Trader Joe’s
No average Joe
Trader Joe’s is an American privately held chain of grocery stores founded by Joe Coulombe. Trader Joe’s have been successful business for long time with their unique innovative strategy of selling natural and organic food products with only one brand of an item for low price. Their unique culture of relaxed beach environment and helpful knowledgeable employees makes their customer to stay loyal to the brand. Eighty percent of Trader Joe’s has in-house products that differentiate them from competitors and hard to imitate. Trader Joe’s target young educated people who want to eat healthy for low prices. They can really expand their business by investing in marketing, social media, loyalty- card program and
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Moreover, other brand of an item might be more likable by the customers over Trader Joe’s brand. The intensity of competition is high as Whole Food and Kroger are trying imitate what Trader Joe’s are doing, and since they already have brand name achieved, it is not hard to get their prices down by negotiating with suppliers and making their own brand name organic food. In conclusion, the food and grocery industry is attractive since more companies are going towards natural and organic food. With right marketing techniques , good customer service and quality products, it would be good investment in this industry.
Environmental Scan Trader Joe’s demographics are college students, health conscious, out-of-work professors, and most important educated customers. Socio-Cultural environment shows that society is gearing towards more natural and organic food and becoming health conscious. More people are having homemade food from savings perspective. Political environment show that FTC has tighten regulation to keep competitive environment. Also, due to Obama Care there is some savings for people that makes grocery products more affordable. Technological environment shows that there is more Point of Sales systems available with electronic shelf labels and scanner. In addition, self-checkout registers and advertising through mobile apps are getting more common. Economic
Trader Joe’s chief executives have been careful in their expanding of the brand to more geographic locations, and they must continue to seek out their target market of “intelligent, educated, inquisitive individuals” and settle around them.
Founded in 1958 by Joe Coulombe and now established with more than 365 stores in the United States, Trader Joe 's has been serving customers with their unique business model. Trader Joe 's specializes in organic and natural food offering staples like milk, eggs, and other foods with below-average price points. Trader Joe’s encourage their customers to buy the product at a low price without having to be registered with the store. Once the company makes contacts with the manufacturer of the particular food product, it then establishes contracts with the producer to the supply the food and allocates the space needed in their store (Trader Joe’s, 2016).
How does a store like Trader Joe’s grow into a billion-dollar company with great ratings and demonstrate outstanding management skills? This company used the approach to stand out by being different as an effective measure to compete with the bigger grocery stores. Trader Joe’s business model intentionally kept the size of its stores small and holds fewer products than the larger grocers. They chose to frequently place new products on its shelves and revise ingredients to meet the customer’s needs. They also sell kitchen-tested products to entice new customers. They have also employed a creative marketing team to announce new private-label products to provide outstanding value. In addition to their unique way of doing business,
Trader Joe’s occupies a niche position in the grocery market by providing natural, organic and eclectic selection of wines, frozen food, prepared food and groceries at everyday low prices. They have a small area format with limited products which has put them in the top rank for sales per square feet.
After examining Trader Joe’s, and comparing it to Michael Porter’s generic strategies it was not very clear which method it was attempting to follow. It possesses qualities of both differentiation as well as price leadership. We believe that it is following focused differentiation but with a side of price leadership. This is demonstrated through the way that the company runs its stores, the products placed inside them, as well as its low price points.
Thirdly, Trader Joe’s stores are small and located in non-prime locations, which holds fixed operating costs at bay. Furthermore, the company is able to generate the industry’s highest sales per square feet in its small sized stores. In an effort to diversify from its competitors, Trader Joe’s also relies on a non-traditional marketing strategy. Completely neglecting conventional marketing techniques like commercials or promotional offers, the company focuses on unique and store specific in-store marketing with its newsletter and the occasional radio ad being its major means of communication with its customers. The Trader Joe’s brand with its vast fan base is naturally another part of the company’s competitive advantage.
