) about 7M bags of pretzels to Trader Joe's per year, but it will survive this setback. Whether it succeeds in its suit against Con-Agra will hinge on two things: did their contract include a non-compete clause, and; can a much smaller company possibly win a fight with a giant?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-15675898295975705282013-11-25T14:43:00.000-08:002013-11-25T14:46:40.543-08:00Stuck in line at Trader Joe's? This guy wrote a charming essay about it...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3lWJFZi_D3wQ_h8cJJhsFiFpGWIKaNuwJBn4kzLwBlYYvD0BpuF74qzBj8xBRFrjoJTVJCLgbs7HkcgJjL1QKd9DuB6sTeShFKGk1HqJ1GfSrxK9j5tvQTEmMEVA0q5qvBRs_Ll8STjE/s1600/Narratively.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3lWJFZi_D3wQ_h8cJJhsFiFpGWIKaNuwJBn4kzLwBlYYvD0BpuF74qzBj8xBRFrjoJTVJCLgbs7HkcgJjL1QKd9DuB6sTeShFKGk1HqJ1GfSrxK9j5tvQTEmMEVA0q5qvBRs_Ll8STjE/s320/Narratively.jpg" width="308" /></a></div>
In the produce section of Trader Joe’s store in the Chelsea section of New York, Karl Holman holds an eight-foot-tall sign that reads “End of Line.” It’s six o’clock on a Tuesday, and Holman is managing the line for the second time this shift.
While customers test peaches for ripeness, Holman holds the towering metal pole aloft, making the banner’s orange and yellow lettering visible to anyone who gazes up from the shelves. For the next hour, the line’s end moved constantly.<br />
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Short and stout, with a salt-and-pepper goatee and a grey Trader Joe’s T-shirt, the forty-nine-year-old Holman addresses a knot of stopped customers who are blocking traffic. “Are you ready to check out?” he asks. “Step right here.” Customers glance at his sign and then file into place.<br />
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As the line forms in front of him, he takes tiny backwards steps to keep pace with its telescoping end. His moving target keeps him in motion, and he marks it with the dedicated poise of a Beefeater at Buckingham Palace.
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Starting by the tubs of cut pineapple, he inches deeper into the produce area, backing past the baby carrots and fresh herbs, past the clear bags of salad greens, and, while smiling and greeting passersby with a “Hi, how are you?” he hooks around a freestanding rack of fruit before stopping near the entrance. In a few minutes' time he has traveled so far back that, without meaning to be metaphysical, he has transcended the proverbial end of the line and arrived at the beginning.<br />
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<i>To read the rest of author Aaron Gilbreath's wonderful essay, and see more of illustrator Marc Pearson's cartoons of life in a busy Manhattan Trader Joe's store, check out <a href="http://narrative.ly/watching-over-new-york/the-man-at-the-end-of-the-line/">Narrative.ly</a></i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-70768121579656514242013-11-15T08:47:00.001-08:002013-11-15T08:47:28.940-08:00It's not a SNAP, but we could eliminate food injustice<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There’s been a lot of talk over the last couple of weeks about the reduction in SNAP (aka ‘food stamp’) benefits, which were the result of the end of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Although I’ve never received SNAP benefits — in fact, as a foreigner there’d be a five year waiting period, and after that, as an able-bodied adult without dependents I could only collect benefits for three months in any three-year period — I did work in the grocery business for a year while researching my book Build a Brand Like Trader Joe’s. I’ve got plenty of experience with the SNAP program from the other side of the cash register.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">At the Ward Parkway Trader Joe’s store in Kansas City we served a very diverse community because the location was essentially astride two very different neighborhoods. The area west of our store, in Johnson County, Kansas, was upscale and predominantly white; the sort of well-off Republican voters who tend to sympathize with old Mitt Romney’s characterization of people receiving benefits as ‘takers’. The area immediately east of our store was also predominantly white but not as well off — the arty/liberal enclave of Waldo. