Comments on: Trader Joe’s eschews the long tail

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 04:46:46 +0000

I don’t really buy any of this article, but maybe it’s because I don’t really like Trader Joe’s food selection, or their stores.

The last time I seriously made a price comparison for food shopping was around 2000. Stores were experimenting with putting their inventory online, so you could look through their inventory online and then pick up bags of groceries on your way home. This enabled me to compare exact item-for-item prices for national brands for about 100 different products that I bought for my family.

Anyway, I found that if you bought at Sam’s Club (similar to Costco) as opposed to typical regional grocery store chains, you saved about 40% overall. If you had a family, especially a large family, you’d be nuts to shop anywhere else, at least for staples.

By: Harper’s Notes

Harper’s Notes — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 14:14:45 +0000

A rather large number of businesses went bust in the middle and late 1980′s because a lot of money was available from downsizing elsewhere (the giant wave of mergers) and there was a lot of bad consulting advice about where to put businesses. Franchisees lost loads of money while the franchisers still made big profits, something of a scam at time. The importance of large chains putting their businesses in the optimal locations cannot be understated. TJ’s seems to have been uncommonly good at choosing locations that work well for their particular brand. I recall in Santa Barbara they temporarily set up shop across Milpas Street from the very long established food co-op, under-cutting their prices. As soon as the food co-op folded they moved about six blocks over to be next to the freeway. Location, location, location.

By: Kentucky Headhunter

Kentucky Headhunter — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 12:55:54 +0000

Bob,

Was that sarcasm or are you stupid? I’ll give the benefit of the doubt since its a Monday morning. The article excerpt was about what seems to be fairly smart business practices.

Anywho, there’s a TJ not far from us, but frankly there’s nothing really there that I like all that much. Got some good apples there once. Once. If others like that stuff, good for them.

Whole Foods is crazy expensive, and the staff are often hippie/idiots with amazingly large egos for being cashiers or shelf-stockers. Fuck, that.

By: HCM

HCM — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 12:48:16 +0000

Trader Joe’s is like an inefficient, unambitious Costco for people too high class to go to Costco.

Costco has low SKU and huge private label like Trader Joe’s, but it also features cheap prices for brand names and further cost reductions thanks to bulk. The fact that Costco profits from selling memberships and Trader Joe’s from selling groceries makes all the difference in the world as far as the experience is concerned.

By: Barnabas

Barnabas — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 12:14:31 +0000

Too many SKUs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PgbNQU3cYo

By: Bob Sykes

Bob Sykes — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 11:53:24 +0000

Just how successful is Trader Joe’s? There are only 485 stores nationwide, and eight states do not have a single store. The closest ones to me are the two (2!) in Columbus, OH, almost 60 miles away.

Whole Foods is smaller, maybe 470 stores nationwide, and one in Columbus.

Kroger operates almost 2,800 stores, and Walmart nearly 7,000 stores.

Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods are curiosities serving an arrogant bigoted elite.