The visionary retailer gathered exotic foods in fun and extravagant shops
Opening of a Joe’s Trader on October 18, 2013 in Pinecrest, Florida.
Photo:
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
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Joe Coulombe, The retailer that created a very original and successful chain of stores, imagined a new generation of young grocery shoppers that emerged in the 1960s, one that wanted healthy, tasty, high-quality foods that they couldn’t find in most supermarkets, and they could not afford to buy in the few high-end gourmet establishments, AP reports.
So he found a new way to take everything from an exotic appetizer called granola to wines produced in California that, for its taste, compare to anything in France. He made buying them almost as fun as sailing on the high seas when he created the Trader Joe’s, a peculiar grocery store, full of nautical themes and attended not by managers and employees, but by “captains and colleagues”.
From the moment he opened his first store in Pasadena, California, in 1967 until his death on Friday at 89, Coulombe saw how his homonymous business went from being a cult favorite of educated but poorly paid young people, and some hippies, to a retail giant with more than 500 outlets in more than 40 states.
After selling Trader Joe’s to the German grocery retailer Aldi In 1979, Coulombe remained as its CEO until 1988, when he left to launch a second career as what he called a “temp”, arriving as interim CEO or consultant for several large companies in transition. He retired in 2013.
Coulombe created a giant itself, but for more than half a century he has never lost his reputation for friendly service by employees dressed in silly Hawaiian shirts, a newsletter that seems published in the 1890s and rows and rows of healthy food at prices Moderate and high quality, and great wine, even if sometimes you can’t find exactly the same.
“I wanted to make sure that everything that was sold in our store had good value,” said Coulombe’s son, also called Joe, who added that his father died after a long illness. “He always did a lot of taste tests. My sisters and I remember him bringing home all kinds of things for us to try. In his offices he had practically daily tastings of new products. The goal was always to provide good food and good value to people. ”
He did this by buying directly from the wholesalers and eliminating the intermediary, in many cases by placing the name of Trader Joe’s in a bag of nuts, or in a mixture of nuts, dried organic mango, honey and oatmeal cereal or Angus chili. He called several products after his daughters Charlotte and Madeleine and gave extravagant names to others.
The stories differ on how the name of Trader Joe’s, and some say he was inspired by a trip on the Disneyland Jungle Cruise ship or a book he read called “White Shadows in the South Seas” or his favorite college place that is a Trader Vic bar near Stanford.
Coulombe, who loved to travel, recognized over the years that he was fascinated with the South Seas and put Trader in the name and a nautical theme inside the stores to lend that exotic appeal to customers.
In addition to his three children and his wife of 67 years, Coulombe is survived by six grandchildren.
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