Review: In the posthumous memoir 'Becoming Trader Joe,' company founder Joe Coulombe offers a how-to-succeed-in-business chronicle filled with enjoyable behind-the-scenes anecdotes and insights
Victorino MatusTo determine what products to sell in his stores when he began his business a half-century ago, Joe Coulombe applied what he calls the Four Tests: “high value per cubic inch; high rate of consumption; easily handled; and something in which we could be outstanding in terms of price or assortment.” That’s how Trader Joe’s ended up selling bullets.
Granted, it was California in the 1960s, a time before gun-control laws took hold in the state. Following the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, however, and a slew of regulations limiting the sale of ammunition, Coulombe decided to pull bullets from his shelves. Besides, there were other deals to be made—in wine, maple syrup, even Brie. The key was adaptability.
Actually, there are many keys to creating a thriving company, and Coulombe shares them all in “Becoming Trader Joe,” a memoir and how-to-succeed-in-business chronicle that appears posthumously. Among other essentials: Be well informed ; offer generous worker pay to reduce turnover ; and be wary of opening a store with access to a freeway. “Holdups are most common in stores which are closest to freeway on-ramps, because it’s easier to make a getaway.
From 1967 to 1988, Coulombe ran Trader Joe’s, and ran it beautifully. Although he sold the company to the Albrecht family in 1979, it still bears the imprint of his original idea. “We went from leveraged to the gills in the early days to zero leverage by 1975,” he writes, adding that “we never lost money in a year, and each year was more profitable than the preceding year despite wild swings in the income tax rates.
“The fundamental job of a retailer is to buy goods whole, cut them into pieces, and sell the pieces to the ultimate consumers,” Coulombe writes. “This is the most important mental construct I can impart to those of you who want to enter retailing.
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