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

by Patty Civalleri

if you adopt a reasonable strategy, as opposed to waiting for an optimum strategy, and stick with it, you’ll probably succeed. Tenacity is as important as brilliance.

This is the most important single business decision I ever made: to pay people well.

Time and again I am asked why no one has successfully replicated Trader Joe’s. The answer is that no one has been willing to pay the wages and benefits, and thereby attract—and keep—the quality of people who work at Trader Joe’s.