By Kathryn Minnick
The Daily Cardinal
Trader Joe's is to the urban crowd with gourmet tastes what Wal-Mart is to the NASCAR set. Both are retail wizards that have grown at staggering rates by cutting out the middleman and keeping prices low. Now Trader Joe's is in Madison, 1810 Monroe St., close to the UW-Madison campus.
Wal-Mart is the nation's biggest grocer, but Trader Joe's may be the most unique.
Trader Joe's offers delectables like Casablanca trek mix, Tandoori-style chicken wraps, pumpkin butter, blueberry juice and frozen roasted Italian chestnuts, all at prices even students can afford. An authentically pale-yellow 24-oz. Key Lime pie is a stunning $5.49—a price as mouth-watering as the pie itself.
With a reggae beat in the background, the store's neon-colored flowers and exotic goods suggest the Spice Islands or a Caribbean pirate's lair where food is booty.
To fit the seafaring trader theme, the store manager is known as ""captain"" and the assistant manager as ""first mate.""
Like Captain Jack Sparrow before him, however, Captain Carlos of the Madison store is hard to catch and not just because he's busy.
For all its warm, customer-oriented style, Trader Joe's is famous for its secretiveness and for not being eager to entertain the press. Consequently, the company declined to speak with The Daily Cardinal about its new location but other Madisonians had plenty to say.
Carol ""Orange"" Schroeder, president of the Monroe Street Merchants Association said the developer of the property was not allowed to announce Trader Joe's was a tenant until far along in the construction process.
""Their corporate office was not very communicative early on, but the managers who are here now are very friendly and eager to cooperate,"" she said.
Trader Joe's, which has around 250 stores in approximately 20 states, was founded in 1958 by Joe Coulombe, a California grocer trying to compete with 7-Eleven.
In 1978, Theo Albrecht—the publicity-shy former kidnap victim and co-owner of the 6,000-store German grocery behemoth Aldi—bought the company. It remains privately held by the Albrecht family.
According to grocery expert Len Lewis, approximately 80 percent of the company's merchandise is sold under the Trader Joe's label. Lewis said analysts estimate company sales per square foot at twice the national average for grocery stores, or approximately $2.6 billion annually.
Those stratospheric figures owe much to Trader Joe's loyal following.
""People are very passionate about the company. People love the products,"" said Christy Bolhuis, a junior at Edgewood College and employee at the Madison store.
Bolhuis said Trader Joe's rarely advertises, relying instead on periodic flyers, the company's reputation and word of mouth to attract customers.
Thanks to a large out-of-state population, UW-Madison students may soon catch Trader Joe's tropical fever.
Rachel Burgess, a UW-Madison junior and former employee of Trader Joe's in Glen Ellyn, Ill., shops at the Madison store and said she's seen quite a few students there. She said Trader Joe's offers a lot of pre-made meals that can be heated in the skillet—items she thinks students would like. Burgess said Trader Joe's also offers a lot of organic and vegan items not offered in normal grocery stores.
UW-Madison sophomore Catie Fudge, who shopped at Trader Joe's in Phoenix, said she thinks Trader Joe's will become a popular place for students once they get to know more about it.
UW-Madison junior and California native Maggie Raiken agreed.
""Now that there's a Trader Joe's within a bus ride from campus, I think that you'll be seeing quite an influx of students to Trader Joe's once they get over the stigma of it being the coastie store, so to speak,"" she said.
As students change their shopping habits, however, other grocers may suffer.
Jim Huberty, general manager of the Regent Market Co-op, 2136 Regent St., said Trader Joe's is affecting business. He said the co-op has conducted outreach to students in the area to convince them of the benefits of co-op membership, including keeping money in the local economy.
""We're not like Trader Joe's where the money is part of a giant corporation,"" he said.
Huberty said Trader Joe's will not threaten the co-op's survival unless people make a choice to shop there in numbers the co-op cannot tolerate.
""But I'd like to think that there's room for both of us,"" he said.
