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Retail
Dominick Reuter
Updated
2023-04-05T21:22:29Z
- Trader Joe's had more than 535 US stores as of last summer. It employs about 17,000 people, and makes an estimated $16.5 billion in sales per year.
- The grocer has relatively high customer turnover, though it adds more new customers than it loses.
- Trader Joe's average customer is a married person in an urban area who is 25 to 44 years old, earning $80,000.
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Trader Joe's is among the largest grocery chains in the US, with annual sales estimated to be about $16.5 billion. The company does not disclose its financials as it is privately held.
The chain was founded in 1967 by Joe Coulombe in Pasadena, California, and as of July 2022 had more than 535 US stores. It employs approximately 17,000 workers that the company refers to as "captains" and "crew members."
Trader Joe's is now owned by the family that owns Aldi Nord, which operates separately and is a completely different company from Aldi Sud, owner and operator of the Aldi chain of stores in the US.
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Analytics firm Numerator found that the typical Trader Joe's shopper is white or Asian and between 25 and 44 years old, according to its data. She typically has a bachelor's degree or above and an annual income of more than $80,000.
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In a memoir published posthumously in 2021, Coulombe, who died in 2020, said his target customer was over-educated and underpaid, with a taste for whole-bean coffee and fresh brie, rather than "the masses who willingly consumed Folgers coffee, Best Foods Mayonnaise, Wonder Bread, Coca-Cola, etc."
The typical customer visits Trader Joe's 13 times per year — and picks up 15 products for a total cost of about $41.69 per trip, Numerator found. By comparison, Aldi customers spend a similar amount per trip, but visit more frequently — about 16 to 17 trips per year.
Trader Joe's has relatively high customer turnover among the major brands surveyed – second only to Whole Foods – with just over three-quarters of its 2021 shoppers returning in 2022.
At the same time, the brand added more new customers than it lost last year, with a ratio of about three new shoppers for every two that quit visiting the brand, indicating that the customer base is growing. Customer turnover at Aldi was similar, but slightly lower.
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Coulombe famously applied a concept known as the Four Tests to the products he chose to stock: "high value per cubic inch; high rate of consumption; easily handled; and something in which we could be outstanding in terms of price or assortment."
At Trader Joe's, shoppers tend to choose pre-made foods like frozen dinners and salad kits, as well as brands like GT's Living Foods and Volpi cured meats. About 2.4% of their spending takes place at Trader Joe's, compared to the 8% they spend on Amazon.
Read more typical shopper profiles:
- Walmart: A 59-year-old white suburban woman earning $80,000 a year
- Costco: A 39-year-old Asian American woman earning more than $125,000 a year
- Target: A millennial suburban mom with a household income of $80,000
- Whole Foods: A highly educated West Coast millennial woman earning $80,000
- Amazon: A college-educated married woman in the South earning $80,000
- Dollar General: An older rural worker with a high school education and an income of less than $40,000
- Trader Joe's: A younger, married, college-educated person earning over $80,000
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