Joe Coulombe, the founder of Trader Joe’s, passed away at his home in Pasadena, California away after an extended illness. Trader Joe’s is one of the most enduring grocery chains in the country.
Joe was born in 1930 in the middle of the depression. He grew up on an avocado ranch near San Diego. Later in life, he served in the U.S. Air Force and got a B.A. in economics and an MBA from Stanford.
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Joe’s path to Trader Joe’s began in the late 1950’s with a modest series of convenience stores by the name of Pronto. He had been hired by Rexall to operate them. Joe worked in a grocery store for free to learn the ins and outs of the business. Within several years, and not enough support from Rexall, Joe purchased the Pronto stores and ran them on his own. Soon after, competition from 7-Eleven was fierce, and Joe knew he needed to step up his grocery game.
He had recently seen statistics that education levels in the U.S. were booming, and that gave him an idea: Why not cater to this better-educated, better-traveled — but still modestly salaried — class of customer? He explained:
“All Trader Joe’s were located near centers of learning. Pasadena, where I opened the first one, was because Pasadena is the epitome of a well-educated town. I reframed this: Trader Joe’s is for overeducated and underpaid people, for all the classical musicians, museum curators, journalists — that’s why we’ve always had good press, frankly!”
He decorated the Pasadena store with a nautical decor after reading a book called “White Shadows in the South Seas.” The Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland also inspired him. Employees at the store wore Hawaiian shirts and were called captain and first mates.
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In 1972, Joe and the emerging company went one step further by launching the Trader Joe’s label and sticking quirky names on healthy, relatively low-priced foods such as granola, which was the company’s first private-label product. Trader Joe’s also produced the famously cheap Charles Shaw wine — perhaps better known by the nickname “two-buck Chuck” in California.
Joe sold the chain in 1979 to the German grocery retailer Aldi Nord and retired from the company nine years later.
Joe was 89. He and his wife Alice were married for 67 years. They have three children and six grandchildren.
RIP, and thanks.
