DISCUSSION
‘All you need is love, love, love’ to work at Trader Joe’s
Written by George Anderson
Trader Joe’s culture is its secret sauce. It’s why the grocer doesn’t just have customers — It has fans.
On Episode 52 of the “Inside Trader Joe’s” podcast, the hosts and guests discuss what it takes to find the right people to add to its store crews.
Ty, no last name given, is a captain (store manager) at a TJ’s in Colorado.
“We just look for really nice people that love people,” he said. “We can kind of teach the crew to run register and stock shelves. That kind of stuff is not what's important. What's important is if you really like people.”
Building a store culture is also about love, according to Ty.
“It's hard to talk about Trader Joe's without talking about love because if you talk to anybody about Trader Joe's, they're eventually gonna mention it. They love a product, or they love shopping at our stores, but a lot of it is, they love working here, you know, and that in and of itself is sort of our culture, right?
So how do stores find the right crew members?
“People who express their love for Trader Joe's in the application are the ones that really catch our eye,” he said. “They put a couple of sentences about why they wanna work here. They've shopped with us for years or they grew up on Trader Joe's. That's a big one.”
Episode 50 of the “Insider Trader Joe’s” podcast included an interview with Jon Basalone, president of stores at the chain. His answers mirror those of the store captain in Episode 52.
“The goal is to hire nice, kind, empathetic individuals, and then just turn them loose. And so the customer service training is pretty simple. It's, you know, be yourself. We hired you for a reason. We hired you for you. You don't have to become something else or transform yourself into something to work at Trader Joe's,” he said.
TJ’s judges how well stores are working by the answers to two questions, said Mr. Basalone. “Is this a place where I'd want to shop and is this a place where I'd want to work?”
He added, “If the answer's yes, to both of those you kind of feel it and know it. If the answer is no to one of them, you might say, “Well, why do I feel that way and what is causing that and what can we do to help here?”
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