Recipe Station

A former Trader Joe's employee was asked what makes the company so great. What is it that they do different that makes it's customers flock to it in a cult-like fashion and this is what they had to say.

There's a reason the customer service is so good.

Trader Joe's strategy in providing a quality customer-service experience is simple: overstaff. “They totally overstaff so that you don't feel like your stocking duties or your register duties trump interacting with customers — they encourage you to be nice to customers.” That's why you can almost always find someone in a Hawaiian t-shirt or crew-member uniform walking around and waiting to help you find anything.

The employees try all the new products so they know what to tell customers.

“Each Trader Joe's has a break room, and they have one person who's in charge of cooking new stuff that the store gets and making it available for the entire staff who comes through the store that day to try it. They want you to try all the products so you can have an opinion so that when you recommend stuff to people, it's not baseless.”

They donate all unsold food.

“Trader Joe's donates a ton of food. It's called ‘spoils,' which just means it's not in perfect shape. There's nothing wrong with eating a lime with a couple brown spots, but if you wouldn't buy it and be excited about buying it, then it gets put with spoils and typically gets donated. They donate flowers, produce — everything — to local organizations.”

You can return ANYTHING.

Seriously, you could open a bag of popcorn, try it, and bring it back if you didn't like it — for a full refund. “You see that a lot. You get people who come back and say, ‘Hey, I tried it, but I didn't really like it.'” Excuse me while I go try every single thing in the snack aisle.

The pay is REALLY good.

This guy started out at Trader Joe's making $12/hour, which was above the state's minimum wage. You not only start out making a good amount, but it gets even better quickly. After three months of working more than 30 hours a week, you get health insurance and a 401K. You'll also likely get a raise once or twice a year. A friend of this employee worked at Trader Joe's for over five years and made $21/hour — that's an annual salary of $42K.

Any business book or guru you speak to will tell you that when you put the customer first and profitability second you will succeed. Even if it sounds like it should be the other way around if you do not treat your customers and employees well there will be no profit. It seems that Trader Joe's has grasped this idea and has run with it and that is why they continue to have success.