Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys

by Patty Civalleri

“informative advertising,” a term borrowed from the famous entrepreneur Paul Hawken, who started publishing in the Whole Earth Review in the early 1980s. These informative texts were intended to stress how our products were differentiated from ordinary stuff.

One should never use a mandatory sentence in addressing a customer; should never give orders. The subliminal message of a Trader Joe’s commercial is, “We’re gonna be around for a long time. If you miss out on this bargain, there’ll be another. If you have the time and inclination . . .”

table grapes are the largest single cause of slip-and-fall accidents in grocery stores.