Eastern Idaho will probably never get their dream store due to logistics for trucking, they have no stores in Montana, Wyoming, or the Dakotas too.
A store is opening in a (still operational for now it seems) furniture store, which was at one point a "discount store," according to county property tax records. It's immediately across from a natural foods focused grocer, so they probably won't be too happy.
SamSpade wrote: ↑March 22nd, 2024, 3:11 pm
Eastern Idaho will probably never get their dream store due to logistics for trucking, they have no stores in Montana, Wyoming, or the Dakotas too.
A store is opening in a (still operational for now it seems) furniture store, which was at one point a "discount store," according to county property tax records. It's immediately across from a natural foods focused grocer, so they probably won't be too happy.
For a company that seems to be expanding at a quicker rate lately, they sure do seem to have a problem with noticeably increased product recalls (as reported all over).
Not that this is connected but just sayin.............................
veteran+ wrote: ↑March 23rd, 2024, 10:05 am
For a company that seems to be expanding at a quicker rate lately, they sure do seem to have a problem with noticeably increased product recalls (as reported all over).
Not that this is connected but just sayin.............................
And out of stocks... I have reduced how often I shop there due to not finding what I go in for so many times... but the stores seem busier than ever and their prices are lower than the conventional grocers.
I wonder how the distribution system will handle the expansions.
veteran+ wrote: ↑March 23rd, 2024, 10:05 am
For a company that seems to be expanding at a quicker rate lately, they sure do seem to have a problem with noticeably increased product recalls (as reported all over).
Not that this is connected but just sayin.............................
And out of stocks... I have reduced how often I shop there due to not finding what I go in for so many times... but the stores seem busier than ever and their prices are lower than the conventional grocers.
I wonder how the distribution system will handle the expansions.
Same experience for me.
Cults work in mysterious ways (like I&O and other obsessions).
veteran+ wrote: ↑March 23rd, 2024, 10:05 am
For a company that seems to be expanding at a quicker rate lately, they sure do seem to have a problem with noticeably increased product recalls (as reported all over).
Not that this is connected but just sayin.............................
And out of stocks... I have reduced how often I shop there due to not finding what I go in for so many times... but the stores seem busier than ever and their prices are lower than the conventional grocers.
I wonder how the distribution system will handle the expansions.
Same experience for me.
Cults work in mysterious ways (like I&O and other obsessions).
I am hoping once my area has two new locations opened, the issues with not being in stock will be resolved.
The customers in the Reno Trader Joe's have become very rude also. Many of them complain to each other (as they are "excusing each other" to grab items around each other, etc.) how it is the only location and how there were so many more locations wherever they came from (probably from the bay area). The Reno Whole Foods is also very busy but the customer attitude there isn't like this at all, more of a sterile attitude there. Trader Joe's used to be a very laid back place but it has gotten very uptight the past couple years and I think it is the customers causing that.
veteran+ wrote: ↑March 24th, 2024, 9:15 am
That tense thing is coming from the employees as well and has been the trend since at least 2005.
The employees in Reno are great, no complaints there. They are friendly, work efficiently, and there are a lot of them. The customers are having attitude with each other as opposed to projecting their lousy attitude onto the employees. It has become a strange store with some very strange customers.
And walking/driving through the parking lot... yikes. I've started to park far away at the CVS (which has almost no customers) and take a walk over to Trader Joe's via the sidewalk in front of CVS to avoid the 3-4 rows of parking where Trader Joe's is.
veteran+ wrote: ↑March 23rd, 2024, 10:05 am
For a company that seems to be expanding at a quicker rate lately, they sure do seem to have a problem with noticeably increased product recalls (as reported all over).
Not that this is connected but just sayin.............................
And out of stocks... I have reduced how often I shop there due to not finding what I go in for so many times... but the stores seem busier than ever and their prices are lower than the conventional grocers.
I wonder how the distribution system will handle the expansions.
They are building a massive new distribution center in the Lancaster-Palmdale area. Not sure where else.
Ordering is 100% manual at Trader Joe's. Those who are trained on ordering have the sales data at their fingertips along with availability that updates daily. There are no planograms and the stores generally have very little back room space (if any) so overstock is a serious problem. Some top volume stores have morning and evening trucks and order twice a day. We should all be happy that Trader Joe's doesn't automate this work, a vast difference between their Aldi cousins.
