Zócalo's Connecting California
Not your average Joe
Trader Joe’s has made itself an iconic California business by proving that less can be more.
Zocalo Public Square commentator Jose Mathews says we’d probably all be a little happier if we were more like Trader Joe’s. Not by wearing Hawaiian shirts. No, Mathews says Trader Joe’s has achieved retail sublimity by eliminating an over-abundance of choices and sticking with things that have personal value to its customers. It’s a philosophy that may be at odds with our state’s out-sized ambitions, but Mathews says it’s one we ought to take to heart.