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Troost Avenue was about a mile east of our store. Anyone who knows Kansas City knows that Troost has long been the border of the predominantly African-American community. Much of the landscape beyond Troost is pretty grim; it features drugs, gangs, and a school system so bad that the state of Missouri wrested control of it from school board.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">While researching Build a Brand Like Trader Joe’s I handled hundreds (probably thousands, but I wasn’t counting) of SNAP transactions, serving people of all ages and ethnicities. Some looked ‘poor’ although our store was not really that easy to get to, if customers didn’t at least have access to a car. Most looked like many other ‘cash’ customers, which is consistent with the observation that most families that receive SNAP benefits are headed by adults who have jobs, albeit low-paying ones. I did EBT transactions for a few Trader Joe’s crew members, which tells you something; even though the store paid far better-than-average wages in the retail sector, most employees still qualified.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">(As an aside, the well-off white customers from Johnson County often displayed the gulf of understanding between the 1% (or maybe the 10%) and the working poor in the service sector. I remember one guy about my age, obviously pretty well off, who commented that my job seemed a lot more fun and social than his job as an accountant. He told me, “I wish I could work here.” I told him that he’d have to be ready to take a pay cut. “Yeah, I guess I couldn’t afford it,” he said, adding “What do you guys make? Like, $20 an hour?” I just smiled and shrugged it off, but I thought, Is that really what you think?)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I can tell you from experience that most people who bought food with EBT cards weren’t buying booze as well (even though we sold plenty of beer and wine to people paying conventionally.) I saw one clear-cut case of something many people would’ve called ‘abuse’ of the SNAP program: a woman buying about 10 cans of tuna told me, “They won’t let you buy pet food with food stamps, so I feed my cats tuna.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">By and large, the nutritional choices made by EBT customers were no worse than the choices made by the other customers. I often saw EBT customers make conspicuously good choices, which is to say their carts arrived full of ingredients, not prepared foods. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ironically, poverty in America is marked by obesity, not starvation. The issue is clearly not that many people will starve because SNAP benefits have been cut, or would starve if they were eliminated altogether.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyone with a nuanced understanding of the American food industry knows that the system is stacked against a healthy population, from corn subsidies on down. This has resulted in a situation where Americans spend a very small percentage of their income on food, but 10 times as much as other developed nations on health care.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I’m not going to solve this problem in a single blog post, but I’ll tell you this: Some of the SNAP recipients who live east of Troost in Kansas City managed to get to Trader Joe’s. But many of the people who need SNAP benefits live in neighborhoods that are <a href="http://apps.ams.usda.gov/fooddeserts/foodDeserts.aspx" target="_blank">food deserts</a>. Those people have no choice but to use their SNAP funds to buy expensive, unhealthy prepared foods in bodegas, convenience stores and gas stations.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/11/04/first-joint-house-and-senate-talks-on-bill-including-sharp-cuts-to-food-stamps/" target="_blank">Rich white people who are obsessed with ‘food stamp fraud’</a> would eliminate far more waste— and save far, far more on future health costs — by spending their time and effort figuring out ways to make healthy food available in poor neighborhoods.