Who Is the 'Joe' Behind Trader Joe's?

Weird History Food is making a grocery list to show you the History of Trader Joe's. Founded in California, the Trader Joe's grocery store has grown in popularity, to almost cult-like status, over the past few decades. But what makes Trader Joe's so unique? Well, we hope you like sea-themed grocery shopping because we are tracing TJ's from its inception to how they got "Two-Buck Chuck" to become the iconic must-bring bottle of wine to any party. Ahoy!

#traderjoes #grocery #weirdhistoryfood

[Lynn]

Trader Joe is easily my favorite supermarket chain. Good prices, great food, friendly workers, I've taken to doing the majority of my shopping there.

[tonyvargas]

About 15 years ago, I met Joe Coulombe at a party at Jones Coffee Roasters in Pasadena. Thank you Joe. You have our unwavering gratitude. Fun fact, a friend of mine lives in Joe’s former residence in San Marino CA.

[kleokleopatra]

TJs has been my favorite store since FOREVER !!!! real food/drink you can afford !!! and it is GOOD, tasty, varied !!!!

[jamiemason]

My neighborhood has a small furniture store named Trader Joe's that was established before Trader Joe's opened up in the state. He was here first so he didn't have to change the name of his store.

[radd.]

I wonder how Weird History Food is coming up with these unimaginably odd questions that someone has never asked before yet still leaves us wondering.

[NewMessage]

"Oh, is this Two Buck Chuck?" * sips *
"Nope.. the Oerther one."

[DatDudeVince]

These are the exact kind of videos I come here for. I'm constantly wikipedia'ing every company I can think of, to learn more, and have useless knowledge of. Thanks for the great upload.

[patrickdurham]

One of the Albrecht brothers owns what we call Aldi and the other has Trader Joe's. The brothers had an argument over the sale of cigarettes and split the company into Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud. Aldi Sud is what we now now as Aldi and Nord bought and operates Trader Joe's.
There's some useless but hopefully interesting facts!

[tremorsfan]

I like that they name their international brands different variations of Joe. Spanish food is Trader Jose and Italian food is Trader Giotto.

[caterinaborg]

They also had a robust mail order catalog published in black and white, mostly. That was the first time I ever heard of the store.

[Rheinhard]

My favorite TJ's products for a very long time have been their "Kettle Brewed" Unsweetened Black Iced Tea, and their TJ's Stevia. In the former case, I got used to drinking unsweetened iced tea all the time after living in Texas for a number of years, and completely cut all sweetened sodas and soft drinks from my diet. For a long time most other supermarkets didn't carry unsweetened tea -- they'd have "Diet Tea", which was tea with artificial sweetener, but I could never understand why tea+nothing was so hard to find anywhere else, and TJ's was the only game in town. Furthering the quest to cut down on sugar, a former co-worker from Central America introduced me to Stevia years ago. He said it used as a sweetener for ages in central and south American countries, just called "sweet plant". Completely natural, unlike the more common artificial sweeteners like saccharine or aspartame, but wasn't chemically absorbed by the body like sugar is. Unfortunately thanks to the efforts of the American sugar lobby on our Congress, enough Senators and Representatives were bought and paid for to keep the sale of stevia in the USA illegal -- as a sweetener. My co-worker explained that it could be sold instead as a "supplement", and that at the time TJ's carried it. I had used their stevia packets in my coffee for years.

However, just my luck, both of these products have been discontinued over the last year or two! 😞Fortunately the laws changed so stevia can now be sold as a sweetener, so there are several brands available in regular supermarkets (FYI I buy the "Stevia in the Raw" brand, because it's the only widely available one I've found which does not contain the additive erythritol, which some recent studies suggest could be harmful) And although the Kettle Black Tea has been discontinued, TJ's now also sells a Kettle White Tea with Mint, which I really enjoy in the evenings, as well as Oolong Tea (exactly the same kind of bottles that you'd find in vending machines in Japan!), so these make up for the loss! 🙂

[IntriguedLioness]

I love seeing that the very 1st Trader Joe's is still operating in Pasadena.

_(Slightly off topic)_ I currently live in Seattle blocks away from Pike Place and will never never walk into the touristy "original" starbucks... I often scoff and sometimes cajole tourists that will stand in line up to an hour just to get into that store which is the only place that they sell (coffee) and specific mugs and t-shirts.

BUT the original Trader Joe's!! I would actually make the trip if I still lived in California just to take selfies and maybe get another shopping bag!!

Oh, and really great food for a picnic!

[missfletcher]

I love trader Joe's. They have such unique items. It's a fun store to shop in.

[benjamingoldstein]

Aldi is an interesting piece of trivia since its not the same Aldi we have in the US which is Aldi Sud, Trader Joes is Aldi Nord.

[matthuck]

H-Mart!
I recently moved to a neighborhood that has one, and I'm a convert.

[airsoftman]

I've always joked that the one major criteria for any new TJ's store is that the parking lot needs to be horribly laid out with nowhere near enough spaces for the demand hahahaha

[RaynmanPlays]

I was genuinely shocked by how cheap the prices were when I went into Trader Joe's. For the higher-quality food (like grass-fed milk or beef, good dark chocolate, etc) or things like electrolyte water, the Trader Joe's in my town is actually cheaper than the Wal-mart less than a mile away. I kind of always thought of Trader Joe's as a smaller, more alcohol-focused Whole Foods, but they have really good deals.

Oh, and I don't drink, but I can understand why my sisters like Trader Joe's, being high-functioning alcoholics.

[emom]

I love Trader Joe's. When I lived in Illinois, my apartment was less than 20 from two, and a half hour from another. Now that I live in Alabama, the nearest TJ is over an hour away. 😢
My favourite product is the Orange Chicken, and chicken fried rice. I also love their line of frozen Indian foods.

[commandZee]

When I was younger I worked at two of the three original stores. The original idea was to serve the "over educated and under paid." The first 3 stores are located in Northeast Los Angeles where there are several colleges: CalTech, Occidental College, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena City College, and Glendale Community College.

[dalequale]

Trader Joe's is my weekly destination. 5 aisles instead of 20, grab my favorites, look around at anything new and the customers. It's always an uplifting event. Unique. 👍🙏