The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket

by Benjamin Lorr

At one point, tenure under Joe almost became a liability, the company bottling up far more human capacity than it had stores to place them. This surplus of qualified employees goes a long way toward explaining the success of TJ’s rapid expansion from 1990 to 2001, where it moved from a small-to-midsized highly regional chain of 30 to 40 stores to an aggressively growing national brand of 485 stores today. An expansion like that often kills a grocery chain, yet here it was a balm as hundreds of assistant managers found a route to advancement in a company they loved and would never leave but which had kept their talents confined. These were golden retrievers straining at the leash and when the reins were loosened it allowed the chain to go nationwide in a relative blink.