Trader Joe’s

**Ben Gilbert** (0:00)
I decided today needed to be an all-Trader Joe's day. Actually, I got to show you. Check out my haul.

**David Rosenthal** (0:06)
Oh, tote bag. You are styling. Take that to Europe.

**Ben Gilbert** (0:12)
I've got some two buck chuck.

**David Rosenthal** (0:15)
Nice.

**Ben Gilbert** (0:16)
Got so many nuts.

**David Rosenthal** (0:18)
So many nuts.

**Ben Gilbert** (0:19)
Some chocolate, some cheese, little picnic we're going to have here in the recording studio. All right. Here I am popping this bottle of Charles Shaw, and we are ready to go.

**David Rosenthal** (0:32)
All right. That might be the nicest line opener that has ever been used. Two buck chuck.

**Ben Gilbert** (0:40)
All right. Let's do it. Welcome to the fall 2025 season of Acquired, the podcast about great companies and the stories and playbooks behind them. I'm Ben Gilbert.

**David Rosenthal** (1:06)
I'm David Rosenthal.

**Ben Gilbert** (1:07)
And we are your hosts. Peanut butter filled pretzel nuggets, some Hold the Cone mini ice cream cones, plantain chips and mandarin orange chicken. These are a few of the items I picked up this week on my trip to Trader Joe's. You know, David had to do a research trip. It was mandatory.

**David Rosenthal** (1:25)
Had to do the research trip.

**Ben Gilbert** (1:27)
I don't think I've ever spent more money at Trader Joe's because I just said yes to everything. It felt like I needed to have it all.

**David Rosenthal** (1:36)
But you couldn't have spent that much money. That's part of the point.

**Ben Gilbert** (1:38)
Listeners, America seems to have an obsession with this grocery store Trader Joe's. It's a strange mashup of a health food store that carries interesting and quirky products, inspired by traveling the South Seas, but for value conscious shoppers. And they break every rule in grocery retailing. It's not that convenient. They don't stock all the things you need to buy each week. You can't buy online. You can't get it delivered in any way, even as the whole world turns to grocery e-commerce. Parking is reliably horrible. I mean, every Trader Joe's I've ever been to.

**David Rosenthal** (2:17)
Part of the strategy, Ben. It's part of the strategy.

**Ben Gilbert** (2:19)
Apparently, the stores are small and I'm always bumping into other shoppers. There's never any sales or discounts and they don't offer any coupons. They sell almost none of your favorite known brand names. And their produce leaves a lot to be desired. And yet people love it. I mean, in an era where most grocery chains are being disrupted, Trader Joe's cult following has driven it to be more successful than ever, as far as we can tell from the outside at least, because it is an intensely private company.

**David Rosenthal** (2:51)
Yes, it is.

**Ben Gilbert** (2:52)
But this is the perfect example of something that we talk a lot about on Acquired, aligning all the trade-offs you make in your business to all work together in a beautiful self-reinforcing puzzle. Trader Joe's is not the best grocery store, but it might be your favorite store. Today, we dive into how this travel-themed, pseudo-healthy national neighborhood grocery chain came to exist from the unlikeliest of places as a clone trying to rip off 7-Eleven in the 1960s.

**David Rosenthal** (3:26)
I mean, I wrote this whole script and everything you just said is accurate, but it sounds ridiculous.

**Ben Gilbert** (3:33)
Should we just stop the episode there? Do you feel that's sufficient?
All right. Well, listeners, if you want to know every time an episode drops, join our email list. You will also get to vote on future episode topics, get corrections from past episodes, see all the images that we are talking about in episodes. That's acquired.fm slash email. After you listen, come talk about this with the entire Slack community, acquired.fm slash Slack. If you want more acquired, check out our interview show ACQ2. Search ACQ2 in any podcast player to listen. And before we dive in, we want to briefly thank our presenting partner, JP. Morgan Payments.

**David Rosenthal** (4:09)
Yes. Just like how we say, every company has a story. Every company story is powered by payments, and JP. Morgan Payments is a part of so many of their journeys from seed to IPO and beyond.

**Ben Gilbert** (4:19)
So with that, David, happy 10-year anniversary.

**David Rosenthal** (4:22)
Happy 10-year anniversary.

**Ben Gilbert** (4:24)
Toast my two-buck chuck to you right now.

**David Rosenthal** (4:26)
You've got the two-buck chuck open. Ben, I've got mine sitting right here. I'm waiting to open it until the end of the episode when I tell the amazing story of how it came to be. Cheers.