Trader Joe’s Market Analysis:
Opportunities in the Chinese Market

裴素珊，范捷明，罗华婷
商务中文 － 冯老师
2011年5月9日

Introduction to Trader Joe’s: Success in the American Market

Company Overview

Trader Joe’s was originally founded as a small convenience store in a suburb of Los Angeles, California, and has since grown to be one of the most successful small grocery store chains in the United States. Trader Joe’s strives to provide consumers with fresh, hard-to-find foods at affordable prices. By stocking 80% of their shelves with products sourced and produced by Trader Joe’s, the innovative grocery store does not need to pay additional fees to external companies, allowing it to keep prices low. This strategy also ensures that Trader Joe’s bears responsibility for the vast majority of the quality of its food products, an important distinction from other chain supermarket chains that may unknowingly source unclean or unsafe goods.

History

The convenience stores that are now Trader Joe’s were originally called Pronto Markets and were similar to the well-known 7-Eleven stores. The owner of Pronto Markets, Joe Coulombe, opened the first official Trader Joe’s store in Pasadena, California in 1967. In the following decades, Trader Joe’s expanded to locations throughout the United States. The 1970s and 1980s saw a significant increase of Trader Joe’s stores in California, and the store expanded to Arizona, its first location outside of California, in 1993. In 1995, the company expanded its market to the Pacific Northwest, opening branches in Oregon and Washington, and in 1996, they saw the establishment of the first Trader Joe’s on the East Coast in Brookline, Massachusetts. In 2002, Trader Joe’s began selling Charles Shaw wine, which has become one of the company’s trademark food items. Today, consumers can shop at any of the 355 Trader Joe’s stores in 28