“Trader Joe’s has designed jobs to increase job satisfaction by showing appreciation in providing more benefits to their employees than other chain grocers. They provide starting benefits including medical, dental, and vision insurance, company-paid retirement, paid vacation, and a 10% employee discount, Pg. w-100.” Traders Joes also recruits people with certain personality traits that the company wants in their stores. They are able to enrich their employees with knowledge of their products that they are selling, as well as inducing customer involvements. As a result, they are able to have higher job performance because they are able to train and
“At Trader Joe's, our mission is to bring our customers the best food and beverage values and the information to make informed buying decisions. There are more than 2000 unique grocery items in our label, all at honest everyday low prices. We work hard at buying things right: Our buyers travel the world searching for new items and we work with a variety of suppliers who make
Trader Joe's is no ordinary grocery chain. It's an offbeat, fun discovery zone that elevates food shopping from a chore to a cultural experience. It stocks its shelves with a winning combination of low-cost, yuppie-friendly staples (cage-free eggs and organic blue agave sweetener) and exotic, affordable luxuries -- Belgian butter waffle cookies or Thai lime-and-chili cashews -- that you simply can't find anyplace else.
Trader Joe’s in not a super mega store or chain. Each of its location have an average of about 10,000 S.F. This limits the variety of product that they carry but does not limit their variety. This means that they don’t carry your staple products from Kellogg’s, Kroger, General Mills, etc. like Walmart or Safeway but allows them to carry their own versions of such foods and hard to find products that their competitors don’t carry. Most grocery chains carry around 50,000 sku’s in each of their stores, Trader Joe’s carry only around 4,000 sku’s, 80% of which carry its own private label (Kowitt, 2010). Fortune magazine also estimated sales to be $1,750 in merchandise per square foot. This more than doubles sales of its nearest competitor, Whole Foods. If a product doesn’t carry its own weight, it is gone to make room for
Where the employees wear Hawaiian shirts, interact with customer as if they are part of the Trader Joes family and are experts on their products. The Trader Joe’s mission statement, as stated on their website, is to “The mission of Trader Joe's is to give our customers the best food and beverage values they can find anywhere and to provide them with the information required to make informed buying decisions. We provide these with a dedication to the highest quality of customer satisfaction delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, fun, individual pride, and company
Trader Joe’s is a major food retailer who has developed quite the name for themselves. It has well over 350 stores in over 32 states and is expected to continually grow over the next few years (Bond, 2012). For over 50 years, Trader Joe’s has been providing quality customer services, products and a unique shopping experience for its customers. They have come a very long way from when they first officially opened their doors. Trader Joe’s started when its founder Joe Coulombe wanted to find a way to differentiate his 7-Eleven stores (Schermerhorn, Osborn, Uhl-Bien & Hunt, 2012). In the food retailer industry, Trader Joe’s has developed a process that works well and
Firstly, it is important to remember the current situation of Trader Joe’s in USA, the company has over 400 stores in 30 states and is the leader in customer service in USA. However, the company is not on the top ten supermarkets in sales category. Additionally, Trader Joe’s just operates in USA and does not have experience in other international markets. (Peterson, 2013)
The organic food industry has seen a huge spike in growth that is expected to continue into the future due to an increase in consumption. This will provide Whole Foods Market with huge opportunities. In addition, a wave of ethical and responsible consumption has swept across America. Whole Foods’ decision to pursue sustainable activities will certainly give consumers an added incentive to purchase its organic products.
Trader Joe’s is an organic grocery food store that is one of the best known organic food chains. By listening to the consumer and adjusting to the changing consumer market, Trader Joe’s had built a brand equity that is continuously growing. Trader Joe’s faces stiff competition from other large organic food chains therefore must stand out and adapt to the consumers’ needs. Marketing strategies are important to communicate to the consumer more effectively and help target the consumer to their product. Trader Joe’s segments its products by psychographic, behavioral and demographic characteristics