Freakonomics Radio
Should America Be Run by… Trader Joe’s?
The quirky little grocery chain with California roots and German ownership has a lot to teach all of us about choice architecture, efficiency, frugality, collaboration, and team spirit
Imagine a chain of grocery stores with no branded items, no television advertising or social media strategy, no coupons, no loyalty program, narrow aisles, small parking lots, and dramatically less selection than the typical grocery store. Does this sound like a company destined for success?
Not only does such a grocery store chain exist, but they’re crushing the competition. Customers love this place; it’s also ranked among the 100 best American companies to work for. What’s this grocery store chain called? Trader Joe’s.
How do they do it? This is not an easy question to answer because Trader Joe’s is a fairly secretive company. So, we put on our Freakonomics goggles in an attempt to reverse engineer the secrets of Trader Joe’s. Which, it turned out, are incredibly freakonomical. In fact, if Freakonomics were a grocery store, it might be a Trader Joe’s, or at least try to be. So here’s the big question: if Trader Joe’s is really so good, should their philosophy be…