So what tends to happen is one store decides that they want to make an endcap of 3 Cheese Pasta Sauce so they order 300 cases because it's an existing item that isn't inventory constrained. Their buddy who runs the store across town hears it worked well and does the same. Suddenly they create "haves and have nots" as these few stores deplete the warehouse and the item is now constrained to whatever number of cases arrive daily or weekly until back stock is built in the warehouse again. Now every store can only order 3 cases a day regardless of how much they sell while the buyer has asked the vendor to push a extra large order of 5,000 more cases to the warehouse next month so things stabilize. Meanwhile, those big endcaps at the few stores that remained in stock dwindle down and eventually need to change out to something else. Since there isn't another "Fearless Flyer" with new featured items to be ordered until next month, now the Manager decides he's going to change that into an Alfredo sauce endcap and orders 300 cases. And tells his buddy at the store across town... You can see how this creates these localized out of stock issues.
But I'd rather have the stores be different, creative, and cater to the local community as they are today versus becoming another boring Aldi clone. Plus the entire concept is the bottom third of SKUs are changed out to something else annually so they fully intend for you to (hopefully) find two or three new items you just have to buy every time you come in, even if one item is out of stock or has been discontinued. Obviously it works for them as they seem to be able to have enough labor to stock shelves 24/7 if necessary in the smaller, busier stores, as well as the capital needed to build additional stores to spread out the business elsewhere and create a net positive in overall sales each time they expand.
veteran+ wrote: ↑March 23rd, 2024, 10:05 am
For a company that seems to be expanding at a quicker rate lately, they sure do seem to have a problem with noticeably increased product recalls (as reported all over).
From their September 7, 2018 podcast, they claim to be extra careful about any chance of recall, compared to their competition and some mainstream brands (hid the transcript with the spoiler flag as it is somewhat long):
► Show Spoiler
Tara: We don't want you to be disappointed in a Trader Joe's product. And of course the last thing we
ever want is to have a product recall.
Erin: I have been on the Trader Joe's recall committee for over a decade.
Tara: This is Erin Baker. Erin is the vice president of marketing communication, which basically means
that she heads up the group that tells everybody all there is to know about Trader Joe's products.
Erin: Our decision making process is very simple. "What's the best thing to do for the safety and well-
being of our customers?"
Tara: That's it.
Erin: It's not our bottom line and it's also not about our reputation. It's really about our customer safety
and well-being.
Tara: You just brought up a really interesting point. It's not about our reputation. Even if it's a
nationwide recall that involves lots of different companies, we're the ones who are communicating the
most. So our name is at the top of those press releases from news agencies.
Erin: A recent example with a worldwide recall of a very popular, very well known beer. We
immediately pulled the product from sale, which is what we do. We sent a notice to our stores so that
they were aware, and asked them to post signs. We posted that information also on our website and
we blast it out to our list of email subscribers. And within days the world wide, very popular, well-known
brand became the “Trader Joe's recall” for this beer.
Matt: “No good deed goes unpunished.” But that's, that's the wrong perspective on it. . . So while there are aspects of our product supply chain that are
beyond our direct control, we will never leave to chance the safety of the products we offer. We stop
selling them if there's any doubt about the safety or the quality of those products in question, and this
can lead us into a leading edge position or an advanced position, maybe ahead of the curve. And I think
that that's why oftentimes these situations end up being branded or framed up as a Trader Joe's recall,
even if it is of a type of beer that you can buy almost everywhere.
Tara: How do we deal with a recall when it's a product that is specifically our product with our name on
it? Is there any difference?
Erin: We deal with any product recall the same way. This is years and years ago now, but there was a
recall related to glass found in a jar of pear sauce and...
Tara: So like applesauce, but with pears, right?
Erin: Exactly. And we discovered it because a customer informed us that the glass was found after
feeding the product to her child. We immediately pulled that product from sale, and we recalled all of
it. The customer had actually broken a glass in her dishwasher, and there had been nothing wrong with
the product.
Tara: We take action immediately, even if we don't have full answers immediately.
Erin: We treat others as we would expect to be treated, and... There were no regrets!