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The reduction in SNAP payments is a tiny part of a much larger food injustice issue. Let me tell you this: if the U.S. really set out to solve the problem of food injustice in its inner cities — if the country really made it a priority and, step by step, did whatever it took to ensure that the country’s urban poor understood and had access to proper nutrition — in the process of solving those problems, all the other problems of the inner city including crime, gangs & drugs; the collapse of public education in the inner city; the whole fucking poverty cycle... You’d wake up one morning and realize that you’d solved all of those along the way.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Happy Thanksgiving.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-33314739565665991932013-11-13T09:46:00.001-08:002013-11-13T09:46:24.461-08:00Another Trader Joe's supplier outed, thanks to a food poisoning outbreak<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4vrQZ0GarbL6FfCD7cwyO3aFd-jOAs_K_cPbLmqmRWth5QoNDEn0ROCC8E7ifNe-nfrAyaLeKEpYmn_nfQfnirsJJlBpz3GCBH_5FTO4RbgHCPazU8BwHc1TVUQg9JRJChC9ak0izvHo/s1600/Salad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4vrQZ0GarbL6FfCD7cwyO3aFd-jOAs_K_cPbLmqmRWth5QoNDEn0ROCC8E7ifNe-nfrAyaLeKEpYmn_nfQfnirsJJlBpz3GCBH_5FTO4RbgHCPazU8BwHc1TVUQg9JRJChC9ak0izvHo/s320/Salad.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From this...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A tiny corner of Trader Joe's famous veil of secrecy was lifted last week, as Richmond CA-based Glass Onion Catering was identified as the source of Trader Joe's </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;">“Field Fresh Chopped Salad with Grill Chicken” and “Mexicali Salad with Chili Lime Chicken.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">That news emerged when Glass Onion was identified as the source of an e-coli outbreak that had sickened at least a couple of dozen customers in the western states. The company also supplies "Wheatberry" and "Southwestern" salad 'kits' to Whole Foods.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...to this. Brought to you by e.coli.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">Personally, I think that anyone who buys a chicken salad made days ago and hundreds of miles away is playing fast and loose with their digestive tract anyway. If you're hung up on TJ's Mexicali Salad, try making it yourself with <a href="http://foodsapor.com/6843-lime-mexicali-salad.html" target="_blank">this recipe</a>.</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-48588054520304249182013-09-27T11:10:00.000-07:002013-09-27T11:10:03.125-07:00A top-10 finish in Ad Age's book poll!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Build a Brand Like Trader Joe's finished 8th overall in Advertising Age's "Best summer marketing reads" book poll! Thank-you to the readers who noticed my title in the contest, and voted for it.</div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-87597941032621045432013-09-11T09:24:00.000-07:002013-09-11T09:26:04.514-07:00Give the TJ's brand credit where it's due: Vote on AdAge.com!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizNH8oZY39V4sC3JAQ4kADDTL11FrxFdat8mObMxPcUd-gxsIkwKD5Of0USHYtR5Jve41R6CrN83eNAQBN4IzUC1wsg6lbyz3Y925GSnVu0a_8EASUZ30Sqj2hvPXeNTg9_NEVLknqxQ8/s1600/AdAgeLogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizNH8oZY39V4sC3JAQ4kADDTL11FrxFdat8mObMxPcUd-gxsIkwKD5Of0USHYtR5Jve41R6CrN83eNAQBN4IzUC1wsg6lbyz3Y925GSnVu0a_8EASUZ30Sqj2hvPXeNTg9_NEVLknqxQ8/s320/AdAgeLogo.jpg" /></a></div>
Advertising Age is running a contest to determine the best summer marketing read. Give Trader Joe's brand credit where it's due, but going<span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="http://adage.com/summerbooks2013/#/">here</a>, </span>and voting for "Build a Brand Like Trader Joe's".<br />
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I'll be honest with you; Ad Age doesn't make voting that easy (unless you're already a registered site user, you'll have to register.) But, if you choose to register by linking to your Facebook page it's a little easier, and Ad Age is not a FB abuser -- they won't, for example, insist on posting on your behalf.
