Categories: Articles

Trader Joe's Is Not In Enough Cities

When I was younger we used to travel from Montreal to Plattsburgh, New York in order to get a “fix” for everything that was not available in Quebec.
At the time, this included Burger King, Pizza Hut, Combos, Toys R Us and other treats that a young growing boy requires (I sometimes still make the run when I get a Taco Bell itch).
In a world gone flat, there’s really very little left that we can’t get either through a major retailer or a specialty store. It’s even less when you factor in online shopping and eBay. Everything except for one of the best food and shopping experiences: Trader Joe’s.
In a bizarre twist, I had just come back from New York City where I packed up the car with all kinds of Trader Joe’s goodies including Wasabi Mayo, sesame seed and honey encrusted cashew nuts, wicked flat bread, incredible trail mix, a high protein crunch cereal and much more.
As I was lamenting over the fact that I can’t get anything like this in Montreal, I got my daily dose of Reveries – Cool News Of The Day with this feature: Trader Joe Secrets.
I love this quote: “This sounds crazy,” says one shopper, “but you feel like this company likes food more than they like money … You don’t feel that at the supermarket.”
So, we have new grocers like Whole Foods, etc… and, as marketers, we’re as fascinated as ever in the concepts of Purple Cow by Seth Godin. And here comes Trader Joe’s. Great selection, great prices and without the hugeness of most stores. It feels more like an old school general store and speaks to a specific clientele. All of that, and the story it tells is truly remarkable.
What will it take to get a Trader Joe’s in Montreal?
What will it take for marketers to role model themselves after Trader Joe’s?
Why won’t anybody import Airborne Formula into Montreal?
You can read the article here: Reveries – Cool News Of The Day – Trader Joe Secrets.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.