Very Interesting Read on Trader Joe's

Nice pay, but I'd need more than that to interact with those awful yuppies on a daily basis. Puke.

 

I read this article yesterday. I thought the article was interesting as well. But I'm weird too. There is just one small store here in Pittsburgh and it's not real convenient to where I live or work. But if I'm nearby, I will very often stop. I love their hummus.

 

Low-six-figures covers copious quantities of airline-sickness bags.

 

Still not enough.

 

Good stuff at a good price with good employees.

That is a good business model.

For some background...

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/69255/

 

One of the people who lost their jobs when my paper went down landed at a Trader Joe's for a few months. She really liked it -- of course, her personality synched up with the store culture perfectly, so that helped. Didn't realize salaries were so high even at that level (the full-time crew member numbers are a touch misleading, only in that most of the crew is PT, from what I understand).

The shoppers do seem somewhat cultic, though. One time there I put my sunglasses on and the bottles of Two Buck Chuck bore labels that read OBEY, and the ringing bell sound was replaced by a computerized voice repeating the word CONSUME. Now I can't find my sunglasses.

 

Jeez . . . they're willing to pay for good employees.

What a concept.

 

The stores described in the story are nothing like the one near me. A cluttered, messy and dirty shitbox with limited fruits, vegetables and meat.

 

I will say....someone in the office brought in some cookies from there once, gingersnaps I think, and they were delicious.

 

The yuppie thing is definitely not overrated in the DC area. Ugh.

The Whole Foods around here is about the same, but the meat coolers make me cised! Little expensive, though.

But on a yuppie scale from 1-10 (at least around here), I'd give Trader Joe's a solid 8 and Whole Foods an easy 10.