Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Stil…

Stability of price levels within the store. There is a dichotomy between conventional retailers who cut prices and advertise for a limited period of time (usually weekends) and the one-price retailers like Costco and Trader Joe’s.

Growth for the sake of growth still troubles me. It seems unnatural, even perverted.

I liked semi-decayed neighborhoods, where the census tract income statistics looked terrible, but the mortgages were all paid-down, and the kids had left home. Housing and rental prices tend to be lower, and more suitable for those underpaid academics. Related to this, I was more interested in the number of households in a given area than the numbe

The calculus of what do I risk if I sell included the fact that Trader Joe’s was my Zen window on the world. I experienced the world mostly through Trader Joe’s. That’s an advantage of being self-employed. That window can never be as open while you’re an employee, even a Frederick-Forsyth rich one, even one given great discretion by absentee owners