In Appreciation of the Trader Joes Shopping Experience

I couldn't have put it better. Richard Rushfield accurately describes the joy of shopping at Trader Joe's. He calls it the "Trader Joe's Miracle":

The remarkable thing about it wasn’t the overall price tag. It wasn’t even the fact that when I looked at the receipt there wasn’t single item that had cost more than four dollars. The miracle was that I had achieved this without even trying; that I hadn’t even really been paying attention to the prices and still walked away unscathed. When I awoke from the haze which comes over me when I enter a supermarket, I was stunned to discover this.

Why has this become so rare? The idea of going into a store that will give you decent quality goods for reasonable prices is practically unheard of outside of Trader Joes. Every other nook and cranny of our culture has been occupied people and companies lying in wait to reach their hand into your wallet and ring every last cent out of you the moment you let your guard down just a tiny bit..

To have one last refuge in the world where you can go shop and they are not trying to rob you blind with every decision really is nothing short of a miracle these days.

Hey, we're true Trader Joe's believers here at Franklin Avenue HQ! Meanwhile, read this chronicle of Trader Joe's successful strategy from this month's Los Angeles magazine.