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Please vote! Hey, it's Build a Brand Like Trader Joe's, it's not like you're casting a ballot for Anthony Weiner.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-52307326536578498912013-07-25T12:09:00.003-07:002013-07-25T12:09:46.310-07:00Trader Joe's tops one customer survey, flops anotherA survey of over 6,000 people by Market Force recently concluded that Trader Joe's has the most-satisfied customers, and the ones most likely to recommend the store to others.<br />
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Quel surprise, eh? Or not.<br />
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What I find interesting about the Market Force survey is that it supports the thesis of my book, "Build a Brand Like Trader Joe's".<br />
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You can see that when customers are asked to rank the 'empirical' factors like price and selection, Trader Joe's rarely figures. Obviously, its fans like the selection of unique items, so it does well in selection, but that's it.</div>
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By contrast, when it comes to the touchy-feely criteria, Trader Joe's rocks it...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw7zBVxaTqtyIP8SnPwwqmyVobQS_rdK98T00JbU9KF6E6wFyNDb5KufpicuD4iUk-vinKNkD-FWXIMXxk8tGHWrU1ZtV9gw7vjkLFdJcZ_rYDYioG9Cb5cFb05du6jQqFtEDi3oYXPe8/s1600/TraderJoes2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw7zBVxaTqtyIP8SnPwwqmyVobQS_rdK98T00JbU9KF6E6wFyNDb5KufpicuD4iUk-vinKNkD-FWXIMXxk8tGHWrU1ZtV9gw7vjkLFdJcZ_rYDYioG9Cb5cFb05du6jQqFtEDi3oYXPe8/s400/TraderJoes2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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...though one has to wonder about that "Fast Check-out" ranking! They must have limited their survey to shoppers who buy groceries before noon on Mondays and Tuesdays. But seriously, folks; as I note in my book, a cheerful checkout clerk undoes the frustration of those long checkout lines. That's what this survey reflects.</div>
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My premise, that the staff is what really creates the Trader Joe's brand experience, is supported by some of the many comments that have cropped up online, in the wake of this story breaking.</div>
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And, as I note in "Build a Brand Like Trader Joe's", the way you get that superior staff interaction is by paying a little more. Increasingly, customers are aware of the implications of shopping in stores that refuse to pay a living wage...</div>
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<b><i>Meanwhile, in other survey news...</i></b></div>
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It seems as if Consumers Union, the activist arm of the respected magazine Consumer Reports, timed the release of information about its own Trader Joe's survey to coincide with news about its #1 status among grocery customers generally.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Consumers Union has been working hard for the last year or two to make Trader Joe's the poster child for its campaign to reduce antibiotic use in the livestock industry. It surveyed over 1,000 Trader Joe's customers and learned that...</span></div>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">87 percent of Trader Joe's shoppers agreed that supermarkets and meat suppliers should work together to avoid giving food animals antibiotics unless they are sick, compared to 79 percent of other store shoppers</span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Only 23 percent of Trader Joe's meat shoppers were aware that the store sells meat raised on antibiotics but 72 percent were concerned about this policy</span></span></li>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">I address the disjunction between what Trader Joe's does, and what its customers think it does in my book.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">For more information on the antibiotics in TJ's meat issue, click <a href="http://traderjoessecrets.blogspot.com/search?q=antibiotics" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2639095059740146935.post-5733725088773238972013-07-09T18:07:00.000-07:002013-07-09T18:24:14.393-07:00Chicago blogger blasts broccoli, castigates cashier for kidding with kid with kid's cart<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A popular fitness blogger posted a funny rant on the Chicago Now blog, that you can read<a href="http://www.chicagonow.com/get-fit-chicago/2013/07/trader-joes-shopping-nightmare/" target="_blank"> here</a>.</div>
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The blogger, <a href="http://www.tracidmitchell.com/" target="_blank">Traci D. Mitchell</a>, is pretty astute; she's a careful reader of packaging, and was shocked to realize that her frozen broccoli had been picked & packed, and shipped frozen... from <i>China</i>. Regular readers of this blog--and anyone who's read my book--will know that TJ's carbon footprint is not consistent with its brand image.</div>
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I thought she was also on the money (and funny) when describing a painfully slow-but-cheerful checkout experience, involving a little kid pushing one of those cute half-size carts, accompanied by his doting mommy. That's the downside to Joe's policy--and brand strategy--of extending those employee-customer interactions. Although it works overall, when it fails, it drives customers crazy.</div>
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For what it's worth, Traci, those small carts drove me crazy when I was doing the 'cart run' out in the parking lot. They don't nest with the regular sized carts, and slow the process of returning the carts to the store. Eventually though, I realized that anything that extended the cart run was actually good for me; it gave me a welcome break from the madness of the store!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0