Trader Joe’s

Grocery shopping is something everyone has to do in their lives, at least a few times. Just about every week or so I’m at the grocery store. I’ve gone back and forth between all the different chains, but I keep finding myself going back to Trader Joe’s. Honestly, the biggest reason comes down to money but it’s also because I genuinely like the store and the set up better than any other stores. Yeah, Harris Teeter gives a student discount and yeah I have a loyalty to Publix as a former Floridian… but something about TJ’s always brings me back. And it’s because their store is so appealing.

  • Unfortunately I didn’t think to get a picture of this as I was also grocery shopping while taking these photos, but when you first walk into any TJ’s (I was at the one in Chapel Hill) immediately to your left or right are flowers. LOTS OF THEM. This puts a pleasant smell in your nose and a pretty picture in your head so you’re already in a better mood when you’re shopping. Kind of like how other stores place the bakery at the front of the store.
  • Trader Joe’s has fewer food options as compared to other grocers. So rather than having a hundred pasta sauces to choose from from twenty different brands, you have something like fourteen pasta sauces all from one brand. Having fewer options sounds like a bad thing, but I know that personally if I have too many options in front of me I end up feeling paralyzed and stressed. Having a smaller selection to choose from actually makes me feel like I have more control, and I know I’m not alone in this feeling.

  • One thing I find very clever about their store setup is their freezer section. There’s not a single closed casing in their freezer section. Nowhere in the store do you have to open a door to reach in and grab your food. This is a genius idea because there is no barrier between you and the food, so you’re more inclined to reach for something. They also have their cases on the floor and not at eye level which causes you to literally lean in and become familiar with the product to see what’s in the case.

  • Above these cases they have arrays of colorful, eye catching boxes and containers of all sorts of appealing snack foods. Ginger snaps, meringues, toffee cookies, mega chocolate bars, etc. Basically, they’re impulse purchases. And a lot of them. And they’re all really appealing. So the fact that you already have to pull yourself in to look at the products below puts you in the perfect place to look at the products directly in front of your face at eye level. As someone who is pursuing a business administration minor alongside my design studies degree I LOVE how they’ve paired these cases and the shelving of pretty products.

  • Each store has a personalized touch throughout the whole place. Each TJ’s has a local painter come in and paint a mural throughout the store. Plus all their packaging looks less commercial and more single-batch and artisanal.


Overall, Trader Joe’s does their hardest to make their stores comfortable while also getting you to spend more money, and they do a really good job of it which is why they’re such a popular grocer.

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