Fostering loyalty at Trader Joe’s
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 11:18 AM

Just up the road from me, 10 minutes from my house, is a Trader Joe's. The store is part of the off-beat, California-based grocery chain that serves up a range of organic and other foods, often under their own brand, at eminently reasonable prices in a friendly, laid-back, even fun shopping environment.

Every time I visit, I wonder about the business brains behind this outfit. For instance, how do they make a profit on "Two-buck Chuck", the impressive Charles Shaw vineyard wines that go for $2 a bottle out west and just $3/bottle here in Massachusetts?

Now a new book, excerpted in Workforce Management magazine, pokes its nose under Joe's tent to find out how they do it:

A look at the corporate culture, compensation practices and management style at the specialty grocery chain. According to this excerpt from a new book about Trader Joe’s, “you’ve got all the ingredients of world-class labor practices that don’t go unappreciated by employees or unnoticed by customers.”